BFI

Mining Review often ventured above ground to document the lives and hobbies of miners, but this item has a more tenuous connection to the profession, in that it just so happened that two of the leading exponents of women's snooker in the late 1940s were miners' daughters.

When this film was made Agnes Morris had already won the women's world amateur snooker championship in 1939, and was regarded as a serious contender for the professional one too, which she went on to win in 1949. She became involved with the sport after her father contracted the lung disease pneumoconiosis, and used his compensation money to open a billiard hall in their native Saron, near Ammanford. She would continue to dominate the sport for decades, playing her last competitive match in 1999 at the age of 79.

Her opponent, Ruth Harrison, was widely regarded as the finest professional women's snooker player at the time, having won major titles since 1931 and held the women's professional snooker title since 1934.

The final scene features Joe Davis (1901-78), a man generally regarded as the father of modern snooker, having helped to set up the first world championships in 1927. A professional billiard player from his teens, he went on to win every world championship until 1946, when he retired from competition. He would continue to play professionally until 1964, the year after he was awarded an OBE.

Michael Brooke

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