Country United Kingdom Total prize fund £750 | Format Non-Ranking event | |
Dates 26 October–21 November 1959 | ||
The 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament was a professional snooker tournament sponsored by the News of the World. The event was played under the Snooker Plus rules, a variant of snooker with two additional colours (orange and purple). The tournament was won by Joe Davis with Fred Davis finishing in second place. It was the last News of the World Tournament. The News of the World Tournament ran from 1949/50 to 1959.
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Snooker plus
Snooker plus was a variant of snooker with two additional colours, orange (8 points) and purple (10 points). The orange spot was midway between the pink and blue, while the purple spot was midway between the brown and blue. If a frame ended in a tie, the purple was re-spotted on the black spot. The extra colours allowed a maximum break of 210. The variation was created by Joe Davis in 1959, but failed to gain popularity.
Format
There were three competitors, Joe Davis, Fred Davis and John Pulman, competing for prize money of £750. Matches were of 25 frames over 2 days. Each played the other, three times. All matches were played in Burroughes Hall, London.
Results
Joe Davis made the first century break, 108, on the opening day of the tournament.
Joe Davis made sure of victory by beating John Pulman in the penultimate match. Fred Davis lost the last match 13–12 but he had needed to win only 11 frames to finish in second place ahead of Pulman.
Table
The positions were determined firstly by the number of matches won (MW) and, in the event of a tie, the number of frames won (FW).