Location Melbourne Final year 1976 Country Australia | Established 1952 Final champion(s) Eddie Charlton | |
Venue Nunawading Basketball Centre Organisation World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association | ||
The World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament established in 1952 as an alternative to the World Snooker Championship and held annually until 1957. A one-off event with the same name was held in Australia in 1976. The events from 1952 to 1957 are regarded as World Championships but the 1976 is not.
History
The World Professional Match-play Championship was set up in 1952 as an alternative to the Billiards Association and Control Council/World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association professional World Snooker Championship by some of the professional players following a dispute with the governing body. Fred Davis won the first five editions of the tournament, but didn't participate in 1957. The 1957 event was won by John Pulman, and after this the event was discontinued due to a decline in the popularity of snooker.
A tournament with the same name was staged in 1976. Eddie Charlton promoted the event in Melbourne with WPBSA approval. Charlton beat Ray Reardon 31–24 in the final.
The WPBSA refused to sanction a similar event in 1977 but in April 1978 they did agree to an event to be played in Australia in March 1979. Mike Watterson, the promoter of the World Championship, expressed disapproval for the event since there had been some confusion over which was the authentic World championship. Charlton was unable to find a sponsor and the event was cancelled. Charlton made another attempt to organise the event in January 1981 but this again failed because of the lack of a sponsor.