The Castle Snooker Club was a

billiard hall A billiard hall, also known as a pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often ha ...

at 57-59 Castle Way,

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, England.

History

It was opened in 1970 by professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

player

Bernard Bennett Bernard Bennett (31 August 1931 – 12 January 2002) was an English player of snooker and English billiards, whose professional career spanned from 1969 to 1995, during which he experienced limited success as a player. He owned the Castle ...

. Snooker historian

Clive Everton Clive Harold Everton (7 September 1937 – 27 September 2024) was an English sports commentator, journalist, author and professional snooker and English billiards player. He founded '' Snooker Scene'' magazine, which was first published (as ...

described it as "the earliest of the new-style snooker establishments which were to replace the dingy, disreputable billiard halls of old." It was the venue for Bennett's 1971 challenge match against

Rex Williams Desmond Rex Williams (born 20 July 1933) is an English retired professional billiards and snooker player. He was the second player to make an official maximum break in snooker, achieving this in an exhibition match in December 1965. Williams ...

for the World Billiards Championship. Williams retained the title, winning by 9,250 point to 4,058. The

1972 World Snooker Championship The 1972 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place between March 1971 and 26 February 1972, as an edition of the World Snooker Championship. The final was played at Selly Park#Sporting history, Selly Park Br ...

qualifying match between Bennett and

Graham Miles Graham Miles (11 May 1941 – 12 October 2014) was an English snooker player. Career Miles turned professional in 1971. He first gained recognition in 1974, when he reached the final of the World Championship, losing 12–22 to Ray Reardon. As ...

was held at the club; Miles won 15–6. As of 1999, professional player Duncan Moore coached at the club. Bennett died in 2002, having seen the Club resognised as an accredited centre by snooker's governing body. The club closed in June 2007.

Castle Open

The Castle Open was a pro-am snooker tournament staged at the Club several times during the 1970s. The

Billiard Association and Control Council The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships ...

's official magazine ''Billiards and Snooker'' described the first edition, which commenced in October 1970, as "the most ambitious Open Snooker tournament ever promoted in Britain". Six professional players entered: Bennett,

Ron Gross Ronald Gross (1932 – 25 December 2005) was an English professional snooker player. He won the English Amateur Championship three times before turning professional Career Gross was born in 1932. When he was seven, he was partially paralysed ...

Pat Houlihan Patrick Houlihan (7 November 1929 – 8 November 2006) was an English snooker player. He was born in Deptford, London. Houlihan turned professional in 1971 at the age of 42 after many years as an amateur including beating future world champion ...

, Jack Rea, David Taylor, and Rex Williams. Chris Ross was among the amateur participants. The 1978/79 edition, which had a prize fund of £3,500 attracted almost all of the professional players who were in the country at the time.

Terry Griffiths Terence Martin Griffiths (16October 19471December 2024) was a Welsh professional snooker player, coach and pundit. After winning several amateur titles, including the Welsh Amateur Championship (snooker), Welsh Amateur Championship in 1975 an ...

, who had turned professional that season, later wrote that, "The matches were short and the prize money not all that much but because the proprietor, Bernard Bennett, is a professional who is well liked in the snooker world, there was a good turn-out of professionals to support his tournament." Fred Davis reached the final at the age of 65, having eliminated

Willie Thorne William Joseph Thorne (4 March 195417 June 2020) was an English professional snooker player. He won one ranking title, the 1985 Classic. He also reached the final of the 1985 UK Championship, losing 16–14 to Steve Davis after leading 13– ...

and

Cliff Thorburn Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Hi ...

during the tournament. He lost 1–5 to

Alex Higgins Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player and a two-time world champion who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the sport's history. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgi ...

Castle Professional

The Castle Professional usually featured three professional players in a round-robin competition. Known results are shown below.

Notes

References

{{coord, 50.89917, -1.40466, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Sports venues in Hampshire