Eddie Charlton
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Edward Francis Charlton (31 October 1929 – 7 November 2004) was an Australian 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 ...
and
billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...
player. He remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winning either title. He later became a successful marketer of
sporting goods Sports equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear, which varies in shapes, size, and usage in a particular sport. It includes balls, nets, rackets, protective gears like helmets, goggles, etc. Since the p ...
, launching a popular brand of billiard room equipment bearing his name.


Early life

Charlton was born in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
,
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, Australia and came from a sporting family. His grandfather ran a
billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...
club in
Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
, New South Wales, and Charlton began playing
cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of Game of skill, games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a Baize, cloth-covered billiards table, table bounded by elastic bumpers known a ...
when he was nine years old. At the age of eleven, he defeated fellow Australian Walter Lindrum in a wartime snooker exhibition match, and he made his first
century break In snooker, a century break (also century, sometimes called a ton) is a of 100 points or more, compiled in one to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a m ...
when he was seventeen. He was involved in numerous other sports during his youth: he was a first-grade footballer and played in the Australian First Division Football (soccer) for ten years; he was a champion surfer, and played state-level rugby league and competitive cricket; he also excelled in speed roller skating, rowing, boxing and tennis. In 1956, he was chosen to carry the
Olympic torch The Olympic flame is a Olympic symbols, symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. The Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece, several months before the Olympic Games. This ceremony s ...
on part of its journey to the Melbourne Games. Charlton worked as a
coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...
until the age of 31. After winning four amateur snooker titles, he decided to turn professional in 1963 on the advice of Fred Davis. His brother Jim was also a professional snooker player but never joined the world ranks.


Career

Charlton became a professional player in 1963 at the age of 34 and won his first Australian Professional Championship the following season. For the next ten years he won the title annually and made at least the semi-finals in every subsequent meeting through its last edition in 1988. He unsuccessfully challenged Rex Williams for the World Billiards Championship title in 1974 and 1976. His third appearance was in 1984 when he lost by a handful of points to
Mark Wildman Markham Wildman (25 January 1936 – 18 November 2024) was a billiards and snooker player and cue sports commentator from Peterborough, England. He won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1984 and was runner up in 1980 and 1982 ...
. Four years later, he lost to two-time champion Norman Dagley in his last World Billiards final. Charlton was the most successful Australian snooker player until the emergence of
Neil Robertson Neil Alexander Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player, who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and former List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He ...
. From the first year of the
snooker world rankings The snooker world rankings are the official system of ranking professional snooker players to determine their qualification and seeding for events on the World Snooker Tour and other tournaments, as well as their future professional status on th ...
in 1976/77, he was ranked number three in the world for the next five consecutive seasons. Charlton, who was known for his focused and dogged performances, challenged for the World Championship in
1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...
and was the runner-up in the final of the World Championship in
1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...
and
1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
, losing the 1975 world final by just one frame (30–31) to
Ray Reardon Raymond Reardon (8 October 1932 – 19 July 2024) was a Welsh professional snooker player who dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and claiming more than a dozen other professional titles. Due to h ...
. He won the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's ''
Pot Black ''Pot Black'' was a snooker tournament in the United Kingdom broadcast on the BBC. Each match was contested over a single , where other tournaments were significantly longer. The event carried no ranking points, but played a large part in th ...
'' competition in
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...
,
1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...
and
1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...
. He also recorded the first century break (110) on ''Pot Black''. In the final of the
1973 World Snooker Championship The 1973 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1973 Park Drive World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a snooker tournament that took place from 16 to 28 April 1973 at the City Exhibition Halls in Manchester, England ...
, played as the best-of-75-frames, Charlton led
Ray Reardon Raymond Reardon (8 October 1932 – 19 July 2024) was a Welsh professional snooker player who dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and claiming more than a dozen other professional titles. Due to h ...
10–5 and 12–10, before the pair were on level terms at both 12–12 and 13–13. Reardon moved into a 17–13 lead, and was 27–25 up after seven sessions of play. At the start of the eighth session, Reardon was affected by the bright lighting that had been installed for the purposes of television coverage, and he lost the first three frames. He complained about the lighting, and two large lights that were focused on the audience were switched off. From 27–28 behind, Reardon won four of the next five frames in the session, and sustained the momentum for an eventual 38–32 victory. According to 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 ...
, "Charlton's dogged consistency proved no match for Reardon's flair and wider range of shots." Charlton faced Reardon in the final of the 1975 World Snooker Championship in a match of 61 frames. Reardon led 16–8, but Charlton then won the next nine frames to take the lead. Reardon was ahead at 22–20, but Charlton won nine of the following ten frames to lead 29–23. Reardon produced a seven-frame winning streak to leave himself needing one further frame at 30–29, then Charlton won the 60th frame. In the , Reardon made a 62 break, and secured his victory at 31–30. He reached the final of the 1991 World Seniors Championship and was a frame away from clinching the title when he led Cliff Wilson 4–2. According to the match report in '' Snooker Scene'' magazine, Charlton then "started to falter in a fashion all too familiar with his failures on the brink of other world titles", and he lost 4-5. His last major achievement at the World Championship was his 10–9 first round win over
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 ...
at the 1989 World Championship. He qualified for the 1990 and 1991 World Championships but lost in the first round on both occasions. Charlton's final appearance at the Crucible came in
1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...
, where he was defeated 10–0 by defending champion John Parrott in the first round, the only recorded in the World Championship until
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
. Charlton was known for playing with a very straight cue action and rarely hitting the ball with any , when a less conservative approach might have paid dividends. In retirement from professional snooker Charlton often commentated during the BBC's world championship coverage.


Personal life

Always active in the organisation and promotion of the game, Charlton was appointed a
Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
(AM) in 1980. He formed the Australian Professional Players Association and was responsible for bringing many of the top players to play in Australia. He released a 30-minute beginners' instructional video, ''Eddie Charlton's Snooker, Pool & Trick Shots'', in
PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
format. In 1993 he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. He stopped competing in 1995 and died in
Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...
, New Zealand on 8 November 2004 following an operation.


Performance and rankings timeline


Career finals


Ranking finals: 1


Non-ranking finals: 33 (24 titles)


Team finals: 2 (1 title)


References

Books * * * * * *


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charlton, Eddie 1929 births 2004 deaths Australian snooker players Australian players of English billiards Members of the Order of Australia Sportspeople from Newcastle, New South Wales Trick shot artists Australian Freemasons Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen