Geoff Thompson (born 1929) is an English former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player.

Career

Thompson was born in 1929. He started playing

cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

on a scaled-down table aged eight or nine, and on a full-sized

billiard table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, ...

from the age of 13. After serving in the armed forces, Thompson won a local

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team ...

competition in his home town of Leicester, and was runner-up in the 1952

CIU Convergence and Union ( ca, Convergència i Unió, CiU; ) was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and its smaller coun ...

snooker championship to L.F. Taylor. Having been runner-up CIU final again in 1953, and working as a telephone engineer, Thompson was competing for the first time in the

English Amateur Championship The English Amateur Championship, an annual snooker competition, is the highest-ranking and most prestigious amateur event in England. It is also the oldest and longest-running snooker tournament in the world, having been established in 1916, a ...

when he eliminated the defending champion Tommy Gordon 3–2 and went on to win the title with an 11–9 victory over

Cliff Wilson Clifford Wilson (10 May 193421 May 1994) was a Welsh professional snooker player who reached the highest ranking of 16, in 1988-89. He was the 1978 World Amateur Champion and won the 1991 World Seniors Championship. He was a successful junior ...

in the final. Due to ill health he withdrew from the 1955 tournament and so was unable to defend the title. In the 1962 championship he compiled a break of 115, a new world record for an officially-recognised amateur break. He was invited to participate in the 1962–63 Television Tournament and, receiving 11 points start in each frame under the

handicapping Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which th ...

system used, defeated professional

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

3–0, before losing 2–3 to

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 ...

. In 1966 and 1969 he won the CIU championship. He turned professional in 1970. He played

Maurice Parkin Maurice Parkin is an English former professional snooker player. Career Parkin turned professional in 1971, entering the 1972 World Championship that season. He won his first qualifying round match 11–10 against Geoff Thompson, but was def ...

in the first qualifying round for 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 British Legion from 21 to 26 F ...

and lost 10–11, and was defeated 5–9 by

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. Although he lost 12–22 to Ray Re ...

in the first round of the

. His last

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...

appearance was in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom K ...

, where he was eliminated 3–8 by

Bill Werbeniuk William Alexander Werbeniuk ( ; 14 January 1947 – 20 January 2003) was a Canadian professional snooker and pool player. Recognisable for his girth, he was nicknamed "Big Bill". Werbeniuk was a four-time World Championship quarter-finalist an ...

. In 1953 he compiled a break of 141, but it was not recognised as a record as the

did not meet the standards required by the

Billiards 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 ...

. At the time, the highest officially recognised break by an amateur was 104.

Career finals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Geoff English snooker players 1929 births Living people