WilliamsR

Player Profile

Rex Williams

Born:	10 July 1933. Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England
Turned Professional	1951
Retired	1995
Highest Break:	147 (Exhibition match 1965)
Career Centuries	14
Highest Ranking	6th (1976/77)

Rex Williiams was a brilliant junior who, like many of his generation, was at his best when snooker was at its lowest ebb in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was probably better at billiards than snooker but played a major part in bringing the latter back to popularity and in forming the WPBSA.

By the age of 15 Rex won the National Under-16 titles in both billiards and snooker and repeated the feat in 1949. In 1950 he was under-19 billiards champion winning the snooker version the following year along with the English Amateur title. At 17 he was the youngest winner of that title until Jimmy White in 1979.

In 1951, at the age of 18, he turned professional, but both games were starting to decline and there were only a handful of professionals which meant he had to rely on exhibitions to earn a living.

From 1952 the official world championship was not held but Rex competed in the Professional Matchplay championship, which was regarded by most as the world championship, on five occasions but each time lost his opening match. No world championships of any sort were held between 1958 and 1963 but Rex was determined to bring back the event and it was largely due to him that the title was revived, albeit on a challenge basis, in 1964. He challenged John Pulman for the title both in 1964 and 1965 but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

In 1968 he was responsible for reviving the defunct Professional Billiards Players Association which was renamed the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association and this resulted in the revival of the world billiards championship and for the snooker equivalent reverting to a knock-out format.

Rex won that 1968 world billiards title and retained it until 1980 but he only reached the semi-final of the first new style world snooker championship in 1969. He repeated that effort in both 1972 and 1974 but that would prove to be the best he managed in that event.

By the early 1980s he was finding it harder to compete at the top level and by the end of the 1984/5 season had dropped to 27th in the rankings but then he had a bit of a revival with some good finishes including one semi-final and in the following season he became the oldest ever ranking finalist at 53 when he lost to Jimmy White in the Grand Prix final. That was his last real success although he continued on the tour until 1993/94.

He has much greater success at billiards, winning the world title on seven occasions between 1969 and 1984, five of which were on a challenge basis, and the UK title twice.

As an administrator, Rex was chairman of the WPBSA from its revival until 1987 during which time it became the governing body of the professional game and began promoting all the ranking events. After a gap of some ten years, he returned to chair the association in 1997 but this time his tenure was dogged by controversy and he was replaced in 1999.

Career Highlights

World Professional Snooker Championship Runner up	1964, 1965
World Professional Billiards champion	1968, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1983
Rothmans Grand Prix runner-up*	1986
UK Professional Billiards champion	1979, 1983
English Amateur Snooker champion	1951
National Under-16 Snooker champion	1948, 1949
National Under-16 Billiards champion	1948, 1949
National Under-19 Snooker champion	1951
National Under-19 Billiards champion	1949, 1950