John Pulman - WikiHQ

Herbert John Pulman (12 December 192325 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He first won the title at the 1957 Championship and retained it across seven challenges from 1964 to 1968, three of them against Fred Davis and two against Rex Williams. When the tournament reverted to a knockout event in 1969, he lost 18–25 in the first round to the eventual champion John Spencer. After finishing as runner-up to Ray Reardon in 1970, Pulman never again reached the final, although he was a losing semi-finalist in 1977.

He turned professional in 1946, shortly after winning the English Amateur Championship, and achieved three News of the World Snooker Tournament titles, in 1954, 1957 and 1958. An emotional player, he was prone to venting his frustration and missing important shots. He generally played attacking snooker in his early career, but he made more use of tactics in the 1970s.

Pulman became a television commentator towards the end of his playing career and retired from competitive play in 1981 after breaking his leg in a traffic accident. He died in 1998 following a fall down the stairs at his home. He was one of the inaugural inductees to the World Snooker Hall of Fame in 2011, alongside seven other winners of multiple world championships.

Early life

Herbert John Pulman, where he was a swimming champion and represented his county at water polo.

In 1938, Pulman entered the British Boys Billiards Championship but left his cue on the train on his way to the event at Burroughes Hall. Smith then got the he needed to win. The cue that Pulman had chosen included a metal plate with professional Sidney Smith's name engraved on it; he later filed Smith's name off, as he felt he could not play exhibition matches with a cue bearing another professional's name.

During World War II, Pulman was enlisted in the army for three months, making wings for Spitfires, before being discharged on medical grounds; he later told journalist Terry Smith that he had varicose veins.

Snooker career

Early professional career (1946–1955)

In 1946, Pulman won the English Amateur Championship title, with a 5–3 win over Albert Brown in the final. Aged 20, Pulman was the youngest player to win the event since it was established in 1916. Working as an income tax clerk, he took the decision to become a professional player shortly after the championship, having taken advice from Joe Davis, the reigning World Champion. Later that year, he made his first two century breaks, just ten days apart.

At the start of his professional career, Pulman was living at the home of his patron Bill Lampard, who was a baker from Bristol and a member of the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC). Lampard built a billiard room at his house, where Pulman was able to practise. Snooker historian Clive Everton alleged that this arrangement ended after Pulman was discovered in bed with Lampard's wife. Pulman practised playing snooker for eight hours a day over several years, in pursuit of a level of consistency that would bring him to the standard of the top professionals. Shortly after turning professional, he had started wearing spectacles for playing snooker, using the same type of swivel-lens glasses that were worn by his fellow professional Fred Davis.

Pulman made his first appearance at the World Snooker Championship in 1947, losing 14–21 to Brown in the first round of qualification. The following season, he won the qualifying section of the 1948 World Championship, progressing through the first two matches and then defeating Willie Leigh 18–17 on the final in the of the last qualifying match. He lost 29–42 to Clark McConachy in the first round of the main draw. Later the same year, he won the qualifying event for the 1948 Sunday Empire News Tournament and, benefitting from a points handicap, finished second in the main event behind Joe Davis. Pulman's total prize money was £400 (), made up of £150 for his qualifying win and £250 for his second-place finish overall.

At the 1949 World Championship, Pulman eliminated Brown in his first match but then lost 22–49 to Walter Donaldson in the semi-finals. He lost his opening match in 1950 and withdrew from the following year's championship due to influenza when trailing 14–22 against Fred Davis in their semi-final match. He also participated in the annual News of the World Snooker Tournament, which was a round-robin event with points handicaps applied, first staged in 1949/1950. He was runner-up in the 1950/1951 edition and won in 1953/1954. He married Frances Anne Hayes in April 1953.

World snooker championship contests (1955–1968)

Pulman first reached the final of the World Professional Match-play Championship, which was now effectively the world championship, in 1955. He defeated Rex Williams 22–15 in the quarter-finals and Alec Brown 37–24 in the semi-finals before losing 35–38 to Fred Davis in the final, which was played at Blackpool Tower Circus. but Pulman had narrowed the gap, at 15–9, by the end of the second day of play. Davis led 20–16 after day three, 27–21 after day four and 33–27 after day five; he won the match on the sixth day to claim the title. Pulman made three century breaks during the final: 103 on day two, In preference to finding an alternative career, Pulman continued to play exhibition matches, despite the limited income he was able to earn from this.

In 1964, the Conayes Professional Tournament was held at the Rex Williams Snooker Centre in Blackheath, being the first commercially sponsored professional snooker event since 1960. Pulman was one of the four competitors, along with Fred Davis, Rea, and Williams, and won the event. Williams was the driving force behind the revival of the World Snooker Championship in 1964, obtaining sanction for the competition after an approach to the BA&CC chairman Harold Phillips. The championship was reinstated on a challenge basis, with the first match scheduled between Pulman, who had won the most recent championship in 1957, and the challenger Fred Davis. Pulman defeated Davis 19–16 at Burroughes Hall in April 1964 to retain the title that he had claimed seven years earlier. Davis had been leading 15–12 when he failed to audibly nominate a , and the referee called a ; despite both players disagreeing with the referee's decision, he refused to change his ruling, and commentators felt that Davis's reaction led to a noticeable deterioration in the standard of his play.

Williams challenged Pulman for the title in October 1964. The match was played over 73 frames and took place from 12 to 17 October at Burroughes Hall. Williams led 8–4 at the end of the first day, but Pulman won 11 of the 12 frames on the second day to lead 15–9. He extended his lead to 31–17 after the fourth day of play, winning the match on the fifth day by taking a 37–23 lead. After playing the remaining 13 dead frames on the sixth and final day, Pulman finished 40–33 ahead.

In March 1965, Pulman retained his title in a final-frame decider by defeating his challenger Fred Davis, 37–36, winning the last two frames from 35–36 behind. This was the first time a World Championship winner had won the title in a decider frame. Williams and Pulman met again in late 1965 in a series of short matches in South Africa, where Pulman won 25 of their 47 matches. At one of the venues, where there were no spectators present, the players reportedly spun a coin to determine the winner, instead of playing the match. In late 1965, Pulman defeated a further challenger, Fred Van Rensburg, 39–12.

Fred Davis challenged Pulman for a third time in 1966, in a series of seven best-of-five-frames matches. Pulman won the series at four matches to Davis's two, also taking the seventh match to win 5–2. Pulman won the world title for the eighth time in 1968 by fending off a challenge from Eddie Charlton. After the first 30 frames, Charlton was ahead 16–14; Pulman then took five of the next six frames, three of them on the final black, leaving Charlton 17–19 behind. Pulman eventually reached a winning lead of 37–28 and finished 39–34 ahead after dead frames.

Later career and retirement (1968–1998)

In 1967, Pulman had spent time touring snooker clubs across the Midlands doing promotional work for the tobacco brand John Player, and in turn the company sponsored his 1968 world title challenge match against Eddie Charlton. The good attendances for the Pulman/Charlton match led to John Player's decision to sponsor the 1969 World Snooker Championship as a knockout tournament. The 1969 event, with its updated format, is generally regarded as the start of the modern snooker era. Unable to defend his title, Pulman was eliminated 18–25 by the eventual champion John Spencer in the first round of the competition.

He reached the final of the 1970 World Championship but lost 33–37 to Ray Reardon, having earlier recovered from 14–27 behind to almost draw level at 33–34. The following year, he failed to qualify from the round-robin stages that determined the semi-finalists, and in 1972 he lost 23–31 to the eventual champion Alex Higgins in the quarter-finals. In October 1972, he was rescued, unconscious, from a road traffic collision, but he fully recovered in time to play in the Park Drive 2000 tournament that was held less than two weeks later. That December, he was runner-up to Higgins in the 1972 Ford Series Tournament, an invitational event with four world champions in competition. The following year, he reached the final of the 1973 Norwich Union Open. His opponent, Spencer, took a 5–2 lead before Pulman won five of the next seven frames to level the match at 7–7 and force a deciding frame. Spencer led by 57 points, but Pulman then made a break of 39 before failing to the , allowing Spencer to as far as the and win the match.

He did not play professionally again after his leg was broken in five places when he was hit by a London bus in October 1981. He later said that he had already lost his enthusiasm for playing snooker by the time his accident happened.

Performance and rankings timeline

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%;"

|+Performance timeline for John Pulman, 1946 to 1968

! scope="col" | Tournament

! scope="col" | 1946/ 47

! scope="col" | 1947/ 48

! scope="col" | 1948/ 49

! scope="col" | 1949/ 50

! scope="col" | 1950/ 51

! scope="col" | 1951/ 52

! scope="col" | 1952/ 53

! scope="col" | 1953/ 54

! scope="col" | 1954/ 55

! scope="col" | 1955/ 56

! scope="col" | 1956/ 57

! scope="col" | 1957/ 58

! scope="col" | 1958/ 59

! scope="col" | 1959/ 60

! scope="col" | 1963/ 64

! scope="col" | Oct 1964

! scope="col" | Mar 1965

! scope="col" | 1965

! scope="col" | Dec 1965

! scope="col" | Apr 1966

! scope="col" | Mar 1968

! scope="col" |

| style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Sunday Empire News Tournament

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Not Held

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 2nd/5

| colspan="18" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Tournament Not Held

|align="center" |

| style="background:#EFEFEF;" | World Professional Match-play Championship

| colspan="5" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | 1R

| style="text-align:center; background:yellow;" | SF

| style="text-align:center; background:#D8BFD8;" | F

| style="text-align:center; background:#0f0;" | W

| colspan="10" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Tournament Not Held

| align="center" |

| style="background:#EFEFEF;" | News of the World Snooker Tournament

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Not Held

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 6th/8

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 2nd/8

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 5th/9

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 6th/9

| align="center" style="background:#0f0;" | 1st/9

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 7th/9

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 4th/6

| align="center" style="background:#0f0;" | 1st/6

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 2nd/6

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 3rd/4

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;" | 3rd/3

| colspan="7" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Tournament Not Held

|align="center" |

| style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Conayes Professional Tournament

| colspan="14" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Tournament Not Held

| align="center" style="background:#0f0;" | W

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | Tournament Not Held

| align="center" |

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | 2R

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | 1R

| align="center" |

| style="background:#EFEFEF;" | The Masters

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="6" | Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;" | QF

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | 1R

| style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;" | QF

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | A

| align="center" |

| style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Yamaha Organs Trophy

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="11" | Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | RR

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" | LQ

| align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Park Drive 2000 (Spring)

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="2"|Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | RR

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="9"|Tournament Not Held

|align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Park Drive 2000 (Autumn)

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="3"|Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | RR

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="8"|Tournament Not Held

|align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Men of the Midlands

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="3"|Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | RR

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="8"|Tournament Not Held

| align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | World Masters

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="6"|Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|RR

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="6"|Tournament Not Held

| align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Norwich Union Open

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="5"| Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#D8BFD8;" | F

| style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;" | QF

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="6"|Tournament Not Held

| align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Watney Open

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="6"| Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;" | 1R

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="6"|Tournament Not Held

| align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Canadian Club Masters

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="7"| Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:yellow;" | SF

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="5"|Tournament Not Held

|align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Holsten Lager International

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="10"|Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="2"|Not Held

|align="center" |

|style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Pontins Camber Sands

| style="text-align:center; color:#555555;" colspan="11"|Tournament Not Held

| style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;" | QF