Horace Lindrum was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n professional snooker

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

 and carom billiards player. He was the great grandson of Australia's first billiards champion, the grandson of the great billiard coach, Frederick William Lindrum II, and nephew of Frederick William Lindrum III and Walter Lindrum

Walter Lindrum

Walter Albert Lindrum, OBE , often known as Wally Lindrum, was an Australian professional player of English billiards who held the World Professional Billiards Championship from 1933 until his retirement in 1950. He was named Walter Albert to have the initials of the state where he was born - W.A....

.

Career

Lindrum made his first snooker at the age of 16, and his first four-figure break at billiards – a 1,431 – at 21 years old. At the age of 19, he won the Australian Professional Billiards Championship and three years later, the Australian Professional Snooker title. Lindrum retained both titles for over 33 years. He returned to professional play in 1963, at the request of the Australian Billiards and Snooker Association, to aid the flagging interest in the sport in Australia and won the Australian Open Title that same year. The Australian Professional Billiards and Snooker Association published a tribute to Lindrum for doing so.

Lindrum competed and was runner-up in the World Professional Snooker title against Joe Davis

Joe Davis

Joe Davis, OBE was a British professional player of snooker and English billiards....

 five times, finally winning the title in the 1951/1952 season against reigning World Professional Billiards Champion Clark McConachy

Clark McConachy

Clark McConachy, MBE was a New Zealand professional player of English billiards and snooker.His endurance and longevity as a sportsman was astonishing. He was the New Zealand professional billiards champion from 1914 until 1980...

, by a score of 94–49. Lindrum described the 143- final over two weeks against McConachy as the toughest battle of his career. However, due to a boycott of the tournament by most of the game's professionals in favour of the World Matchplay

World Matchplay (snooker)

The World Matchplay professional non-ranking snooker tournament was established in 1952 as an alternative to the World Snooker Championship and last held in 1992.-History:...

 competition, Lindrum's triumph is often overlooked. This was the only time an Australian would win the title until Neil Robertson

Neil Robertson (snooker player)

Neil Robertson is an Australian professional snooker player and the 2010 World Champion and World #4...

's 2010 victory, 58 years after Lindrum's.

Lindrum's book Snooker, Billiards and Pool (later retitled Pool, Snooker & Billiards) was an international bestseller in the genre, with eight editions from 1948 to 1974.

Records

All of Horace Lindrum's many achievements, including world record-making at billiards under the new rules, and at snooker, were officially recognized by the governing body. He is the only snooker player to have held the English, Irish

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, African, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Maltese

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

an, Thai

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Chinese

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, Indian and Australian snooker records simultaneously. In 1952, he made the first-ever snooker century for India. He made world-record snooker breaks of 141 and 135 (1936), and along with competitor Willie Smith, British champion, was the first to play snooker on television, in a series of exhibitions at the Alexandra Palace

Alexandra Palace

Alexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...

 in the same year. Lindrum was also the first player in history to make 1000 snooker centuries in public performance.

Personal life

Horace Lindrum was born 15 January 1912 in Paddington

Paddington, New South Wales

Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. He died in Dee Why

Dee Why, New South Wales

Dee Why is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Dee Why is located 18 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of Warringah Council, and along with Brookvale is considered to be...

, Sydney. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and three grandchildren.