| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Venue | Burroughes Hall |
| Location | London |
| Country | England |
| Established | 1949/50 |
| Organisation(s) | World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association |
| Format | Non-ranking event |
| Final year | 1959 |
| Final champion |  Joe Davis |
The News of the World Snooker Tournament was one of the leading professional tournaments of the 1950s, widely considered as more important than the world championship due to the involvement of Joe Davis. The event was sponsored by the Sunday newspaper News of the World. The highest break of the tournament was 140 or more on four occasions, which was unusual at that time.[1]
There were three distinct periods in the tournament's history. The first six editions, from 1949/50 to 1954/55, were held at Leicester Square Hall in London. The event was played on a round-robin basis and used a handicap system.[1] Matches were played over three days as the best of 37 frames. The total prize money was £1,500 with £500 awarded to the winner. There were initially eight competitors, and later nine, requiring 28 or 36 matches to be played. With two matches played per week, this meant that the tournament extended over 14 or 18 weeks, although it was somewhat longer because of the Christmas break.
After the closure of Leicester Square Hall in January 1955, the tournament was held at a variety of venues around England and Jersey from 1955/56 to 1957/58. The number of competitors was reduced to six, meaning that only 15 matches had to be played. Generally, two matches were played over the course of one week at each of the selected venues in turn, but otherwise the format of the tournament remained unchanged.
The format changed again in late 1958. All matches were held at Burroughes Hall in London but the number of competitors was further reduced to four. Instead of a best-of-37-frame match, each competitor played the others in three separate 13-frame matches, and there were no handicaps. With only six matches to be played, two per week, the tournament was completed in three weeks. The first prize was £400. The final edition, in late 1959, was also played at Burroughes Hall. It used the Snooker Plus rules, with three competitors playing 25-frame matches and was again completed in three weeks.
- ^ a b Turner, Chris. "News of the World Tournament". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2011.