Tom Reece
Encyclopedia
Tom Reece was a Welsh
professional player of English billiards
. Reece competed for the World Professional Billiards Championship
six times (1912–1914, 1921, 1924, and 1925) but each time finished as runner-up.
In 1907, he scored a record of 499,135 over a period of five weeks, without a miss, using an or cradle cannon system. His opponent was Joe Chapman, and the match (which was played to 500,000 points with the express intention of trying to better the recently set record for highest break) was played in Soho, London, England. Under the current rules, which forbid such repetitive nurse shots, it is unlikely that this score will even remotely be approached (the modern-rules world record is a 1276 break by Geet Sethi
). His robotic play went a long way to developing new rules to stop such high breaks based on monotonous, duplicate shots: Immediately after his record was set, rules were implemented such that no more than 25 consecutive could be used; other, more stringent restrictions followed in later years.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
professional player of English billiards
English billiards
English billiards, called simply billiards in many former British colonies and in Great Britain where it originated, is a hybrid form of carom and pocket billiards played on a billiard table. Billiards is less well known as "the English game", "the all-in game" and "the common game".The game is for...
. Reece competed for the World Professional Billiards Championship
World Professional Billiards Championship
The World Billiards Championship is an international cue sports tournament in the discipline of English billiards. It has been played annually since 1980, is one of the oldest sporting World Championships in the world, dating in earnest to the mid-19th century...
six times (1912–1914, 1921, 1924, and 1925) but each time finished as runner-up.
In 1907, he scored a record of 499,135 over a period of five weeks, without a miss, using an or cradle cannon system. His opponent was Joe Chapman, and the match (which was played to 500,000 points with the express intention of trying to better the recently set record for highest break) was played in Soho, London, England. Under the current rules, which forbid such repetitive nurse shots, it is unlikely that this score will even remotely be approached (the modern-rules world record is a 1276 break by Geet Sethi
Geet Sethi
Geet Siriram Sethi of India is a professional player of English billiards who dominated the sport throughout much of the 1990s, and a notable amateur snooker player. He is a six-time winner of the professional-level and a three-time winner of the amateur World Championships, and holder of two...
). His robotic play went a long way to developing new rules to stop such high breaks based on monotonous, duplicate shots: Immediately after his record was set, rules were implemented such that no more than 25 consecutive could be used; other, more stringent restrictions followed in later years.