By Elliott West
“Billiards and snooker have been my life, from playing as a small boy to being a professional for so many years”.
Rex Williams
Introduction
Rex Williams is a former professional billiards and snooker player. His first name is actually Desmond with Rex being his middle name. Born in 1933 and now 87, retired and living in Spain, Williams’ professional career spanned the highs and lows of snooker history, playing on the professional circuit from 1951-1995. A key figure in reforming the World Championship to a challenge basis status in 1964, Rex competed in the tournament in both challenge and knockout formats, reaching three semi-finals and was one of the selected few that took part in the notorious series of matches played in South Africa. He achieved a 147 break whilst playing an exhibition match in Cape Town in 1965 against Mannie Francisco, the second-ever recognised maximum break.
Someone who was literally one of the smartest players to ever play billiards and snooker, Neal Foulds recently recalled an encounter with Rex in China. Visiting the Great Wall of China, Neal spotted Rex in a suit. Asking him why he was so smartly dressed, Rex replied:
“You have to dress for the occasion”
Rex Williams
Career
Rex started playing at 13 after his father bought a full-sized billiards table for his printing works and went to be coached by the English billiards and snooker player, Kingsley Kennerley. A natural at cue sports and attaining a 153 break within three months of picking up a cue, Williams soon won the Midlands Boys Titles in both billiards and snooker. He also won the British Boy’s (under-16) championships in 1948 in billiards and snooker and in 1950 became the National Under-19 Billiards champion.
In 1949, he played in an exhibition match against Joe Davis, given a 21 start, Rex won the one frame played 85-51, an impressive performance. Spurred on by his continued success, Williams went on to become the youngest ever winner of the English Amateur Snooker Championship in 1951, a record that stood until 1979, when Jimmy White won the title. A final where Rex beat the 1939 champion, Percy Bendon 6-1. He also won the National Under-19 Championships at both billiards and snooker.
Professional Career
Rex Williams turned professional in 1951, aged 18 and went on to enter the 1952 World Professional Match-Play Championship. A tournament where he lost to Alec Brown in the first round. Played over 61 frames, Alec always led the match and ended up defeating Rex 39-22. This was a pre-cursor for more successful times. Competing in both the United Kingdom and abroad, mostly notably South Africa, Williams played all the greats of the post-war years including Joe Davis, Fred Davis and John Pulman. He reached the semi-final stage of the World Championship on three occasions losing to John Spencer in 1969, Alex Higgins in 1972, his best effort 30-31 and to Graham Miles in 1974, 7-15 Ironically he never won a match at the Crucible when it became the home of the World Championship from 1977 onwards. Rex was also the runner-up in 1973 Pot Black final, losing to Eddie Charlton 33-99.
“Alex told me how winning that final frame changed his career,” recalls Rex. “At the start I was playing safety shots that Alex didn’t know, but not long afterwards he was playing the same shots!”
Rex Williams
Williams also reached the semi- final of the 1986 Classic but his best performance would definitely have to be reaching the final of the 1986 Grand Prix. Then 53, he became the oldest player ever to reach a final. An impressive run in this tournament with 5-1 wins over Alex Higgins and Steve Davis, followed by a 9-8 semi-final defeat of Neal Foulds, Rex reached the final and faced Jimmy White. He lost the final 6-10 despite having led the match 6-4.
Rex did have some professional titles in snooker, winning the 1967 World Open Matchplay Challenge, defeating Fred Davis 26-23 and the 1982 Bass and Golden Leisure Classic, beating Ray Edmonds 4-1. However his greatest success came in billiards, winning the World Professional Championship seven times between 1968-1983 and was reigning champion from 1968-1980. He also reached the final of the World Championship of Professional Billiards and the World Professional Championship of English Billiards in 1980.
Retirement and Commentary
Rex retired as a professional player in 1995, aged 61. The last tournament he played in, was the 1995 World Championship. Here, he beat Steve Day and Chris O’Sullivan before losing in the fourth qualifying round to Nick Walker 3-10. Before and during retirement, Williams became a regular voice as a snooker commentator for the BBC between 1978-1984 and went on to work for ITV.
Williams wrote a book entitled ‘Snooker : How to become a Champion’ in 1975 and was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to billiards and snooker. He was also recently inaugurated into the Snooker Hall of Fame by the WPBSA in 2016 for his career achievements.
Stephen Hendry bought a Rex Williams signature cue when he was 13 for £40 and used it for a large percentage of his career including seven World Championship titles. He eventually had to replace it in 2003 when it was broken in flight transit. A true credit to the cue manufacturers, ‘Power Glide Cues’ that Rex had set up in the 1970s.
Summary
Rex Williams was a formidable billiards champion and an excellent snooker player. Rising to number six in the World rankings in 1976, Williams played all the greats over multiple eras of the sport. A man who helped transform snooker as a player and organiser, being Chairman of the WPBSA from 1968-1987 and between 1997-1999 and brought snooker back to Leicester Square Hall. This was a passion that filled his heart until it waned half a century later. A Rex by name and nature.
