By Elliott West
“A great player and a good man. What Chris didn’t know about the game wasn’t worth knowing.”
Mark Leonard
Introduction
Chris Ross was a amateur and later professional player during the lows and highs of snooker from the 1950s to the 1970s. A sportsman who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Alex Higgins, Jimmy White, Ray Rear, John Spencer, Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn. As an an amateur, he first sprang to light when he reached the final of the prestigious Amateur Championship in 1968. His opponent was the ‘Silver Fox’, David Taylor. Taylor beat Chris, 11-6 but Ross set a marker by making people aware of his flair and talent for a game that is so hard to play, let alone play well.
Ross from Scotland, went on to compete in the 1973 Norwich Union Open where he defeated Marcus Owen, 4-3 before losing to Eddie Charlton, 0-4 in the second round. Carrying on from this defeat and learning from his mistakes, Chris then took part in the English Amateur Championship in 1976 and reached the final, beating Roy Andrewartha, 11-7. Later that year, Ross participated in the 1976 IBSF World Snooker Championship and won four of his seven round-robin matches. This was not enough to qualify for the knockout stage but subsequent to the event, Chris was accepted as a professional player by the WPBSA.
Professional Career
Chris Ross faced a stumbling block in his transition for amateur to professional player. Struck down by a mysterious illness, he faced a period of not being able to stop vomiting. A malaise that caused him to not be able to pick up a cue. He temporarily had to retire from snooker and when he returned, he adopted a different stance when playing and an unusual grip of the cue with his wrist underneath the the implement.
In his first professional match, he played Cliff Thorburn in a qualifier at the 1977 World Championship and was whitewashed, 0-11. Inching slightly further ahead in 1977, Ross won one of his UK Championship qualifiers, beating Jack Karnehm, 5-4 before losing to Graham Miles, 1-5 in the second round. However this was followed by a defeat to Pat Houlihan, 1-9 at the 1978 World Championship. A string of defeats ensued in the next two seasons including an entry to the 1980 UK English Professional English Billiards Championship, losing 933-1,093 to Bernard Bennett.
In his 1981 qualifying World Championship match against Tony Knowles, he conceded the match at 0-7 after discovering that his bridge hand was unsteady and he was unable to control his cue properly. Chris’s only other win, was at 1982 Scottish Professional Championship where he beat Bert Demarco, 6-5. In 1983, Ross resigned his membership of the WPBSA and retired. Sadly, Chris passed away in 2013, aged 80.
Summary
In summary, Chris Ross was a player who competed in a time that many modern players would have the green eye of envy at. Although clearly much better as an amateur than a professional, Ross can be satisfied that he did his best and did win the acclaimed English Amateur Championship title in 1976. Chris continued playing locally after his retirement and was a member of Byford Billiards Club and was well known on the Woking and Byfleet snooker scene. Described by the chairman of the Byfleet and District Billiards & Snooker League as :
“In my opinion Chris was the crème de la crème. He was always very encouraging to the youngsters and he was very gracious.”
Kelvin Jones
