By Elliott West
Cliff Thorburn and Mario Morra pictured during the final of the 1984 Canadian Professional Championship. Photograph courtesy of Getty Images.
Introduction
With the start of the World Championship now well underway, let’s take a moment to reflect on one of the lesser-known players who has graced the Crucible stage. Born in Canada in 1953 and now 69, Mario Morra is probably someone that most snooker fans wouldn’t have heard of but let’s put this right and give an insight into the life of this professional pool and snooker player. Mario is one of the few Canadian pool players who made the successful move to professional snooker and joins a small and glittering group with the likes of John Bear, George Chenier, Kirk Stevens, Cliff Thorburn and Bill Werbeniuk populating it. A band of players who hustled across the snooker halls of Canada. Legendary and dangerous times when guns could be drawn and brawling was common.
Snooker Career
Mario Morra first became a professional snooker player in 1979 and spent 18 seasons on the tour reaching a high of 35th in the world rankings and eventually dropping off the tour in 1997. Although he never won any titles, he did have some significant wins, most notably in the 1983 Jameson International, held at the Eldon Square Recreation Centre, Newcastle where he defeated Mike Hallett and Jimmy White 5-3 before losing to Eddie Charlton by the same scoreline in the last 16. He also did very well in the 1984 World Championship, winning three qualifying matches, defeating Geoff Foulds 10-2, Tommy Murphy 10-5 and Dean Reynolds 10-7. He went on to lose in the first round to Cliff Thorburn 3-10. He also reached the last 48 of the tournament the next year after beating Paddy Browne 10-6. He would go on to lose in a deciding frame to Australia’s John Campbell 9-10.
Mario also reached the final of the 1984 Canadian Professional Championship, held at the Brass Cannon Club in Toronto. He beat Jim Wych 6-4 and Kirk Stevens 7-6, losing to Cliff Thorburn 2-9 in the final. This was a non-ranking event and as far as I can see in my research, there was no prize money for the winner. Mario also made six maximum breaks during his time in snooker.
Pool Career
More recently Mario Morra has become known to be a pool player. He was runner-up in the finals of the 2008 Canadian Open Nine-ball Championship and the 2010 Canadian Open Ten-ball Championship. Both his son John and his partner Anita McMahon play professionally and Anita also plays snooker. Anita has won 15 Canadian pool titles and won the Canadian women’s title three times. Mario still plays and has entered several high-profile pool tournaments in Canada since switching from snooker. He reached 5th in the pool rankings in 2019.
