By elliott west
“A genuine artist“
Introduction
Amongst the dusty vaults of snooker history lies an amazing story that is crying out to be told. In order to tell it, it is essential to air the full picture of a player who most would have never of heard of. His name was Thomas Henry Jones.
The Story
On the 5th July, 1899, Thomas or ‘Tom’ as he is now often known, was born in Crumlin, a town situated in the Ebbw Vale valley. Jones started playing snooker at an early age, 13 to be precise in Crumlin and made his first century break at 14. Playing in his local club, the Miners’ Welfare Institute, Thomas soon started turning the heads of the local community and like with so many great players, acted as the launching pad for this Welshman to win a swathe of trophies in both billiards and snooker. So much was his stardom that his son was able to play both cue sports with Joe and Fred Davis.
Thomas’s greatest run of successes came in the long established Welsh Championship. Jones won this title on eight occasions, 1930-1936 and again in 1947. He also finished runner up on one other occasion. In 1932 he was beaten by the legendary Sidney Lee in the Amateur Championship. However the next year, he had the privilege of representing Wales in the British Empire Championship where he finished second to Sidney Lee with a top break of 144. He lost again to Lee in the 1934 Amateur Championship.
In 1936 Jones decided to leave Wales and to move to London. He relocated himself to the Hatch Liberal Club in New Cross. While there he also won the News of the World Snooker Championship.
His finest feat came in 1939 when he won the Amateur Championship, making five centuries, losing to Arthur Spencer in the semi-final. Some of his finest performances were in the Club and Institute Union championships. He won the tournament in 1939, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1948 and 1951.
In billiards, Thomas won the Billiards Championship in 1940-42, 1946-48 and 1951. Jones also captured the Amateur Championship in London in 1947 and 1949 and was a runner up in 1952. Praised for his “free flowing style” Jones was described as making scoring look like “child’s play”. His top break in billiards was 344 and 91 in snooker.
Sadly ill health ended this long run of success.
The original club has gone but the building looks slightly different from when he played there in his day as the roof space above the building where he used to practice was changed for structural reasons.
A man who is a true Welsh legend who deserves to be celebrated.
Thank you Thomas’s Grandson, Trevor Jones for providing the photograph and material to help me write this piece.
