Joyce Gardner


Joyce Gardner was an English professional English billiards player. She was the Women's Professional Billiards Champion from 1931 to 1933, and from 1935 to 1938.

Early Life

Joyce Winifred Frances Gardner was born on 24 August 1910 in Gloucester.
While living in Gloucester Joyce's parents ran the Glevum Billiard hall.
But Joyce didn't take up billiards until the family moved to London where her father ran a billiards saloon in Holborn.
Initially she took up millinery and dressmaking, but she discovered that she had a skill for potting balls whilst helping her father clear up the billiard tables.

Career

beat Joyce Gardner 1000-960 at Hull in September 1928 in a match billed as the British Championship. Billiard manufacturers Howard and Powell provided a silver rose bowl for the winner. This match is omitted from records in the handbooks of the Billiards and Snooker Control Council.
In 1930, she started working for cue sports company Burroughes and Watts, and received coaching from JP Mannock, Willie Smith and Sidney Smith.
Burroughes and Watts organised the British Women's Billiards Championship in 1930, a competition also known as the Burwat Billiards Cup. The following year, 1931, the Women's Billiards Association was formed: Gardner was one of the four professional players appointed to a committee to organise the professional championships, the others were Margaret Lennan, Eva Collins and Ruth Harrison. It was agreed that the Association would take over the running of the competition as a world championship, with the same trophy as used in 1930. Gardner won each year from 1930 until 1934, when Ruth Harrison won the first of her three titles. The Scotsman, 23 February 1934.
Her of 96 in the 1930 final was the first break by a woman to receive a certificate of recognition from the Billiards Association and Control Council. and she made the first break in the competition, a 100 in 1934.
Further victories in the World Professional Ladies Billiards Championship in 1935, 1937 and 1938 gave Gardner a total of seven titles. She was also runner-up six times, so appeared in a total of 13 finals in the 14 times the event was staged. The only year that she was not in the final was 1940, when she was beaten by Thelma Carpenter in the semi-final. Liverpool Daily Post, 15 February 1940.
Gardner's highest break at billiards was 318, and at snooker it was 82.

Later Life

Joyce married Arthur Williams on 9 October 1937 at St. Marylebone Parish Church in London. She made two film appearances: It Happened in Leicester Square in 1949; and Jumping for Joy in 1956 where she played a billiards player. It was reported that Joyce tutored the latter film's star Frankie Howerd who in the film "has a number of hair-raising interludes in a London billiards saloon".
She continued playing until her late sixties and became the only woman member of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.
Joyce Gardner died on 29 August 1981 in Pinner, London.

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