Jump to content

Bert Almond


Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Recommended Posts

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Anybody got any biographical details of Bert Almond, who was a prominent Sheffield snooker ace in the early post-war era. Indee, it would be good to build up a record of not just Bert, but some of the others who played in that era. Another name I can think of off the top is Jack Seffers. They were both still around in the 1970s, though I think they may have been retired from competitive snooker by then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Anybody got any biographical details of Bert Almond, who was a prominent Sheffield snooker ace in the early post-war era. Indee, it would be good to build up a record of not just Bert, but some of the others who played in that era. Another name I can think of off the top is Jack Seffers. They were both still around in the 1970s, though I think they may have been retired from competitive snooker by then.

Another name I have come across from the Sheffield snooker world of yesteryear is Laurie Steeples. I read somewhere that he was the best young amateur in Sheffield in the 1920s, and could have gone right to the top if only circumstances had given him a bit of a push.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Old Canny Street Kid

Anybody got any biographical details of Bert Almond, who was a prominent Sheffield snooker ace in the early post-war era. Indee, it would be good to build up a record of not just Bert, but some of the others who played in that era. Another name I can think of off the top is Jack Seffers. They were both still around in the 1970s, though I think they may have been retired from competitive snooker by then.

Since posting the note re Bert Almond, I have discovered an item that appeared in Sporting Notebook in the Morning Telegraph around 1975, and it says that Bert grew up in the Chapeltown area, and had the good fortune of being the son of the landlord of the old Midland Hotel --which meant he could play billiards and snooker for as long and as often as he liked. Bert was an amateur all through his playing days. He won the Sheffield Billiards title 14 times, lifted the Sandiman Bowl (billiards) and the Marshall Cup (snooker), twice triumphed in the Yorkshire Snooker Championship, and reached the finals of the English Open snooker chanpuionship.

I believe he was captain the Stocksbridge team that won the CIU teams' national knock-out at both snooker and billiards in the same season (I don't know the year) --the team also featuring 'great' local potters Jack Seffers, Jack Lambert, Ken Phelan and Johnny Foster.

Bert, who was born around 1915 or 1916, lived at Dore in his later years.

I would love to hear if anyone has any stories about Bert and the other local snooker stars of his era.

Here is a Heap cartoon of Bert from the 1950s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nimrod

I used to work with Eric Almond in the '60s, we were moulders in Newton Chambers foundry. I believe Eric was related to Bert but not sure what relation he was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...