Bob Marshall (billiards player)

Bob Marshall
Born	10 April 1910 Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Died	23 February 2004 Perth, Western Australia
Occupation	Billiards player, politician

Robert James Percival Marshall, OAM (10 April 1910 – 23 February 2004) was a noted Australian amateur player of English billiards. He won the World Amateur Billiards Championship in 1936, 1938, 1951 and 1962 and was runner-up three times, as well as a national snooker champion.

Marshall was born in Kalgoorlie, the same town as another legend of the game, Walter Lindrum. Throughout his career he was compared favourably with Lindrum who, in 1954, himself declared that Marshall was one of the greatest amateur players he had ever seen. Ten years later, the contemporary English snooker professional Fred Davis said of Marshall, "Most noticeable about his style is his compactness, so like Walter Lindrum, and the shortness of his back-swing, hardly more than a couple of inches."

Marshall dominated amateur billiards before and after the war with a career that spanned six decades, broken by retirements in 1963 and 1970 followed by come-backs.

Marshall's first job was as a hairdresser, and he later opened a successful dry-cleaning outlet. He became the World Amateur Champion for the first time in 1936, and took the title again in 1938. During World War II, he spent four years in the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1951 he again won the World Amateur Championship, and in 1952 was runner-up. In 1953 while playing his regular rival Tom Cleary in the final of the Australian Championship he compiled a break of 702; the then-highest ever made by an amateur in a championship match. This record remained unbeaten until 1984 when Subhash Agarwal compiled a 716 break. He took another World 2nd place in 1954.

In 1962 Marshall was invited to India to compete in the national billiards and snooker titles. He won both.

He entered politics in 1965 when he won the seat of Maylands in the state election for the Liberal party. In 1969 he made a comeback for a series of exhibition matches against New Zealand professional Clark McConachy and regained his Australian title the same year, defending it successfully in 1970 before retiring once again.

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