Wally & Henry West

[Smasher Brown]

Guys,

I'm pretty new to snooker and have been doing some basic reading up on who did what etc.

I read that Wally West achieved 'the break of 151' in Hounslow and there was mention of Henry west also in Hounslow.

Were they brothers? Did both play and win tournaments or was one better or more successful than the other (that's if both played)?

Reading old archived news clippings really has whet my appetite mainly due to the fact that Hounslow is judt 5 minutes down the road.

Sadly many of the archive sites want you to pay an annual subscription which I don't really want to do as news is not normally my thing.

[jb134]

What's sad about wanting someone to pay for knowledge?

[Souwester]

I *think* Wally and Henry West were brothers. The 151 break was refereed by my late friend John Posner. Although I originally hail from the Heston/Hounslow area I never knew John or the Wests at the time, as I didn't start playing until I moved west in the 80s.

[franksandellsnooker]

They were indeed brothers. Wally died a few years back and was a quality amateur player. There was a degree of controversy regarding the break. John Posner was a good ref. and enthusiast who played for the Post Office. Henry was a club owner and entrepeneur of the game who became deeply involved in player promotion and management and I believe with others promoted a group of players termed " The Magnificent Seven".

[JanieWatkins]

As Frank says there were brothers.

Wally West was heavily involved in Ladies Snooker in the early 1980s and later Henry arranged a sponsored a couple of our events, including the great Hofmeister Mixed Doubles Event.

[chasmmi]

Sorry to be so late to this thread.

They were both brothers yes and Wally is indeed the official world record holder for highest break at 151 (Although he never even realised the break was on until he got to 126 after the yellow and realised that didn't seem right .)

Henry did a lot more on the promotional side of things although Wally also did a lot for Women's snooker in the past.

Wally was I believe well known as a very good amateur player back in the day and I believe had beaten every Snooker world champion up until Stephen Hendry (although not in professional competition at least as he never turned pro.)

He was also very close to Jummy White and Tony Meo when they were young along with a number of other people in the snooker world like Clive Everton.

I have also heard stories that for a long time, his 4-0 victory over Steve Davis (in the English Amateur I think) was the only Whitewash of Steve's career for an awfully long time.


I could say more, or embelish a little more on what I have said, but it all came from a very subjective source of course.

[Smasher Brown]

Thank you everyone for the info so far. I think I might do some research locally too. The library apparently keeps archive copies of the Hounslow Chronicle and there may be news stories of the West brothers to be found.

Thanks again and please keep it comng if you have any more info

[Souwester]

The local paper used to be the Middlesex Chronicle and was certainly still published up until a few years ago.

[chasmmi]

Also, I dont know if it is still running but the snooker club to look for would be the Hounslow Leukania.

they may have some info there.

[MikeWooldridge]

proud to say i knew wally well. met henry once at his club also.

fair to say that wally was a 'lovable rogue'. great character, great player. had the pleasure of playing a season with him in portsmouth. the eastney 'mints' we were called. on account of the fact wally was sucking mints every time you saw him.

smashed the league up that year. seriously, what a team we had...

mind you, wasn't all good, we ended up getting banned from the league.

as i recall, me and wally were in individual semis, but we refused to play cos it was scheduled to be played at our respective opponents 'home' club. so they kicked us out.

b*st*rds!

and then, weeks later, we tried to 'overthrow' the portsmouth committee with a breakaway league.

makes me lol just thinking about it. happy days

mind you, i was on top form that year and would have won that title, so part of me regrets being a 'rebel'...

but that's the other side of wally. he loved stirring it up a bit. probably why i got on so well with him.

i lost contact a few years ago but, ironically, i just recently met a mutual friend, who i also hadn't seen for years, who told me wally had passed away.

sadly missed.

r.i.p. the legend - wally west

[spike007]

I have just come across this thread as i am trying to find out more about the kingston snooker centre (Kingston, Surrey) in the early 80's and and who ran it. Was it Henry West as it sure rings a bell.

[JanieWatkins]

I have just come across this thread as i am trying to find out more about the kingston snooker centre (Kingston, Surrey) in the early 80's and and who ran it. Was it Henry West as it sure rings a bell.

Well I've got VERY fond memories of Kingston SC. We played a couple of Ladies events there and I actually won there!! (This was a very rare experience in my playing days!)

I don't recall it being Henry's club though because around the same time he had the club at Aldershot (where we played the Hofmeister Mixed Pairs)

[Neil Taperell]

I thought Henry ran the Royal Surrey in Morden as well ?

[franksandellsnooker]

He did Neil but it was called the Royale Surrey. He told me it was because the council would not approve the Royal Family inference. Mind you he could also tell a good story. At Aldershot Henry also promoted a very succesful Billiards championship which I believe was won by the Aussie Robbie Foldvari. F.

[j6uk]

Henry was involved at Fife road Kingston along with Tony Hitchens. Then Morden, with his promo players such as Cockney Classic winner Lee Grant. Aldershot was the next venture..