The Women's Billiards Association was founded on 13 May 1931 at the Women's Automobile and Sports Association, Buckingham Palace Gardens, London, with the objective of controlling the amateur and professional championships for women, and promoting other tournaments and competitions. Viscountess Elibank was appointed president, Mrs Longworth was Chairman, and Teresa Billington-Greig, who had chaired this initial meeting, became acting honorary secretary. Miss Marx of Women's Sports and Automobile Association became honorary treasurer. Other council members appointed included Mrs Eddowes, runner-up in the previous year's amateur championship, Thelma Carpenter, and Lady Constance Childe-Pemberton. The jurisdiction of the WBA covered the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Activities
Control of the professional billiards and snooker tournaments for women, and the trophies for the previous events run by Burroughes & Watts Ltd, were handed over to the Association. A subcommittee including four professional players, Joyce Gardner, Ruth Harrison, Margaret Lennan and Eva Collins, was appointed to organise the professional championships. The Association provided Thelma Carpenter with a certificate for having made a break of 59. The Association organised the Amateur and Professional championships in snooker and billiards, girls' championships, inter-club competitions, and regional competitions. The Association encouraged the formation of "Billiards Circles," local groups of players, that would become affiliated. Some of the places where Billiards Circles were established were Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Cardiff, Norwich, Torquay and Bournemouth. On 14 December 1933, the WBA Council announced that any players entering open events not organised or sanctioned by the WBA would be prohibited from entering WBA competitions, that no permissions would be granted where tournaments differentiated between men and women, and that any players accepting payment would lose their amateur status. The following year, leading player Thelma Carpenter resigned from the Association, as she was not granted permission to play in the Junior Amateur Championship organised by The Billiards Player magazine. She claimed that the sport would not thrive under the Association's control.
In 1933 John C. Bissett, Chairman of the Billiards Association and Control Council praised the work of the Women's Billiards Association, and said that the BA&CC had "no desire to interfere" in the running of the woman's game. In 1935, the Association affiliated to the BA&CC and on 10 June 1936, the Billiards Association and Control Council agreed to take over management of the WBA. Lord Lonsdale, president of the BA&CC, also became president of the WBA. Bisset, chairman of the BA&CC, was elected chairman of the WBA in 1939, with Miss G. M. Burton as the new vice-chairman. Bisset resigned as Chairman in 1948, noted at the WBA Annual General Meeting held on 13 December that year, which started twenty minutes late due to the late arrival of the Honorary Secretary, Joy White. The meeting re-elected the absent film star Valerie Hobson as president, but did not attract enough candidates to fill all the vacancies on its council. The 1950 Women's Professional Billiards Championship and Women's Professional Snooker Championship were the last professional championships to be organised by the WBA.
Successor organisations
The Women's Billiards & Snooker Association was formed in 1976, and appointed Wally West as Secretary 1978. However, although the WBSA revived the world snooker championship, within a few years it had lost control of the game to the World Ladies Billiards & Snooker Association, founded in 1981 by Mandy Fisher. The Women's Professional Billiards Championship has not been held since 1950. The Women's Amateur Billiards Championship was not held between 1979 and its revival by the WLBSA in 1998. The WLBSA was restructured as a subsidiary of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in 2015, and became a full member of the World Snooker Federation in 2017. In November 2018 the WLBSA was renamed, as World Women's Snooker, and is responsible for women's snooker and billiards and the women's ranking list.
