Walter Lindrum Perpetual Trophy

Walter Albert Lindrum

Australia’s Walter Lindrum OBE (29 August 1898 – 30 July 1960) was the greatest player of English billiards the world has ever seen. During his career Lindrum made over 700 thousand breaks, 29 over 2000, many over 3000 and one over 4000. His mastery of all aspects of the game was complete. In 1925 against Claude Falkiner he made a break of 1,879 including 1,581 off the red after he had lost the white. In 1933 he made a run of 529 nursery cannons, taking the balls 2½ times around the table.

Lindrum’s record includes thousand breaks in five consecutive sessions (1516, 1412, 1054, 1875, and 1052) against Clark McConachy in 1930; successive breaks of 2835, 451, 1796, and 2583 against Tom Newman in 1931; and his world record break of 4137 against Joe Davis in 1932.

His averages were phenomenal: against Willie Smith in 1930 he averaged 262 in a fortnight’s match; Smith averaged 109 but was beaten by over 20,000 points. Against Clark McConachy in 1930 he averaged 313 for the second week of a fortnight’s match. His speed of scoring was staggering: in 1930 he made 1,011 in 30 minutes, and in 1934 he scored 346 in eight minutes. In all Lindrum set 57 world records, all of which still stand.

Contractual arrangements prevented Lindrum from contesting the World Championship until 1933, when he won the title from Joe Davis 21,815-21,121 in London. In 1934 he defended the championship in Melbourne, again defeating Davis 23,553-22,678. After that Lindrum held the championship unchallenged until he relinquished the title in 1950.
Lindrum travelled throughout Australia during World War II performing thousands of exhibitions and raising over half a million pounds for the war effort. For his charitable work he was appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1951 and Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1958.

The Australian Open Billiards Championship has been held since 2001, and has this year been named after Walter Lindrum – the greatest ever player and a legend of Australian sport.

To celebrate this, and recognise Australia’s extraordinary billiards heritage, Robby Foldvari has donated the trophy he received as winner of the last Australian Professional Billiards Championship in 1985 to become the perpetual trophy for the Walter Lindrum Australian Open Championship. Tammy Lindrum has sponsored the restoration of the trophy, and inscription of all previous winners of the Open, as well as all winners of the Australian Professional Billiards Championship. A truly illustrious roll call of billiards greats.

Thanks to both Robby and Tammy for their generous support of Australian billiards. This is a trophy that all future winners of the Open will be honoured to receive.

Previous winners of the Australian Professional Billiards Championship include Robby Foldvari, Paddy Morgan, Norman Squire, Horace Lindrum, Fred Lindrum, Charles Memmott, Fred Weiss, Harry Evans and Joseph Byrne.

Download the Walter Lindrum Australian Open Billiards Championship Event Program