Gary Owen (snooker player)

Gary Owen (born 1929 in Tumble, Carmarthenshire, Wales; died 1995 in Brisbane, Australia) was a Welsh snooker player.

Gary Owen

Born	1929 Tumble, Wales
Died	1995 (aged 65)[1] Southport, Queensland, Australia
Sport country	Wales
Professional	1968–1979
Highest ranking	10 (1976/77)
Career winnings	£2,950[2]
Highest break	118: 1971 Australian Professional Championship
Century breaks	4[2]
Best ranking finish	Quarter-final (1975 World Championship)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking	2

Career

Owen was the inaugural British Under-16 champion in 1944[3] and reached the final of the prestigious English Amateur Championship six years later. He then gave up competitive play for a number of years, returning only in the early 1960s.[4]

In 1963 he matched the achievement of his brother Marcus, winning the English Amateur Championship.[3] This qualified him to compete for England at the inaugural World Amateur Championship in Calcutta that year. He won all his matches in a round-robin format and took the title. He became world amateur champion for a second time in 1966, beating future world professional champion John Spencer who was the runner-up.[5]

In 1968 Owen, Spencer and Ray Reardon become the first players in a generation to turn professional.[4] His best performance as a professional came in 1969 when he reached the final of the reconstituted World Professional Snooker Championship, losing to old rival Spencer[1] by 37 frames to 24. A semi-finalist in 1970, he was defeated in the last eight in 1973 and 1975.[6] In 1970 Owen defeated Ray Reardon 6–4 in the final of the Stratford Professional.[7]

Owen emigrated to Australia, taking a job as the resident professional at a snooker club in Sydney, and was runner-up to Eddie Charlton in the 1972 and 1973 Australian Professional championships. After gaining Australian citizenship, he represented his new country at the Snooker World Cup in 1979.[4]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	1968/ 69	1969/ 70	1970/ 71	1971/ 72	1972/ 73	1973/ 74	1974/ 75	1975/ 76	1976/ 77	1977/ 78
Ranking[8]	No ranking system								10	13
Ranking tournaments
World Championship	Non-Ranking Event					2R	QF	1R	A	A
Non-ranking tournaments
Stratford Professional	Not Held		W	A	A	Tournament Not Held
Park Drive 2000 (Spring)	Not Held		RR	A	Tournament Not Held
Pot Black	QF	RR	SF	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
World Championship	F	SF	RR	A	QF	Ranking Event
World Matchplay Championship	Tournament Not Held								QF	NH
Australian Professional Championship	A	A	A	SF	F	F	QF	A	SF	LQ

Performance Table Legend
LQ	lost in the qualifying draw	#R	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)	QF	lost in the quarter-finals
SF	lost in the semi-finals	F	lost in the final	W	won the tournament
DNQ	did not qualify for the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament	WD	withdrew from the tournament

Career finals

Non-ranking finals: 5 (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Legend

World Championship (0–1)

Other (2–2)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1968	Willie Smith Trophy	John Dunning	Round-robin
Runner-up	1.	1969	World Snooker Championship	John Spencer	27–46
Winner	2.	1970	Stratford Professional	Ray Reardon	6–4
Runner-up	2.	1972	Australian Professional Championship	Eddie Charlton	10–19
Runner-up	3.	1973	Australian Professional Championship (2)	Eddie Charlton	10–31

Amateur finals: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final/ Runner-up	Score
Runner-up	1.	1950	English Amateur Championship	Alf Nolan	5–6
Winner	1.	1963	English Amateur Championship	Ron Gross	11–3
Winner	2.	1963	World Amateur Championship	Frank Harris (Runner-up)	–[n 1]
Winner	3.	1966	World Amateur Championship (2)	John Spencer (Runner-up)	–[n 1]

Notes

1. Title decided alone on group stage

References

1. "Obituary: Gary Owen". The Independent. 4 July 1995. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
2. "Career-total Statistics for Gary Owen - Professional". CueTracker. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
3. Everton, Clive (1985). Guinness Snooker: The Records. Enfield: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. pp. 124–125. ISBN 0851124488.
4. "Obituary: Gary Owen MBE". Snooker Scene. No. August 1995. Everton's News Agency. p. 10.
5. Hale, Janice (1987). Rothmans Snooker Yearbook 1987-88. Aylesbury: Queen Anne Press. pp. 296–297. ISBN 0356146901.
6. Hale, Janice (1987). Rothmans Snooker Yearbook 1987-88. Aylesbury: Queen Anne Press. pp. 251–253. ISBN 0356146901.
7. "Owen defeats title holder". Sport Argus. 5 September 1970. p. 11.
8. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.