1955 World Professional Match-play Championship

The World Professional Match-play Championship was created in 1952 as an alternative to the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC) professional World Snooker Championship, which was retrospectively recognised as a world championship. However, founder and 15-time champion Joe Davis of the BA&CC's events did not participate in the Match-play Championships. The defending champion of the event was Davis' brother Fred Davis, who had won the World Snooker Championship as the BA&CC authorised event, and the match-play championship on all three previous occasions. Format The 1955 World Professional Match-play Championship was held over several months between 4 November 1954 to 19 March 1955. with a player being given a bye to the semi-finals. The defending champion Fred Davis was given a bye. Schedule ==Summary==

The quarter-final match between Alec Brown and John Barrie doubled as a contest in the 1954/1955 News of the World Snooker Tournament. Despite the News of the World tournament featuring a handicap system, both players were drawn with a level handicap. Brown took an early 7–5 lead, The match was level at 12–12, On the final day, Pulman won five of the seven frames to win 22–15. Jackie Rea led Harry Stokes 7–3 after the first day of their quarter-final match in Edinburgh, Scotland. Stokes made a Scottish record break of 82 in the last frame of the day. Rea extended his lead to 14–6 on the second day, scoring a break of 102 in frame 15, whilst Stokes made a break of 90, improving on the previous day. Stokes won seven frames on day three before Rea then pulled ahead and won the match 31–19, taking the last frame on the fifth day. Rea eventually won 37–24 after the remaining frames were played. Defending champion Fred Davis and Jackie Rea met in the first semi-final at the RAOB Hall, Church Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Davis took a 9–3 lead on the first day, however, Rea shortened the gap to four frames as Davis only led 26–22 after four days. Davis led 30–24 after the final penultimate session and took a winning lead of 31–24 by taking the first frame in the final session. The match ended 36–25 after the dead frames were played out. John Pulman met Alec Brown in the second semi-final, played in Jersey in the Channel Islands. They played just one session on the first day, the score being tied at 3–3. There was also just one session on the fourth day, Pulman having taken a 23–13 lead. Pulman won the match 31–17 at the end of day 5, before winning 37–24 after the 13 dead frames that were played on the final day. The final was a best-of-73 frame match and held at the Tower Circus in Blackpool. Fred Davis took a 10–2 lead after the first day, but John Pulman had slightly the better of the second day and Davis only led 15–9. Davis led 20–16 after day three, 27–21 after day four and 33–27 after day five. Davis won the title with the score at 37–34, Pulman made three century breaks in the final, 103 on day 2, another 103 on day 4 and 101 in the last frame. ==Main draw==

The tournament featured seven players, those in bold denote match winners. ==Notes==