Paddy Morgan

Paddy Morgan (born 7 January 1943) is an Australian former professional snooker and English billiards player.

Patrick Morgan was born on 7 January 1943 in Belfast.

He started playing English billiards aged nine, at St Patrick's Parochial Hall.

Coached by Tom McCann, Morgan won the Under-16 British Junior English Billiards Championship in January 1958, with a 400–260 victory over David Bend in the final.

He also won the Under-19 title twice; in 1959, 446–321 against Peter Shelley, and in 1961, 538–357 against Tony Matthews.

In 1959 he entered the British junior snooker championship, and lost 2–3 to Bend in the semi-finals after taking a 2–0 lead.

In the deciding frame, Morgan the final, but went , which cost him the match.

Aged 15, Morgan was expelled from St Mary's Christian Brothers' School after consistently missing classes to play the game.

He was born in Belfast, and moved to Coventry in 1960.

In January 1960 he moved to Coventry, where he worked as a machinist, and later as a bus conductor.

In 1964, he won both the Northern Ireland Amateur Snooker Championship, against M. Gill in the final, and the All-Ireland Snooker Championship, defeating J. Rogers.

In billiards, he was Northern Ireland runner-up to Anderson in 1966, and All-Ireland champion in 1967 (against Billy Loughan) and 1968 (against Anderson).

He won the All-Ireland title again in 1967, this time against Dessie Anderson, and also won the 1967 Irish Amateur Snooker Championship title against Rogers.

Following an amateur career in which he won junior and national titles in both sports, and reached the semi-finals of the 1968 World Amateur Snooker Championship, he emigrated to Australia in 1969.

He represented Ireland at the 1968 World Amateur Snooker Championship, held in Australia, and reached the semi-final of the competition where he lost 3–8 to David Taylor, who went on to win the event.

Morgan emigrated to Australia in 1969, supported by billiards professional Murt O'Donoghue.

He became a professional player in 1970 and competed in the World Snooker Championship for the first time in the 1971 tournament.

Morgan turned professional in 1970.

He participated in the 1971 World Snooker Championship, losing matches against John Pulman, Ray Reardon and Gary Owen, but winning his match against Warren Simpson.

In 1972, he was runner-up to Leslie Driffield in the World Open Billiards Championship, which featured both amateurs and professionals competing against each other, losing the final 2,404–3,055.

In 1972, Morgan won the Australian national billiards title against Albert Johnson, and held it unchallenged until defeated 3,238–3,608 by Robby Foldvari in 1985.

A World Open Billiards Championship, with both amateurs and professionals competing against each other, was held in 1972.

Morgan finished fourth in the round-robin table with seven wins from eleven matches, which included victories against Clark McConachy, Clive Everton, and Jack Karnehm.

He reached the final by defeating Eddie Charlton and Satish Mohan, and finished runner-up to Leslie Driffield, 2,404–3,055.

In 1974, Morgan defeated 1972 World Snooker champion Alex Higgins in the final of a professional tournament held at the Westpoint Shopping Centre, Blacktown, Sydney, by winning the first four frames in their best-of-seven frames match.

Ian Anderson and Simpson also played in the tournament.

He lost 3–37 to Higgins in the final of the Victorian Professional Championship held in Melbourne the following month.

At the 1974 World Snooker Championship, Morgan progressed to the second round by defeating Cliff Thorburn 8–4 in the first round.

In Thorburn's autobiography, he claims that after Morgan lost the first frame, he took his tie off, then after Thorburn went 3–1 up, Morgan took his waistcoat off, and after the score went to 4–1, Morgan drop kicked his chalk out of the arena.

Thorburn states that he had difficulty settling after that and lost the next seven frames to allow Morgan to progress to the second round, where he lost 7–15 to Graham Miles.

In the 1975 Championship he faced Thorburn again, and lost 6–15 in the first round.

In snooker, he defeated Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins to reach the semi-finals of the 1976 World Professional Match-play Championship.

Morgan was twice runner-up in the Australian Professional Snooker Championship (in 1976 and 1977).

The 1976 Australian Professional Snooker Championship was promoted by Charlton, through his eponymous company.

Charlton played his quarter-final and semi-final using his personal set of snooker balls, on a table of his choosing at the venue, finishing his final on 30 September.

He stipulated that the final, scheduled for 4 October, would be played under the same conditions.

Morgan and his opponent Simpson had both faced lengthy journeys to their previous matches and were scheduled to finish their match on 3 October.

Four days before the final was due to commence, Morgan and Simpson agreed to tell Charlton that whichever of them won the semi-final would refuse to play him unless what they saw as the advantages that Charlton would gain from playing with his own set of balls on a table of his choosing were removed.

He was a member of the Australia team at the World Cup of snooker each year from 1979 to 1982.

He made his final professional appearance in the 1991 World Snooker Championship.