Eva Collins

File:Ella Collins (billiards player).png

Eva Collins was the daughter of professional billiards player George Collins, who was the all-England billiards champion in 1877 and 1888. Her sister, Ella Collins, was also a pioneering women's billiards player.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Holder Heading for the Finals. |magazine=Leeds Mercury |page=9 |date=22 February 1933 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 21 August 2019.}}{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000681/19350214/335/0019 |author= |title=Champion in Form. |newspaper=Daily Herald |page=19 |date=14 February 1935 |via=The British Newspaper Archive |access-date=2023-10-02 |url-access=subscription}}

She started learning to play in July 1902, and a few months later, at the age of 12, was the subject of an article in the Portsmouth Evening News for beating a boy of 16 in a billiards match.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Juvenile Billiard Match. |magazine=Portsmouth Evening News |page=6 |date=19 December 1902 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 24 August 2019.}}

In 1906, Collins played two series of billiards exhibition matches against "Madame Strebor," a pseudonym used by an unknown woman player who had toured with John Roberts Jr.{{cite book |last=Everton |first=Clive |date=1985 |title=Guinness Snooker - The Records |publisher=Guinness Superlatives Ltd |pages=154–156 |isbn=0851124488 }} The series held at Burroughes Hall finished 7–5 in favour of Madame Strebor.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Sporting Paragraphs |magazine=Nottingham Evening Post |page=8 |date=5 November 1906 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}} Shortly afterward, Collins won 15 of 24 matches against Strebor in Manchester.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Ladies Matches in Manchester |magazine=Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser |page=9 |date=19 November 1906 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}}

Collins became a billiards instructor at the Lyceum Ladies Club.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Women's Billiards Tournament |magazine=Birmingham Daily Gazette |page=2 |date=2 April 1930 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}} As of January 1936, she had been coaching for over 24 years.{{cite magazine |last=Carpenter |first=Thelma |title=Billiards for Women |magazine=The Billiard Player|issue=181 |date=January 1936|page=4 }} She used her father's cue in competition.

In 1930, Collins was the losing finalist in the British Women's Billiards Championship organised by the cue sports company Burrouhges and Watts.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Midland Girl's Billiards Title |magazine=Birmingham Daily Gazette |page=1 |date=4 April 1930 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}}

When the Women's Billiards Association was formed in 1931, Collins was one of four professional players appointed to a committee to organise the professional championships, along with Joyce Gardner, Ruth Harrison, and Margaret Lennan.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Women's Billiards. Association Formed to Control the Championships. |magazine=Lancashire Evening Post |page=10 |date=1 October 1931 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 21 August 2019.}}{{cite magazine |author= |title=(Untitled Article) |magazine=Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette |page=18 |date=18 September 1931 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 21 August 2019.}}

From 1931, the Women's Billiards Association organised the world championship, with the same trophy used in the 1930 British Women's Billiards Championship, and Collins was again a losing finalist in the first competition under the Association's control, in 1931.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Women and Billiards |magazine=Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette |page=18 |date=18 September 1932 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 22 August 2019.}}{{cite magazine |author= |title=Women's Billiards. Association Formed to Control the Championships |magazine=Lancashire Evening Post |page=10 |date=18 September 1932 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 22 August 2019.}}

Collins played in the Women's Professional Billiards Championship each year from 1930 to 1937, but did not play in 1938, possibly due to her other commitments as a coach and referee.{{cite magazine |author= |title=In The Billiards World |magazine=Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette |page=11 |date=6 April 1938 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}}

She also competed in the Women's Professional Snooker Championship, but never reached the final of that tournament.

She was the first woman to qualify as a billiards and snooker referee,{{cite magazine |author= |title=Quorn Hounds |magazine=Nottingham Journal |page=10 |date=19 September 1936 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}} at a time when only around 200 men held the same qualification.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Women Referees Soon in Birmingham? |magazine=Birmingham Daily Gazette |page=14 |date=15 May 1937 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}} At the Boy's Billiards Championship in 1932, became the first woman to referee a championship match.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Woman billiards referee |magazine=Portsmouth Evening News |page=3 |date=16 December 1932 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.}}

Snooker

Billiards

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2024904/photography_ProvidedCHO_TopFoto_co_uk_EU060050.html Miss Eva Collins] plays Mr Frank Smith in a Billiard Match in aid of comfort for mine sweepers, 16 February 1918
• [https://www.gettyimages.fi/detail/news-photo/eva-collins-a-billiards-professional-teaching-women-to-play-news-photo/3395784 Potting The Ball.] Eva Collins teaching women to play at her Kensington billiards school, London, 2 November 1937.
• [https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/eva-collins-womens-billiards-player-3899146a Eva Collins] in 1939.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Eva}}

Category:English snooker players

Category:Female snooker players

Category:Female players of English billiards

Category:English players of English billiards

Category:Date of birth missing

Category:Date of death missing

Category:Sportspeople from Portsmouth