Herbert Holt (snooker player)
{{short description|English snooker player}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox snooker player
|name = Herbert Holt
|image = Herbert Holt (snooker player).jpg
|caption = Holt with his wife
|birth_date = {{birth date|1909|06|01|df=yes}}
|birth_place = Simonstone, Lancashire, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|2002|02|22|1909|06|01|df=yes}}
|death_place =
| Sport country = {{ENG}}
| Professional =
| High ranking =
| Official maximums =
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}}
Herbert Holt (1 June 1909 – 22 February 2002) was an English professional snooker player.
Career
Herbert Holt was born on 1 June 1909 in Simonstone, Lancashire.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Untitled article |magazine=The Billiard Player |page=13|issue=June 1950 }} His father was Willie Holt, a professional billiards player and manufacturer who invented "rail {{cuegloss|pocket|pockets}}" that largely replaced the "bag" style of pockets.{{cite magazine |author= |title=Obituary: Herbert Holt |magazine=Snooker Scene |page=49 |publisher=Everton's News Agency |issue=April 2002}}
Holt played in the qualifying for the 1938 World Snooker Championship, beating Charles Read 21-10 before losing 8–23 to Fred Davis. He entered the World Championship several times after that, lastly in 1950, but never progressed beyond the quarter-finals.{{cite book |last=Everton |first=Clive |date=1985 |title=Guinness Snooker: The Records |location=Enfield |publisher=Guinness Superlatives Ltd |pages=54–55 |isbn=0851124488 }}
He was a body double for Laurence Olivier in Sleuth and for Roger Moore in The Persuaders. He set up a billiard table and cue sorts equipment business in the 1930s and sold billiard tables to celebrities including Michael Caine, John Lennon and Tom Jones. He established a snooker club in Great Windmill Street in the 1960s that went on to host the English Amateur Championship and Women's Billiards Association events.