Maureen Baynton
{{short description|English snooker player (born 1937)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox snooker player
| name = Maureen Baynton
| image = File:Maureen Barrett 1953.png
| caption = Baynton in 1953, aged 16
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1937}}
| birth_place = England
| Sport country = {{ENG}}
| Professional =
| High ranking =
| Official maximums =
| Best finish =
| medals-expand =
| medals =
}}
Maureen Baynton (born Maureen Barrett in 1937) is an English former snooker and billiards player. She held the record for winning most Women's Amateur Snooker Championships after winning eight times between 1954 and 1968, and also won seven Women's Amateur Billiards championships between 1955 and 1980. She was runner-up in the 1983 World Women's Snooker Championship.
Biography
Baynton began to play snooker and billiards at Peckham Health Centre, teaching herself, from the age of 11. Three years after taking up the games, she was the girls champion at both snooker and billiards.{{cite news |author= |title=No Challengers For This Title |work=The Belfast Telegraph |date=2 December 1952 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 30 August 2019.}}{{cite news |author= |title=Confidence of a Champion |work=Daily Mirror |page=10 |date=31 December 1952 |via=The British Newspaper won a record 8 Women's Amateur Snooker Championships between 1954 and 1968, and 7 Women's Amateur Billiards championships between 1955 and 1980.Archive. Retrieved 30 August 2019.}}{{cite news |author= |title=Teenage Topics |work=Liverpool Echo |date=22 October 1955 |via=The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved 30 August 2019.}}
After a highly successful playing career in which she won a record eight Women's Amateur Snooker Championships between 1954 and 1968, and seven Women's Amateur Billiards championships between 1955 and 1980, she retired from competition for several years. When the World Women's Snooker Championship was staged in 1976, Baynton entered, reaching the semi-final, where she lost to Muriel Hazeldene.{{cite news |last=Hunn |first=David |date=11 April 1976 |title=Women Pocket Men's Pride |work=The Observer |page=25 |id={{ProQuest|}}|via=ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Guardian and The Observer. Retrieved 30 August 2019}} In the 1983 tournament she went one stage further, reaching the final, where she lost 5–8 to Sue Foster.
Throughout her career, she used the cue that she received, aged 10, for winning the Schoolgirls Championship in 1947. It is now on display at the Billiards and Snooker Heritage Collection in Liverpool.{{cite web |url=https://www.snookerheritage.co.uk/the-cue-collection/the-maureen-bayton-cue/ |title=The Maureen Baynton Cue |website=snookerheritage.co.uk |publisher=Billiards and Snooker Heritage Collection |access-date=30 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824093644/https://www.snookerheritage.co.uk/the-cue-collection/the-maureen-bayton-cue/ |archive-date=24 August 2019 }}
Titles and achievements
Snooker
Billiards
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Women's world champions of English billiards}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baynton, Maureen}}
Category:Female snooker players
Category:Female players of English billiards
Category:English snooker players