Born Kalgoorlie WA
29 August 1898 – 30 July 1960
There is no argument that Walter Lindrum was the finest billiards player of all time. The rules of the game had to be changed to counter his dominance.
Born on the Western Australian Goldfields and brought up there and in WA’s South-West, at Donnybrook, Lindrum left the State at a young age simply to pursue his chosen sporting field. Christened Walter Albert so that his initials depicted his WA background, he was a proud Western Australian who went on to win the world professional billiards title in England in 1933 and defend it successfully in Australia a year later.
Lindrum, who made his first 100 break at the age of 12 and first 500 break at 14, displayed freakish ability with the cue, compiling 711 breaks of 100 or more, 29 in excess of 2000 and topping 3000 17 times. In January 1932, in a match against reigning world champion Joe Davis, in London, Lindrum compiled a world record break of 4137, which included 15 sequences of nursery cannons to accumulate 2578 of his points.
Billiards officialdom subsequently amended the rules several times to try to restrict this prolific scoring method, including a baulk line rule that limited the use of nursery cannons.
When Lindrum retired in 1950, he held 57 world records among them the fastest century break (45 seconds) and 1011 points in 30 minutes.
Such was Lindrum’s dominance that few players dared to oppose him for fear of embarrassment and in the latter stages of his career he played mainly for charity.
Short in stature at only 170cm (5ft 7in), Lindrum played as a left-hander. During his early years at Donnybrook he had the top joint of his right index finger amputated after an accident while playing at home when his hand was caught in the cogs of a washing mangle.
Awarded an MBE in 1951 and an OBE in 1958, Lindrum lived most of his adult life in the Eastern States and died while on holiday in Surfers Paradise.