Dickie Laws

Dickie Laws was an English professional snooker player, who competed in the World Snooker Championship in 1939, 1950 and 1951.

Biography Herbert W. "Dickie" Laws was born 1912. He became a "house man", playing snooker matches for money for various clubs, mainly for the Adelphi Club based under the Dominion Cinema in London. At the time, anyone who earned money from playing, or association with, snooker or English billiards was regarded as a professional. However, the governing body for the sports, the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC), twice refused Laws's applications to enter the professional World Snooker Championship, before admitting him to the competition in 1939. In the qualifying final, he lost 13–18 to Walter Donaldson. In his next appearance in the Championship qualifying competition, in 1950, he lost 9–26 to Herbert Holt, whilst suffering the effects of having dislocated his shoulder in a road traffic accident.

There was a rift between the BACC and the Professional Billiard Players' Association (PBPA), which led to each organisation staging their own championship in 1952. Laws applied to join the PBPA, but claimed he was refused on the basis that at the age of 39 he was too old to join. He twice won the London section in later years, also winning the district's leagues' billiards title several times.

With John Pike, he reached the final of the British Pairs snooker championship in 1977, where they lost 3–0 to Clive Everton and Roger Bales. In 1978 Laws and Pike reached the final again, defeating Terry Griffiths and John Parker 3–0 in the semi-final before losing 1–3 to Don Reed and Dave Martin. He drew 1–1 with Steve Davis in a regional tournament when Davis was 18.