Wilson Jones

Mumbai: Thomas Alva Edison, the prolific American inventor, had once defined success as 99 per cent perspiration and one per cent inspiration. That would have aptly explained what made the late Wilson Jones, the legendary cueist, the champion he was.

It was on December 10, 1958 that Jones beat Englishman Leslie Driffield in the final in Calcutta by a narrow margin of eight points to claim the first of his two world amateur billiards titles.

It was an epochal moment in the history of Indian sport and spawned a generation of world class Indian cueists.

“The first thing that (Jones) Sir told me was that there is no substitute to hard-work. Six hours of practice everyday, seven days a week, that is all what matters,” recalled Ashok Shandilya, the 2002 world billiards champion, at a function to commemorate the golden jubilee of the sporting achievement that gave India its first individual world champion.

His break of 501 during his win against Australian Tom Cleary in the championships was a record then.

“He never missed a practice session for 26 years. He practised eight hours a day for six months before he won the world title,” said Geoffrey Jones, the legend’s son. Geet Sethi, the six-time world professional billiards champion and four-time amateur billiards champion, termed Wilson’s feat as a “massive contribution” to Indian cue sports.

“Jones not just won the world title, he gave us the self-confidence, the subconscious belief. He broke the Australian and the British monopoly. His first title is worth more than all the titles won collectively after that,” Sethi said.

Jones, born on May 2, 1922 in Pune, won his second world title in 1964, beating Jack Karnehm of England in New Zealand.

He also won the national title 12 times, and was a distinguished coach. He was conferred the Arjuna Award (in 1962), the Padma Shri (in 1965) and the Dronacharya award (in 1996).

Jones, who died on October 5, 2003, quit the sport in1967 at the age of 45. He was still at his peak form then. “He wanted to go when people were still asking ‘why’ instead of ‘why not’,” said his wife Peggy Jones.

His son, however, has one regret. “There are no replicas of the world billiards title. It is still one trophy that is being rotated. So, we don’t have anything related to his world title except for photographs,” he said.