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One of the forgotten
men of snooker, Gary Owen, a superb potter, was a brilliant
junior and amateur and won the very first world amateur championship.
He had an equally brilliant younger brother, Marcus and between
them they won eleven national and world titles as amateurs at
both billiards and snooker.
Gary was born in South Wales and played snooker just for
fun for most of his early life. He won the inaugural British
Under-16 title in 1944 and in 1950 he reached the English
amateur championship final just losing by the odd frame. He
moved to England to do his National Service near Great Yarmouth
and did not enter the English championship again for 13 years.
He had settled in Birmingham and become a fireman and in the
meantime Marcus had won it twice so he had to try and out-do
his younger brother. In that 1963 event he met, in the final,
one of the best amateur players of the time, three times winner
Ron Goss, and Gary beat him by the convincing margin of 11-3.
That victory made him eligible to compete in the first world
amateur championships that were being held in Calcutta that
year. He won all his matches in the round-robin event to take
the title. Three years later (the championship was not held
every year then), he again won all his matches including a
victory over John Spencer, to retain the title in Karachi.
Spencer had beaten Marcus in the English final that year so
it was some sort of family revenge. Only two other players
have ever successfully defended the world amateur crown, Ray
Edmonds and Malta’s Paul Mifsud.
By 1968, professional snooker was coming out of its decline
and Gary joined John Spencer and Ray Reardon as the first
new professionals since 1951. In the first of the new style
knock-out world championships he went all the way to the final
but John Spencer got his own revenge with a 37-24 victory.
In 1970 John Pulman beat him fairly easily in the semi-finals.
The 1971 event was held in Australia, actually in November
1970, and played on a round robin basis. He won two and lost
two, failing to make the semi finals.
After that trip to Australia, Gary decided to make his home
in that country and became resident pro at a snooker club
in Sydney. He missed the 1972 championship but returned here
in 1973 and reached the quarter-finals where he lost to the
eventual winner, Ray Reardon. Marcus beat him in the second
round in 1974 but he reached the quarter-finals again in 1975
when the event returned to Australia, Dennis Taylor being
the victor on that occasion. Taylor beat him again in the
first round in 1976 and he did not play in the championship
again.
On several occasions he challenged Eddie Charlton for the
Australian professional title but without success. The last
time he played in this country was as a member of the Australian
team, along with Charlton and Paddy Morgan, in the first World
Team Classic, which later became the World Cup. He is probably
the only player who has, at one time or other, represented
three countries, Wales, England and Australia.
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