EXACTLY one hundred years ago next week, “a paradise for billiardists” was opened in Darlington by possibly the greatest sportsman the town has ever produced: champion cueist, Willie Smith.

“Darlington Smith”, as he was known around the globe, was twice billiards world champion, once British champion and regularly the world record holder. A curmudgeonly fellow, he hated snooker, but twice reached the world snooker final and he featured in the world’s first televised snooker match.

Plus, on February 26, 1915, he opened his billiard hall – a place where you can still play snooker to this day.

“The billiard lover will find things after his own heart at the Northgate saloon,” said the Evening Despatch newspaper. “Willie Smith has not only studied billiards, but billiard tables also, and he has taken care that nothing but the best shall be at the disposal of his patrons.”

Willie was born in Taylor Street in 1886. His father, William, was the sports editor of the North Star newspaper, which was the Conservative rival to the Liberal Northern Echo, although when Willie was eight, his parents took over the Golden Cock pub in Tubwell Row. By the time he was ten, Willie was hustling on the baize for money against all-comers; by the time he was 15, he had been declared a professional for accepting a shilling in expenses after an exhibition at Middlesbrough Conservative Club.

By day, Smith was working as an apprentice Linotype operator at the North Star in Crown Street, and by night he was cleaning up on tables across the Tees Valley. His big break came in September 1911 when he defeated the renowned Australian cueist George Gray in a match at Stockton.

“This was Gray’s first defeat in England, and Darlington people were proud of Smith,” said the Echo.

So proud that when he opened his saloon on the corner of Corporation Road, a large crowd turned out to see him take on William Melrose of Middlesbrough in the inaugural match. In those days, billiards matches could take days, if not weeks, as the players chased the three balls around the table, racking up points for cannons and pocketing the balls. On the opening day, though, the winner of the match was the first to 600 points – Willie, naturally, reached the target, with Melrose trailing on 395 points.

The Echo said of the “handsome” hall which had been built by Blacketts the builders: “There is every convenience the billiard player can have.”

Making the opening speech, Fred Scott, “a popular billiard enthusiast”, said of Willie’s career: “The people of Darlington will rejoice not only to see him top of the tree in England, but of the world.”

Yet the First World War held him up. He worked in a munitions factory – possibly the North Road shell shop which featured here a fortnight ago – before his health gave out and he was hospitalised in Stanhope and Wolsingham. “He was ever a frail lad,” said the Echo, although he lived to be 96.

In 1920, he was fit enough to enter the English championship for the first time. In the fortnight-long final – the first to 16,000 – he was neck and neck with his opponent, Claude Falkiner, for the first nine days, but then pulled away to win the trophy. He returned home to Bank Top station where he was greeted as a hero, and at a banquet at the King’s Head Hotel, he was presented with a silver tea service, paid for by public donations.

In 1921 and 1923, he won the world championship and in 1928 in Australia, he set a world billiards record with a break of 2,743 – the Aussies were so worried about him beating their champion, Walter Lindrum, that in an interval, someone sneaked into Willie’s dressing room and snapped his favourite cue.

In the 1930s, snooker was the coming game. Willie was not impressed. When asked his opinion of it, he said: “The rules should be changed—all of them.” Yet, in 1933 and 1935, he still reached the world snooker finals, where he set a world record with a break of 122, only to lose on both occasions to the legendary Joe Davis.

Willie was also involved in two snooker landmarks: the first televised match in 1937 and, on January 22, 1955, the first official 147 maximum break – only it was scored by his opponent, Davis, as he sat and watched.

He retired to Leeds, concentrated on running his billiard halls business but returned regularly to his hometown to give exhibitions – until, in 1966, he gave his cue to a doctor in the Lake District and never hit a ball again.

He died at a grand old age in 1982. Snooker commentator Clive Everton said: "He was one of the all-time greats. He played the billiards of the common man, and he was always identified with the common man."

His billiard hall lives on as the Darlington Snooker Club, which has nearly 350 members. It is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a beer festival featuring 100 beers (a half is 100 pennies) running from Thursday to Sunday. Mithril Ales of Aldbrough St John has brewed a special 100 Not Out stout for the occasion, which is open to all, from midday to midnight.

ALMOST as famous as the billiard hall on the first floor of the corner building was the motorcycle dealership below it: White Bros. Oswald and Walter White founded it in 1919 in one of the ground floor units, and for a couple of years they manufactured their own 99cc bike, the Oswald.

They expanded, turning an old ice cream factory behind the cinema opposite into a repair shop, and slowly buying up all the ground floor units. They had branches in Bishop Auckland (opened 1956) and Newton Aycliffe (1961), and a radio and TV shop in Skinnergate. You could buy any two-wheeled vehicle in Whites – bicycles, motorcycles, scooters and mopeds – and in 1963, they introduced Morris cars, as well.

The showroom was a well known local landmark, but it had a sad end. On December 22, 2010, with a third generation of Whites at the helm, it went into receivership.