Purple plaque honour for snooker star Agnes

SNOOKER champion Agnes Davies, from Carmarthenshire, has been honoured with Wales’ 20th Purple Plaque as part of a prestigious scheme to mark the achievements of remarkable women of Wales.

- NANCY CAVILL

The plaque was unveiled last week on the side of the village hall in Saron, near Ammanford.

Ms Davies, born Agnes Morris, had a competitive career spanning 64 years. Such was her standing in snooker circles that her obituary, on her death aged 90 in 2011, appeared in The Guardian and was penned by Clive Everton, the well-respected BBC snooker commentator.

Born in 1920, Agnes began playing in her early teens on a table her father had installed in a corrugated iron building on the side of their house which served as the local shop. He'd used his money from his mining job to buy it, having retired aged 47 due to ill-health (silicosis).

Her son, Dr Eiddan Davies, recalls: “There was pop, cigarettes, sweets, a stove and a snooker table, with just enough room around it. After my father died she left school to help her mother in the shop and started having a go on the table. By about age 15 or 16 she was equal to the men and, so the story goes, someone up from Swansea spotted her talent.”