Gary Owen (snooker player)

Owen was born in Tumble, Carmarthenshire. He was the inaugural British Under-16 champion in 1944^[3] and reached the final of the prestigious English Amateur Championship six years later. He then gave up competitive play for a number of years, returning only in the early 1960s.^[4]

In 1963 he matched the achievement of his brother Marcus, winning the English Amateur Championship.^[3] This qualified him to compete for England at the inaugural World Amateur Championship in Calcutta that year. He won all his matches in a round-robin format and took the title. He became world amateur champion for a second time in 1966, beating future world professional champion John Spencer who was the runner-up.^[5]

In 1968 Owen, Spencer and Ray Reardon become the first players in a generation to turn professional.^[4] His best performance as a professional came in 1969 when he reached the final of the reconstituted World Professional Snooker Championship, losing to old rival Spencer^[2] by 37 frames to 24. A semi-finalist in 1970, he was defeated in the last eight in 1973 and 1975.^[6] In 1970 Owen defeated Ray Reardon 6–4 in the final of the Stratford Professional.^[7]

Owen emigrated to Australia, taking a job as the resident professional at a snooker club in Sydney, and was runner-up to Eddie Charlton in the 1972 and 1973 Australian Professional championships. After gaining Australian citizenship, he represented his new country at the Snooker World Cup in 1979.^[4] He died in Brisbane, Australia.