The Cue Collector - Charles Dawson Cue Charles Dawson 823 Break Cue
© 2007 - Gordon Radford

The Cue Collector - Charles Dawson 823 Break Cue
This is a Charles Dawson 823 Break Cue. It has an ebony butt hand-spliced onto an ash shaft.

This cue commemorates the world's record break made by Charles Dawson on 6 December 1907 in a match played against J Chapman at Thurston's Hall in Leicester Square, London.

Charles Dawson was presented with a silver cup as a memento of the break. The cup was given to the Billiard Professional's Association in February 1923 to establish a snooker championship for their members.

Charles Dawson's 823 break was made under the Rimington-Wilson Rules, not those of the Billiard Association, so it was never officially recognised as a world's record.

The Rimington-Wilson Rules were developed by Rimington-Wilson in 1899.  These rules for billiards banned the "miss" and simplified the penalties for foul strokes. 

The Rimington-Wilson Rules were endorsed by Burroughes & Watts and used in their professional tournaments from 1906 onwards.  The Rules were largely adopted by the Billiards Control Club when it was formed in 1909.

Rimington-Wilson was something of a visionary because the rules he developed are substantially the rules of the game of billiards as played today.

To view a contemporary report of Charles Dawson's 823 break, which appeared in The New World of Billiards magazine on 11 December 1907, click here:



circa 1900-1910