Exhibition celebrates women's cue sports pioneer

Vera Selby received an MBE in 2015 for her services to snooker and billiards

A new exhibition is celebrating the life of a pioneer of women's cue sports.

Vera Selby won eight World Women’s Billiards Championships between 1970 and 1978, along with the first Women’s World Open Championship in snooker in 1976, and again in 1981.

She also pursued her passion for art and textiles and made many of the waistcoats she competed in.

A new exhibition at Northumbria University, where she taught art, is putting on a display to celebrate her achievements.

Selby, who died last year at the age of 93, had continued to play competitively into her eighties.

She made a name for herself at a time when many snooker clubs enforced a ban on women competing.

open until 26 April, features trophies from her sporting successes, waistcoats she made and competed in, mounted wall art and scores of carefully preserved teaching materials she devised throughout her career.

'An inspiration'

Selby worked at Northumbria University for a decade as a senior art and textile lecturer and then as head of art education.

"Vera was and still is an inspiration to us all," said Diane Greaves, Selby's friend and former colleague.

"She was very well known in such a wide spectrum of circles and was at ease in all of them.

“Many of Northumbria’s students are seeing Vera’s work for the first time and have taken aspects of her work into their own projects, which is wonderful to see."

Selby became Newcastle’s Sports Personality of the Year in 1981 and went on to work as a professional snooker referee, as well as serving as chairwoman of the North East Billiards and Snooker Association.

In 1982, the BBC invited her to commentate on the World Snooker Championship at the famous Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

She was recognised as a pioneering figure in women's cue sports, receiving an MBE in 2015 for her services to snooker and billiards.