Champion mastered the green baize – and textiles too
TEXTILE works by Tynesider Vera Selby, who combined an academic career with her life as a multiple snooker and billiards world champion, have been sold by auction to help a sporting charity.
As well as being a pioneering sportswoman, she was also an equality campaigner, art educator and textile artist.
She continued to play competitively into her eighties and died on her birthday in March last year, aged 93.
An exhibition including her works ran until Friday, April 26 in Northumbria University’s School of Design building on City Campus East.
After studying art and design Vera began her teaching career in schools and art colleges in Newcastle.
In 1972, she joined Newcastle Polytechnic - now Northumbria University - where she worked as a senior art and textile lecturer and then as head of art education and fashion, until her retirement in 1983.
A total of 121 of her textiles works, from wall art and fabrics to everyday items such as shoes, sold for £2,309, to go to Sport Newcastle, which supports young people to achieve their sporting ambitions.
The top selling item was a tapestry titled Jesus of Nazareth, which sold for £411.
Several of Vera’s sports trophies will also become part of Tyne Wear Archives and Museums collection.
They are the Guinness Women’s World Snooker Champions cup from 1981, the Women’s Billiards Association Northern Championship cup which Vera won in four successive years from 1976, and a 1979 Vaux statue for outstanding achievements in women’s snooker,
Former colleague and friend Diane Greaves said: “Vera worked across a lot of mediums and was very creative and prolific in her work. She never sold anything commercially but used her artefacts as a teaching resource for her students.
“The exhibition has been tremendous, with a steady stream of people visiting from snooker players and friends to former students.
“Vera was and still is an inspiration to us all. She was very well known in such a wide spectrum of circles and was at ease in all of them.”
Sport Newcastle, of which Alan Shearer is a patron, was created from the former Newcastle Sports Council and offers funding and support to men, women and children seeking to realise their sporting ambitions.
The highlight of the Sport Newcastle year is the annual gala award dinner staged at Newcastle Civic Centre, culminating in the presentation of the Sports Personality of the Year Award.
Sport Newcastle treasurer David Appleby said: “We are a small local charity that has been dedicated to the promotion and development of sport in the North East for over 50 years.
“This has been achieved through the award of grants to athletes, cue sports and clubs to help them progress in their chosen field. Grants are awarded to help with the costs of training, equipment, travel and in support of club coaches allowing them to enhance their skills and qualifications,
“The organisation is operated by a team of volunteers who carry out a range of fundraising activities throughout the year.
“The generous offer of the Vera Selby estate to support Sport Newcastle will provide an invaluable boost to the funds of the organisation and will enable the award of further grants to athletes and clubs including cue sports in the region.
“Sport Newcastle have supported young snooker players in the past and are happy to ring fence specific donations for designated sports so Sport Newcastle could ring fence an element of the funding towards cue sports.”
Vera’s passion for creating textile and mixed media art from recycled and repurposed items used in day-to-day life led her to run outreach and training activities for teachers across the region and beyond.
Her teaching notes, lesson plans and guidance were published as an educational book called Creative Textiles in 2000, which is still used in classrooms today.
She was introduced to billiards as a child and played in Newcastle’s working men’s clubs, where she was noticed by Alf Nolan, the former British amateur billiards and snooker champion, who offered to coach her.
At a time when many snooker clubs enforced a ban on women competing, Vera was determined to break the mould as she perfected her game – often for hours in the evenings after teaching all day.
Between 1970 and 1978, she won eight World Women’s Billiards Championships. The first Women’s World Open Championship in snooker was held in 1976 and Vera won the title, before repeating the feat in 1981. In the same year she was named Newcastle’s Sports Personality of the Year. Throughout it all, she was immaculately dressed in trousers and waistcoats she had made herself.
She went on to command respect as a professional snooker referee and was chairwoman of the North East Billiards and Snooker Association.
In 1982, the BBC invited Vera to
commentate on the World Snooker Championship that year at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
She received an MBE in 2015 for her services to snooker and billiards.
Anne Parker, Vera’s friend who has gone on to act as the executor of her will, said: “Through the mediums of art and sport, Vera has helped to both break down barriers and expand horizons.
“It is important to create a fitting legacy for a pioneer of women’s sport; champion of creativity and forerunner of recycling. A fine example of how we should be living today.”
“The exhibition has been curated by Dr Heather Robson, head of the school of design, and Professor Anne Peirson-smith, the university’s head of fashion after they were given access to the life’s work and collection Vera had amassed.
Dr Robson said: “It’s wonderful that we have been able to support the celebration of Vera’s life in this way. Her story is a fascinating and inspirational story to tell, and one that our students will continue to learn from and engage with for many years to come. She was n ordinary woman who achieved so many extraordinary things.”