Wales’ 20th Purple Plaque was unveiled in the village of Saron, near Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, to mark the remarkable career of a women’s snooker champion Agnes Davies.
Born in 1920, Agnes started out as a teenager on her father’s snooker table – which he’d bought with his miner’s pension – in their shop, a corrugated iron building next to their home. She went on to play snooker for decades of her life, beating men as well as women as both an amateur and a professional snooker player. She took part in her last game aged 82.
Agnes was Welsh Ladies Amateur Champion for three years from 1937 to 1939 before turning professional in 1940. After the war she won the British Ladies Professional Snooker Championship in 1949 at a glittering affair in Leicester Square. The trophy was presented by actress Valerie Hobson, who went on to marry notorious British politician John Profumo.
After a gap in her career due to family commitments, in her 50s she returned to become a familiar name once again in the 1970s winning the Women’s Billiards Association snooker title in 1978. Aged 60, in 1980, she reached the final of the Women’s World Open Championship, losing to an Australian player in the final. She won the Pontin’s Ladies Bowl at Prestatyn in 1982. In 1985 she was elected president of the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association, a title she retained until her death in 2011, aged 90.
Dadorchuddiwyd y 20fed Plac Porffor ym mhentref Saron, ger Rhydaman, Sir Gaerfyrddin, i ddathlu gyrfa nodedig y bencampwraig snwcer menywod Agnes Davies.
Ganed Agnes ym 1920, a dechreuodd ymarfer snwcer yn ei harddegau ar fwrdd snwcer ei thad – bwrdd a brynodd gyda'i bensiwn glöwr – yn eu siop, adeilad di-nod o haearn rhychog ger eu cartref. Aeth ymlaen i chwarae snwcer amaturaidd a phroffesiynol am ddegawdau, gan drechu dynion yn ogystal â menywod. Chwaraeodd ei gêm olaf yn 82 mlwydd oed.
Roedd Agnes yn Bencampwraig Amatur Menywod Cymru am dair blynedd o 1937 cyn troi’n broffesiynol ym 1940. Ar ôl y rhyfel enillodd Bencampwriaeth Snwcer Proffesiynol Menywod Prydain mewn digwyddiad ysblennydd yn Sgwâr Leicester, Llundain. Cyflwynwyd y tlws iddi gan yr actores Valerie Hobson, a briododd y gwleidydd Prydeinig drwg-enwog John Profumo wedyn. Roedd y menywod yn gwisgo ffrogiau hir i chwarae ynddyn nhw ar yr achlysur hwnnw.
Cymerodd hoe yn ei gyrfa am gyfnod wedyn oherwydd ymrwymiadau teuluol, ond dychwelodd i fod yn enw cyfarwydd eto yn y 1970au gan ennill teitl snwcer Cymdeithas Biliards y Merched ym 1978 a hithau yn ei 50au. Yn 60 oed, ddwy flynedd yn ddiweddarach, cyrhaeddodd rownd derfynol Pencampwriaeth Agored y Byd i Ferched, gan golli i wrthwynebydd o Awstralia yn y pen draw. Enillodd Tlws Menywod Pontin ym Mhrestatyn ym 1982. Ym 1985 etholwyd hi’n llywydd Cymdeithas Biliards a Snwcer Menywod y Byd, ac fe gadwodd y teitl hyd at ei marwolaeth yn 2011, yn 90 oed.