Defending champion Joe Davis won the Championship for the tenth consecutive time, defeating Horace Lindrum in the final 34–27.

Horace Lindrum became the first Australian to compete at the World Championship and made the only century break of the tournament, a 101 in his semi-final match against Stanley Newman.

The World Snooker Championship was created in 1927 by Joe Davis and the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC).

[6][8][9] The Championship started on 23 March, following the 1935/1936 Daily Mail Gold Cup English billiards tournament two days earlier which has fully occupied Thurston's Hall since the beginning of the year.

Willie Smith made a break of 92 in frame 18, the highest of the Championship at that stage.

[14] Con Stanbury met Alec Mann in the final first round match at Burroughes Hall.

[16] After a break for Easter, Lindrum met O'Donnell at Burroughes Hall.

[17] O'Donnell did not appear for the evening session and Lindrum played an exhibition match against Bert Terry.

Davis won the first frame on the third day to win the match 16–5, the final score being 22–9.

Brown won the first frame to great applause but Davis led 7–3 at the end of the day.

The match ended quickly on the third day, Davis taking the first two frames to win 16–6.

[23] Lindrum led 6–4 and 11–9,[24][25][26] before Davis won four out of the next five frames with top breaks of 75 and 78 to lead 13–12.

[27][28][29] However, Lindrum levelled the match at 15–15,[30][31] before winning six out of ten frames to lead 21–19,[32][33][29] and led at the conclusion of the penultimate day 26–24.