Joe Davis won his 11th championship title by defeating Horace Lindrum by 32 frames to 29 in the final, despite trailing 13–17 and 19–21 during the match.

[1] The sport was developed in the late 19th century by British Army soldiers stationed in India.

If necessary, they would select players from the entrants to play in the qualifying event, the winner to advance to the competition proper.

[10] With nine entries, Bill Withers and Fred Davis were chosen to play a qualifying match, the winner to join the main event.

[11] The Championship proper was played at Thurston's Hall over a four-week period from 22 February and 20 March.

[14] The first match of the competition proper took place from 22 to 24 February and was between Horace Lindrum and Sydney Lee.

Lee won the first frame, but Lindrum took an 8–2 lead after the first day by winning both the afternoon and evening sessions 4–1.

[20] Sidney Smith faced Alec Brown in the first match of the second week, staged from 1 to 3 March.

The correspondent for The Times felt that Smith's safety play had been excellent, whilst Brown's potting was not up to his usual standard.

The five official afternoon frames having been completed quickly, the players played an exhibition frame during which Davis made a new record break of 135, beating the 133 scored by Sidney Smith during the 1936 Daily Mail Gold Cup earlier in the season.

Davis's break was a total clearance during which he took the 15 reds, 8 blacks, 4 pinks, a blue, 2 browns and all the colours.

[29] In the second semi-final, played from 11 to 13 March, Joe Davis trailed 2–3 after the first session, but led 6–4 against Sidney Smith after the first day.

[33] On the second day, Lindrum won the eleventh frame after clearing the colours and then potting the re-spotted black, and finished the afternoon session 11–9 up.

[41] After the final afternoon session Davis still led 29–26, with Lindrum needing to win five of the six evening frames.

"[43] Billiards and Snooker magazine's commentary on the tournament stated that the standard of play was higher than in any of the preceding championships.

[9]: 54 [47] Joe Davis was playing Tom Newman in a 71-frame handicap match on the same days which meant that the Withers and Fred Davis match was played earlier in the day than usual with two sessions at 11:30 am and 5:15 pm.