Fred Clark, a neighbour of the Ball family in the mid 1930’s recalled the following :- “My time with Bill was spent listening to him practicing his scales on the piano and playing any Chopin music he could get his hands on. We would get a few pence each and either catch a tramcar to town or walk. In the arcade in Broadmead was a music shop where I would pick up song books and try to look like a potential customer while Bill would read a manuscript and memorise six or eight pages. Then off we went home and he would play it. Later in the week we would repeat the operation until he had memorised the lot. He played the piano more than the banjo in this period”.

Holland, 1945 The war years had intervened, Bill was enlisted in the Army and was involved in the ‘D-Day’ landings. Amidst the chaos and confusion of war in Holland, billeted in a rat infested factory, he found time to work on a piano composition he held in his mind, writing his ideas on scraps of paper. His ‘Waltz in Db’ which pays homage to Chopin, was eventually dedicated to his wife Maryke who he first met whilst playing his composition on a piano hidden in the cellar of a house in Helmond.

After the war William, now married, continued to play banjo but Maryke encouraged him turn his attentions to his first musical love - the piano. In the mid 1950’s, following three years of devoted part time tuition he passed the Royal Academy of Music Licentiate examination.

The John Alvey Turner Cup. Bill won this in both 1936 and 1937. Clifford Essex wrote the following in December 1935 :- “ On returning to the stand I found someone playing Morley solos to a group of half a dozen of his friends on one of our “Regal” models, and could he play ? I listened for some time, admiring his thumb work, which was quite in the Vess Ossman style and then I said, “You are a very fine advertisment for the ‘Regal’, young fellow,” when one of his friends told me that it was W. J. Ball , of Bristol, who of course I knew quite well but had not recognised with his hat on. After friendly greetings with his father and himself, I asked him why on earth he had not entered for the open banjo competition, which he did not appear to know anything

The Le-Mar Banjo Quartet. Bill made a number of friends during his years in the Bristol and Bath Banjo Bands. Bill Jenkins, seen here second from the left lived in Keynsham and was a frequent visitor to the home.

about. He had already twice come second in the Emile Grimshaw cup in past years but the Joe Morley cup is more in his line..”

In the late 1950’s William met Gordon Dando, a keen banjoist and guitarist who studied with R. Tarrant Bailey in Bath. They played together for a number of functions, dances etc. in the Bath and Bristol area Gordon helped William with the purchase of a reel to reel

tape recorder and this was used to good effect to produce a number of tapes for the BMG Tape Club. The acquisition of a second machine allowed Bill to accompany himself on the piano. In later years he composed many of the piano accompaniments used in his concerts and recordings.