BILLIARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 105, 2 May 1908, Page 7 (Supplement)

BILLIARDS.

BY AN EXPERT. LOSERS FROM THE RED. % There is an epidemic of billiards surging through India, where the two crack English cueists, Stevenson and Inniaii, are showing the vast possibilities of the game, remarks a writer in a London paper. The dainty manipulation of the one and the sound old-fashioned scoring methods of the other, have fairly bewitched the Hindoos, ever very partial to billiards and good billiard-players. In this connection it may be said that John Roberts, the famous veteran, was at one part of his career " Court Billiard Player " to one of the great Maharajahs. He performed before the Nabob 3 and Sahibs for several years. ' Roberts may, indeed, be said to have laid the foundation of scientific billiard playing in the gorgeous East. The game has made wonderful progress there in the past quarter of a century, and to-day the artists of the cue have India red-lettered whenever, as has become the fashion among them, they project a world's, tour. Without attempting to be invidious it may be here remarked that billiards is the cosmopolitan game But nowhere is it more thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed than in India. There is something so dainty about the whole thing—the shimmering balls on their bed of green, their dainty manoeuvring seen from the halflights beyond the full circle of radiation above the table—that is irresistibly fascinating to the Oriental mind. Moreover, to my mind, the Hindoo is naturally adapted to be an efficient cueman. He has the feline touch and sensitiveness which are part and parcel of the art. .Not so long ago, too, the English amatuer championship was won by a Parsee named Vahid. > -..- One of the most surprising outcomes of the billiards shown by Stevenson and lnman is that revealing the taste of the Hindoos for the more robust game played by the last-named. It would have been imagined that the subtleties of Stevenson might have appealed more directly to the natives of Rangoon, Calcutta, and Bombay, where he hae been performing.' Ho is never so much at his ease as when in the mazes of the top-of-the-table game, which system of scoring .demands the most delicate work, and a prolonged dispositon of the balls between the twotoppockets. But the classical nature of SteThe continuous lines : denote the movements of the cue-ball and the •intersected lines the course of the object-ball. The torpedo-shaped - figure extending from the face of the D to the Pyramid spot shows the zone in which the objectball should be left for losing-hazard play.

The ideal losing-hazard position—an optional loser into either middle pocket, venson's break-making has bewildered rather than bewitched. A less intricate system of scoring, that of the plain losing hazards from the red ball, as displayed by that master of one-ball control, Melbourne Inman, has proved most popular. Finding this form of the game to stir his onlookers to the greatest pitch of enthusiasm, Inman hasfset himself to play these losing hazards, and but* little else. He has scored t any number of two and three hundred breaks, wholly or mainly by this means. His greatest achievement so far is the scoring of 1000 points in the remarkably fast time of one hour and a quarter. In doing this, Inman's attack on the red ball was most persistent. He demonstrated the value of the old-fash-ioned game to the fullest extent. There is nothing on the billiard table more uniformly spectacular than the movement of the red ball into position for each succeeding stroke. It has a weird fascination to those watching the play. Monotony is ejuite unknown by reason of the simplicity of detail in the strokes, and the fact of one ball only, instead of all three, having to come into position as in the top-of-the-table play. For soundness, for effect, and all playing purposes, the losing hazards' from the - red • ball (known as the backbone of the game) are not to-be equalled. - .'-. * .•_ • •'.To those watching a good billiard placer engaged in red-ball work; ; '. : J-; .:•■ : - -:■' • : ' , "■■'., :'■„ ■„■',„--... z's^Mkk

nothing looks more simple. But such a view is superficial.'."' * The individual stroke in , itself is.not difficult—and the same may be remarked of most phases of stroke-play in a "break." It-is the needs.'of position which usually asks for the "player to make, his shot in a manner different to the mere scoring!, Tlie guidance of the object-ball to a selected spqt for the purposes of the next stroke have to. enter-largely into your consideration. In playing a cannon the whole bulk of the second object-ball is seldom to be entertained .in good billiard playing. It may be that you should barely skim its rim -with your ball or take.it quarter-ball". So it is in, the losing' hazard strokes, even if there is a greater latitude for error allowed than in cannons or winning hazards. There is, indeed, no more homely or thoroughly sound shot than these losing hazards. An in playing them" off the red ball they only ask that 3'ou should attend to the movement of the object-ball As this is simply and solely to bring it back time after time to the middle of the table —its natural inclination— the comparatively slight responsibility held by the player niay be imagined by those who have engaged in three-ball positional attempts. The losing hazards were the first series of scoring strokes that put forward their claims when Bil-liard-playing was in its infancy. They Buffered : a temporary overshadowing when the spot-stroke was rife. But they have come to their own again. It is the custom with some professional players, of whom Melbourne Inman is the chief example, to make the greatest possible use of the losing hazards off the red ball. They will hole the object-white, but only when its position on.the table i? a precarious one, to get in touch with these eminently useful scoring strokes. One may read in the reports of billiard matches breaks of certain dimensions with the last ninety to two hundred and something points scored with only the red ball to operate upon. This is tlie class of play now under discussion. There is a set method concerning it, a definite principle of steering the object-ball into scoring latitude for each succeeding stroke, and a certain ideal position to work up to, which, like other' ideals, is seldom consummated. The general idea of the play ie to leave the red ball in the centre of the table As a rule, the amateur is content to play up to one pocket only. The professional, however, look's to all four upper pockets, .the two tops and the two middles, impartially. He knows that he can never control the run of the red ball so nicely as to command one, or even two pockets. So, with, a wisdom born of long experience, he is' satisfied to open up a connection with all four receptacles outside the baulk area. But if he had had his way,and could get the elusive red ball there every time, he would undoubtedly choose a spot for it some 18in below the middle spot, leaving a losing hazard into either middle pocket. In his losing hazard play ho is unconsciously trying to work up to this position all the time. It is the easiest of all for the single scoring stroke. But to learn the whims and caprices of the balls, the parts of the table" to which they may stray despite your whole attention, commence a series of losing hazards from this ideal position; Try to regaia it at every successive shot you make, and observe, as youvjnay white a professional melds the guiding cue, that this ideal position seldom or never recurs. . But it is your.objective point, in the red ball losing hazards, nevertheless. The continuous lines ——— : denote the movements of the cue-ball, and the intersected lines the course of the object-ball.

A trio of serviceable losing hazard strokes illustrating the movement of the object-ball. - On the second diagram will be seen a trio of hazards from the red ball, played, as these generally are, from the D. There is the gem of the .collection, the long loser into the top pocket, a stroke that has no superior to teach cue delivery, and the natural angle for long-range runs of the cue-T>alL It can, of course, be played off either side of the objeciball, but in the present instance, to avoid confusion or a clashing of line interests, this long loser is merely shown at they left top pocket. If the intersected lines marking the course of the red ball are traced in this mentioned shot, it will be found that they lead towards a return journey at the centre of the all good shots. The remaining two strokes, figuring on the second diagram, are given with a view to reading a lesson. It is better always to play at a narrow angle to the pocket (when such is reasonably easy) than at a wide one. The two strokes played off the red ball lying near the pyramid spot into either top pocket may be' taken as cases in point. The narrow angle for the losing hazard is at the right top pocket. Playing this losing hazard, the red ball is cut away to the top and top-side cushions, to make a quick return to the middle of table, (which can approximateiy-be said to be within the scope of the conical figure extending from the D to the pyramid spot in the first diagram). The wider stroke, however, at the left teji pocket keeps the red ball out of ; play much longer, and causes it to travel over much more dead ground—frem a losing-hazard outlook. Not until the ' coloured ball comes up by the middle pocket does it get into simple play'agiih, and what also must be taken into account, it keeps to the side of the, table instead of the centre. The. red ball's place in the losing-hazard work is. out'in. the middle of the table, preferably-in the ideal position mentioned; yet if net there, allowing. the .two upper pockets [to yiwn at ' J