HARCOURT WINS N.Z. SNOOKER

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28347, 5 August 1957, Page 8

HARCOURT WINS N.Z. SNOOKER

Stout Beaten Four Frames To Two (New Zealand Press Association) m „ AUCKLAND, August 4. „W- Harcourt, a 28-year-old Wellingtonian, defeated L. Stout, also of Wellington, by four frames to two to win the, national snooker championship last night. Harcourt won 89-27, 68-50, 53-65, 69-31. 52-34, 83-26. Stout has won the title seven times in the last nine years and had been In the forefront of New Zealand billiards and snooker since 1929. The win climaxed a very strenuous fortnight of consistent play which also took Harcourt to the final of the national billiards championship the Saturday before. He also had to survive a tiring, three-hour semifinal against N. R. Lewis, of Auckland, yeserday afternoon, which finished an hour before the three and a half hour final began. Harcourt won the final because his potting was much more accurate and reliable. Stout many times showed his remarkable control of toe -cue-ball, but too often this control came late in toe game when he was facing a large deficit. In fact. Stout only twice showed his best potting form at the end of the third and fifth frames which he won. Apart from those two occasions, Harcourt always looked the more likely to score confidently. The afternoon semi-final was a close, dour battle. Lewis won the first and third frames and had a chance of gaining a lead in the vital fourth session when he fouled a hall with his cue-butt. Harcourt accepted this gift gratefully and took this frame and the fifth to win 33-54, 57-30, 34-52, 60-36, 53-18.