TECHNIQUE OF A BILLIARD CHAMPION

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2806, 27 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

TECHNIQUE OF A BILLIARD CHAMPION

Willie Hoppe, champion American billiard player for years, demonstrates some of his shots for Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer pictures. In the upper left-hand corner Hoppe shows his hand position for a “draw shot” to bring the ball back. In the upper right hand corner is shown his right hand lateral position on the shaft of the cue. In the centre Hoppe tries one of his famous “draw shots.” In the lower left is shown Hoppe’s famous “50,000 dollar masse,” the hand position which has won him a great numbi r <>f tournaments. In the lower right is shown Hoppe’s stance at the billiard table, with his weight resting on the right foot.

"BILLIARDS is unexcelled as an indoor sport to offer recreation for the entire family in the average household,” is the opinion of this American billiard player. “As a game to develop patience, skill and nervous control, billiards has no equal. I can remember when as a very small boy of seven years I used to climb about the table in my father’s barber shop. Our entire family was interested in the game. After the first successful shot I made, my father took me in hand and gave me a thorough training in the fundamentals of the game so that I would be able to play with my brother Frank, who was two years my senior. Even my mother and sisters gathered around the table when we played in the evenings and gave us encouragement by occasionally taking a cue in the game. “I know that this very early training at billiards was of great assistance in developing muscular and nervours balance before I reached my full growth and my reflexes were definitely ‘act.* We would practice hour after hour nt the table during our spare time when we probably might have been in mischief somewhere about the small town in which we lived. The daily billiard practice was the event that brought our family to-

getlier more regularly than meal times. In the evenings after the day’s work was done, all interest was centred about the ivory balls rolling over the green cloth.”