BOY PRODIGIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 48, 25 January 1934, Page 2

BOY PRODIGIES.

SENSATIONAL BILLIARD MATCH. The Daily Mail says that the British junior billiards championship ended amid excitement worthy of a football match. Swinhoe, age'd 12),, and Cruickshank, 13, both prodigies and the youngest ever to compete in a final, played three sessions of 250 each. When the last started, Cruickshank was 100 ahead, which he soon increased to 186, including a break of 44." The game was apaprently over, but Swinhoe did not think so, and brought off repeated breaks, including a 46 and o 3 reaching 733 against Cruickshank’s 723. He probably would have run out, but was embarrassed by the cheers resounding in the packed hall, and faltered. _ Cruickshank, descending from the lap of the woman-marker, where he had been sitting, immediately began a great fight and made a 16 break, his play equalling Swinhoe’s best, but he broke down, leaving the balls in an apparently impossible position. Swinhoe, playing a kiss-cannon, scored and finally wanted only four points, which he secured in potting the white and cannoning in a fashion not one 20-break player in 10 could have achieved. The Times billiards correspondent says both finalists were nearly up to amateur championship standard, and showed remarkable knowledge of £® me ) apart from stroke-making