A Great Tussle

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 887, 3 February 1930, Page 7

A Great Tussle

Xo more interesting match than that between McConachy and Smith has been played in Great Britain this season (says a critic in the “Australasian” referring to the first match | between the pair). McConachy* won j by* the small margin of 441, and to the last stroke it may* be said to have been anyone's game. Early in the first week Smith got a lead of 2.300 points, but when the half-way 7 stage Avas reached there was a difference of only 7 723 in his favour. On January 14 McConachy secured the lead for the first time with the score at 15,317 —14,882; he was playing splendidly 7, and passed Smith with a break of 1,188. Remarkable billiards was seen on January 34, Avhen the play r ers passed and repassed. Both Avere play’ing with the utmost determination, and Smith Avith a good deal of grimness. Xo matter how hard he tried he could not shake the New Zealander off. The defeats that he had suffered at Walter Lindrum’s hands he took perhaps as a matter of course, for before he left Australia he never made any 7 secret of the fact that he regarded Lindrum as the greatest of all players, past or present. It Avas very different, however, when it came to measuring himself against McConachy. It was true that McConachy* had beaten him once in Australia, but Smith was taking it so A*ery easily all through the game that many 7 supposed he was making the young Xew Zealander a present of victory. It Avould do Smith no harm, and at the same time it would enable McConachy to go before the British public with a greatly enhanced reputation. McConachy*, however, told his friends on more than one occasion that he was Smith’s master, and that before he returned he would proA*e it. He can hardly* be said to have done that yet, for this is the only* ‘serious” game the tAvo haA*e played. and if Me- | Conachy Avon it AA*as by 7 a very* small number of points when the total is 1 taken into consideration. Cm the • other hand, it must be remembered that as Smith got an early lead cf over j 2,000 McConachy* AA*as faced with a | very* difficult task indeed. In the ciri cumstances, therefore, he has done | wonderfully 7 well.