BILLIARDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1927, Page 11

BILLIARDS.

IHE NEW CANNON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, May 5. Reece’s new eannon has already ceased to be a billiard novelty. With practice he has mastered the way to get the desired position for the balls more readily, and he can now maintain it with much greater certainty than when he introduced it to confuse his old enemy, Melbourne Inman. Last week I told how a match had been arranged with Peall in order to give Reece an opportunity fully to exploit the stroke, and he at once accepted it. On the first day, he cleverly worked the balls to the top of the table, and rolled them up against the jaws of the right-hand pocket. Then he settled down to tick off cannon after eannon, with the utmost confidence and ease. As he p . rcssed, it seemed as though he would never beark down, and Peal! would walk into the room without taking off bis coat, and lean his cue against the wall, as ough he knew that he would not get a shot. This went on until Reece had made 3,9(54, which eclipsed all other legitimate breaks, the nearest approach to it being 3,304 made by Peall by means of the spot stroke, which, of course, was afterwards barred. No sooner did Recce fail, and his opponent pay a visit to the table, than he set about getting the position again, and at the present time he has kept ■ for more than two

Reece’s performances have excited a good deal of attention, and big galleries have watched him at work. But the misfortune, from his point of view, is that having once seen the shot, and admired the delicacy with which it is made, you do not desire to see it again. In these circumstances Reece will not be able to exploit the eannon much longer as a means of entertainment, and the stroke will defeat itself without being officially barred. But some action is now certain to be taken. In his match for the championship with Newman, Joe Davis, as last year, made a most disappointing start. At the end of the second day he was as many as 1572 behind. When the game was restarted, he realised that his position was desperate, and he thought of the new connon to get him out of his difficulties. But he had never' tried it; he had not even seen Reece play it. But as luck would have it, w’ ■ he went to the table the balls were most favourably placed to secure the position, and a few det cannons tucked them up against the cushions in the desired way. “Having got the ball there,” Davis tel me afterwards, “I never thought I should be able to keep them properly placed. The chief trouble was when I had to make the cannon by playing off the cushion first. Worst of all, I had twice to make these strokes with the left hand.” The result was that Davis made a break of 2,501, and the whole character of the match was changed. As has been stated, Newman had established a lead of 1,572, and, when he jiext went to the table, he was nearly ’a thousand behind. It was a nasty situation for the champion. In the first place there was the possibility that Davis would again turn on the eannon against him, and in the second the younger player had had his confidence completely restored. But the champion played up in great style, and caught his man. The result of the match, however, is still in doubt. Davis has made another fine break of over seven hundred by ordinary means, and, with only five thousand more points to be scored, he is slightly ahead.