NEW BILLIARDS RULE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 4

NEW BILLIARDS RULE

MAKING BIG BREAKS HARDER. INNOVATION NOT POPULAR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, Nov. 12. The new condition introduced into billiards, which compelled the player to cross the baulk line once in the making of every hundred points, has not won favour, and I think it can be taken for granted that the idea is dead. But in. its place another restriction is to be tried. A limit of seventy-five has been put on consecutive cannons, and, when this number has been reached, a losing hazard must be , played. It is under this condition that the Gold Cup competition is to be decided. Walter Lindrum, Joe Davis, Tom Newman, and Clark McConachy have accepted it, and it is hoped that Willie Smith will also fall into line with his rivals. He has not yet, however, announced his intentiori to enter. Lindrum condemns the “line” rule on ground that it destroys the science of the game. It removes scores of strokes from the game, he says, and in their place it offers crude strokes, demanding nothing like the same skill. Tom Newman takes the same view. Davis and McConachy, on the other hand, were prepared to try it, but they will agree to play under any conditions. Lindrum and Newman have just played a match under the “line” rule, and it was disappointing. This was even the public view. The play of both men was affected to an extent that was not anticipated. The highest break by the Australian star was only 645, and the best from Newman’s cue was 541. Cannon play was conspicuous by its absence. This was specially so in the case of Lindrum. During the week he had only one run down to the middle pocket. Newman was handicapped in the same way, and, though it was believed the public had grown tired of the four-figure break, they showed little interest in the new game as soon as it had ceased to be a novelty. This, of course, vzas the deciding factor. The professionals, at any rate, must maintain the game in the form which makes it the best box-office attraction.