BILLIARDS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17345, 18 July 1924, Page 4

BILLIARDS

By

Victims of tho delusion that side must, be used for all sorts of strokes are the ones that play billiards for years without improving their form. Side, like alcohol, should be used in moderation. Get down to your stroke by bringing ♦he chin as near to the cue as you can when sighting the ball aimed at. Do not cut from an upright position. Clubs and rooms putting on winter tournaments should exercise a little ear© in the selection, measuring and weighing of the playing material. In one of our most important events last year some of the competitors complained that the balls used were of different size and weight. Such a defect would make good billiards impossible. To overcome the trouble I would recommend the leading clubs to install a pair of sensitive scales made for weighing balls, and test each ball with the other. A standard hall should weigh about o* ounces, and as there are 480 grains to an ounce, a ball weighs considerably more than 2500 grains. Each ball should be measured with a pair of calipers and checked against its mates. WALTER LINDRUM AND C. FALKINER. So far Falkiner and W Lindrum have not come to terms. The latter wants to start play in Melbourne. Falkiner prefers Sydney. Then Lindrum favours benzoline balls as t*he playing material, and Falkiner is under agreement (so I understand) to play with vitalite, so that is the position. I think they will bridge the gap and come to terms. It would be ill-judged if young Lindrum were not to do so -—and financially unwise Tor Falkiner to allow trifles such as balls to be a bar, after coming so far. It is difficult to give an opinion on Falkiner*s chance with the youthful Australian, as he has not quite reached his top form, or become acclimatised. Certainly, judging on the two games he has played, ib should be no match, as Lindruip would defeat him. But Falkiner had only just come off the boat before playing these two exhibitions. He is naturally a poor sailor, and the up-an-down motion of Father Neptune’s home still remained with , him, so that many shots which might i otherwise have gained their objective. 1 were missed by a fraction. His want of i success did not interfere with the ; heartiness of his reception. CAN LINDRUM FIGHT IN PIT? But billiards is a funny game, and Lindrum has yet to be tried out in the pit. We do not know if he can get the points when they are wanted. As a showman, Lindrum wins. There is a confident air and swing about his movements at the table that fills the | eye better than anyone since the days i of the Master Player, and despite the I natty Claude’s speed records, I feel j sure that the left-hander is much the ! faster player. When wheeling close | cannons along in front of the cue, he ' scores almost faster than one can | count. His style is more graceful than { Falkiner’s. But points, not style, win j games, and until the pair get together. ' and hare a fair drinkum go, that will not be decided. SNOOKER. In the snooker match Englishman Claude Falkiner was beaten by Frame Smith, jun., on Saturday evening. .Both contestants showed a high degree of skill in not only potting a ball, but in safety play and in securing position. Results from day to day : Monday, Smith won six games to FalKiner’s two; Tuesday, Smith six, Falkiner lour ; with one dead-heat; Wednesday. Smith five, Falkiner 5; Thursday, Smith seven, Falkiner three; Friday, Smith four, Falkiner six; Saturday, Smith five, Falkiner five. The highest

t-otui in any game was 100 by Smith, on Saturday afternoon, closely followed by Falkiner with 96. The total points scored were: Smith 3522, Falkiner 3033. Falk’ner left on Sunday night for Melbourne, where arrangements will be made to meet Walter Lindrum.

TRUE CUEING.

BY RISO LEVI. Author of 11 Billiards for the Million,” and ‘ ‘ Billiards : The Strokes of the Game,” etc., etc. (Published by special arrangement. Copyright.) The one great thing in billiards is true cueing. No man ever becomes a good player unless lie can cue with a very fair amount of accuracy. When you sc© a player get an ordinary long top-pocket in-off, and then, a minute or two later, badly miss a similar stroke, and then, perhaps, alternately get and miss these long in-offs, you can be quite certain that it is faulty cueing which is the cause of his failures. If a player plays, say, twenty or thirty of these top-pocket strokes in the course of three or four games of 100 up, and gets, say, half or nearly half of them, and misses the remainder of them badly, the failures cannot have resuled from a want of knowledge as to where the one ball should be spotted in the D for these strokes. With the object ball in the neighbourhood of the central line of the* table and above the centre spot slightly incorrect spotting of the cue ball in the D will only cau.se the in-off to be missed by a small margin, provided that the object ball has been taken halfball. When, therefore, a long in-off from the D is badly missed by a player who gets the stroke often enough, failure has resulted from bad cueing. In all probability, aim frhs been taken correctly enough for a half-ball contact, but as the cue has been drawn backwards and forwards, it has not travelled on the line of ain., and consequently at the moment oi its contact with the cue- ball its tiignment lias been faulty—that is to say, it has not been pointing in the direction which the player knows is necessary for the successful stroke. When this is the case, it is quite easy to understand that instead of the object ball being taken half-ball, it may easily be taken only about quarter-ball, or quite tnree-quarter-ball, acording to which side of the correct line of aim the cue happens to be pointing at the moment it strikes the ball. One not infrequently sees a player who possesses quite a good knowledge of the game, but whose cueing is more or less faulty, beat "U by someone who is decidedly

“HACKA”

his inferior as far as knowledge of the game is concerned, but who by reason of good cueing very seldom misses what are known as hall-ball shots. Absolutely true cueing—bv this i*. meant a piston-like movement of the cue—is impossible of attainment, but the great professionals and many firstclass amateurs get within measureable distance of it, and it is in a very great degree owing to their excellent cueing that these players have progressed as far as they have. True cueing is by no means easy or attainment, but if a player seriously wishes to improve hie game, he must be readv to devote some considerable time to" its practice. Perhaps the best way of ascertaining what one’s cueing is like is to hit a ball up and down the table at varying strengths. For this purpose the ball should be placed on the centre of the D line and made to travel over the centre, pyramids. and billiards spots. If the ball is hit exactly at the centre no side will he imparted to it, and after its rebound from the top cushion it- will travel over these spots again. If, instead of playing the stroke in the. ordinary way, the hall is pushed straight up the table with the butt end of the cue. it will always return on the line of its outward journey, because the width of the butt of the cue prevents the ball from being hit away from its centre. When, however, the ball is struck with the point of tlm me it is impossible to hit it at its exact centre, and if it is hit only fractionally- away from the centre some little side -side is only another term for spin—is imparted to it, and if it is hit appreciably away from the centre. tho amount of spin which is imparted to lit 'is shown very clearly in the reI bound from the top cushion. I Flayers who cue very well can, time I after time, cause the cue ball to cross | the D line on its return journey only a few inches to the right or left of its starting point, hut no player, not j excepting even our best professionals, can. with any certainty, cause the I ball to rebound from the top cushion I exactly on the line of its outward 1 journey, so impossible is it, except j bv accident, to hit a ball mathematicj ally at its centre. If the ordinary pL.yer will try this i stroke he will quickly discover that | if he Hits the ball with a fair amount of strength he will have to b© satisfied at first if lie manages to make it cross the D line at all, and if ho plays the stroke with all the force at Ins command he will find that not only will the bull often cross the baulk line well to the right or the left of the D. but that not infrequently it wiil even strike the side cushion inside baulk. The reason that a ball which lias been driven straight up the tabie at high speed so often rebounds down the. table at such an angle to the lino of its outward journey is two-fold. Putting a lot of strength into a stroke tends to incorrect; or bad cueing A ini may have been taken exactly at the centre of the ball, but the pulling of the cue back sharply and sending it forward as sharply is very apt to cause it to deviate from the line of aim, and thus to prevent it from working with that piston-like movement which is so essential to true cueing. And when a ball is hit tO the right or the left of its centre, the more force that is put into the stroke the more pronounced is the spin which is imparted to the ball There can he no better practice for any player whose cueing is faulty than this hitting of a ball up and down the table for a few minutes daily. The stroke should be played at varying speeds, and the player who wishes to improve his game—and if he improves Lis cueing he will certainly do this should not be satisfied until he can. time after time, oa use tho ball to cross the D line not more than five or six inches to the right or left of its starting point. George Gray, even at the time when he was regularly making four-figure breaks, used to hit a hall up and down the table j every morning for jive or ten minutes as practice for good cueing when he was playing later on in the day. And if Gray could do this, amateurs who are quite capable players need no; Another stroke which professionals and first-class amateurs ofter practice as an aid to good cueing is the long in-off illustrated on the diagram.

i>7 ' ;ham i. Here, the object ball is on the centre spot and the cue ball is placed in •the J> for a hulf-ball stroke. With average ivory balls the correct placing for the cue ball is on a spot about 3i inches from the end-of the D line, and with composition balls on a spot about 2i inches from its end. When the stroke is played with plenty of top, a true half-ball stroke will always cause the cue ball to find the top pocket. Indeed, the stroke will generally' be successful even thougn the object ball may not have been taken exactly half-ball, provided that the contact has differed only slightly from a true half-ball one. I nless, however, the cueing is gooi the object ball will be taken considerably too full or too thin, with the inevitable result that the stroke vrin fail. Professional playfers and firstclass amateurs often practise this long in-off as an aid to good cueing and they are not satisfied until they get the stroke at least half-a-dozen times successively'into one pocket and then as many times into the other one. Indeed, Newman has stated that he is not satisfied with his cueing until he gets the in-off a dozen times successively into each pocket, and in addition to this, the strength ot each stroke must likewise be correct. Many amateurs have a decided preference for the right pocket and others favour the left one. The player who

has a decided preference for ono pocket should assiduously practise tne in-off into the other one until this preference vanishes. (To be continued next Friday.)