BILLIARDS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17699, 20 November 1925, Page 3

BILLIARDS

AS A SOOTHER.

(By

"HACKA.”

One of the most valuable assets to the billiards player is the ability to get bis eyes down as near as he conveniently can to the plan© of the table. When you see some player with his chin nearly touching the cue, take stock of him, as, you may rely upon it, he is working on the right lines. It is the rifle-shot’s manner of taking aim, the eye sweeping along the line of the cue and sighting the target in the easiest and most direct fashion. Always stand easy' and firm, facing round to the angle of your stroke, with the cue-head close up and right behind your ball. BILLIARDS AS A SOOTHER. In the watching of our top-notchers at work, both amateur and professional, it has been clearly.demonstrated that the public is being educated up to a higher standard of appreciation of the best of billiards. In all its phases, billiards is not without its charms, a nd, played properly, it never fails to give delight to onlookers. If, in these strenuous times, a busy professional man cannot unbend just a little oyer his sport, it would seem that he is missing what, to many, is the soul of relaxation. There is. plenty of room at the billiards shrine for the best of lighthearted devotees who have no big breaks to offer, but can plead that the

game, as they play it, sends business cares into oblivion for a few hours at I least. THE BEST OF BILLIARDS. A little higher, from the point of view of manipulative skill, is the cueman who,. to .a certain extent, studies the game. He may have read one or two hooks on billiards, and more often than not, has taken a few lessons from a professional. Such a player usually has a useful knowledge of plain ball striking, and, in addition, generally specialises in one type of stroke of more than ordinary difficulty. lie may make screw strokes rather well, or. bring off the elusive “jenny” with commendable regularity, and he is just the class of player who finds the best of billiards when he is favoured with a fair number of feasible leaves, and manages to control the balls to the extent of making a 20 or 30 break almost as a matter of course. At intervals, a run of -10 or 50 rewards his skil, and perseverance, but it is seldom, indeed, that he gets very far beyond the half-century mark. It is a very open question whether such a player does not then reach the absolute pinnacle of billiards pleasure. lie knows enough about the jgame to take an intelligent interest in everything he does, and to appreciate to the full the feeling of supreme satisfaction, which is the reward of a billiards 'player who makes a respectable break, and honestly feels that he has earned every point of it.