A NEW BILLIARDS ERA DAWNS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17781, 26 February 1926, Page 11

A NEW BILLIARDS ERA DAWNS.

VAST IMPORTANCE OF EMPIRE PROJECT. I SMITH'S CHALLENGE TO LINDRUM. LONDON’, January 1. A new era in English billiards has dawned at the official announcement that a British Empire amateur championship will be inaugurated in London , in April next. | The announcement carries one' s i memory back to June. 1923, when Mr Arthur Walker, president of the South African Billiards Association, made a special trip to this country to lay the foundations of the scheme adopted by . the parent Billiards Council. One re- j calls that Mr Walker’s scheme was ridiculed in some high places because : it was regarded as a Utopian dream. j Others asserted it was a good pro- j ject, but impracticable, but there were a few who welcomed the South African proposal as both practicable and an excellent way of drawing the Empire’s billiards enthusiasts closer together. Amojftg the few was the “ Sporting who, visualising the vast importance and far-reaching effects of the Empire project, rendered very material aid to Mr Walker in breaking down the narrow-minded objections he had to overcome when over here. SIMILAR CONDITIONS. Backed by the Life," Mr Walker’s enthusiasm and closely-rea-soned arguments won the day, and he went home with a Billiards Control draft scheme for an Empire billiards championship in his pocket. Substantially the conditions formulated by the present authority last week are the same so strenuously advocated by Mr Walker just over three years ago. and one imagines there is no happier billiards stalwart in the world to-day than the popular president of the \South African B.A. and C.C. The event d\ie to take place in London in April next transcends in interest anv competition in the annals of English billiards. Representative players from Australia, South Africa, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern" Ireland will provide a feast such as has never before been seen. Two years ago the project was wrecked —rather stupidly one thought bv the. council at that time adhering to the knock-out. form of competition, when most of us were anticipating a happy and appropriate association with the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. A competition of this kind was worth the American tournament system or nothing. It was absurd to impose a system whereby players were called upon to travel GOOO and 12,000 miles for one certain game of 1000 or 2000 up, and a problematical two or three. far better test. Besides, the system of each playing all the others in turn is, to my mind, a far better test of merit, though the chief claim of the overseas to the tournament principle was based'' on it being the only method whereby the relative standard of play of one country to another could be determined. Happily the present council have avoided "the “rock” which split negotiations with the South African authorities just over two years ago, and the “ league ” system of competition has been finally decided upon for the epoch-making event due to commence on April 12 next. The participation of Australia (who will be represented by G. B. Shader, their present champion, and easily their strongest amateur I and South Africa is already assured, and there can be little doubt of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland being represented by their respective champions. Such a competition should impart a tremendous impetus to English billiards all over the world, and our Billiards Council are to be heartily congratulated on at last taking a decided initiative in the greatest event which haS ever been associated with the game. SMITH’S CHALLENGE. Hard on the heels of the Empire championship came a movement designed to give us a tremendously interesting international contest in the professional world next season. Willie Smith has challenged the famous Australian, Walter Lindrum, to a series of six games, each of 16,000 up, for £SOO a-side, three with ivory and the remaining three with any make of composition ball that Lindrum cares to select. Smith's terms are reasonably couched, but one ventures to suggest his chance of getting the Australian to bite would have been improved had he left out the stipulation regarding the make of the table. His contract, of course, left him little option in the matter, but Messrs Burroughes and Watts are not a firm at all likely to insist on their “pound of flesh” in the matter of contracts where there are such important issues involved as would be provided by a meeting between Smith and Lindrum. Smith knows the B. and W. table inside out, and Lindrum is well aware of all that is mean by such intimate knowledge. In match»making—especially on such an occasion as this—these sorts of things count very materially, and perhaps it would have been as well had Smith left a matter of this kind over for future discussion. COURTING DISASTER. To make a hard and fast stipulation relative to the playing conditions—however excellent one knows these to be —is to court disaster to the negotiations,' when the other fellow has just as much at stake as the challenger. In common with the whole billiards world, one fervently hopes Smith and Lindrum will meet in the immediate future. It would create a tremendous stir among the billiards public of Australia and this country. But much time is likely to pass before such a match as is proposed bv Smith is ratified.

Lindrum is just as ’cute as any of our own professionals, and from /what I know of him he will need a good deal of persuasion to sign on Smith’s proposals in toto. Besides, one strongly suspects Lindrum will enter a protest against ivory balls.

He has had no experience at all of the elusive ivory, and is hardly likely to forget what happened to George Gray and Clark M’Conachy over here when they tried to solve the eccentricities of the natural playing medium. The ivory ball, to a composite ball

expert, is a fearful and wonderful thing. It needs years of practice and experience to make, at all completely and effectively, the change? from composition to- ivory, particularly if a player’s strong point be the losing hazard.

“ TIME TEST” EXPERIMENT. The “time test” experiment at the Burroughes Hall in Soho Square provided exceptionally interesting billiards by Newman and Smith last week. It was a splendid performance for Newman to get home, even by such a narrow margin as 36S points, in view of the fact that Smith recorded breaks of 953, 633, 542 and 517 during the week, while Newrnan had only one over the 500 mark—s 36. The combined aggregates averaged out to 807 per hour—splendid going, but hardly so fast as Smith and Davis travelled in a similar match down at the Burroughes Hall in Piccadilly last season. Davis is justifying his promotion to the scratch mark by his plaj- against the more experienced Stevenson at Thurston’s. The old champion stuck quite well to the new star in the earlier stages, but youth eventually told, and at the moment Davis appears to have the result in his pocket. Stevenson played superb billiards on. occasion, but the youngster, who seems to be improving every week, has had the initiative all through the piece.