BILLIARDS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 11, 14 March 1908, Page 42

BILLIARDS

BY

AN EXPERT

There is hope for the amateur billiardplacer. His lapses from the mediocre to the lowest possible depths of scoring effectiveness are not his sole monoply. There are other and greater cueists, who. occasionally find those elusive little balls masters of the situation. 1 have had a nice example this week of how the leading lights of the billiard profession may temporarily lose their form, ami search in vain to recover it. Anything more consoling to the great army of ordinary players [ can never remember to have seen. The knowledge, provided in the most practical way. that the professionals are not superhuman, is distinctly encouraging. Most will have long ago made up their minds to assume the balls are simply at the mercy of the whims and caprices of these billiard artists. But this is not the case by any means, as visitors to the Soho-square rendezvous iccently in a decidedly competitive heat of Messrs Burroughes and Watt’s tournament can testify. During the three first days those good cuemen. Dawson ami Lovejoy, were impotent to an alarming degree. They became irritated at constant failure, and a period of utter demoralisation overtook both of them. It is seldom the spectators of these big billiard matches are pci mitted the luxury of seeing such as Dawson and Lovejoy making frequent and undignified returns to their seats in the manner of two absolute tyros. There were expressions of surprise and frequent sniggers of amusement which only tended to aggravate the strained feelings of the players, who frequently looked ceilingwards for an inspiration. But a whole three days of the poorest play had to be undergone before the long-awaited turn of the scoring tide came, and with it a juggling of threefigured breaks as of old. Still, a lesson in and presumptive proof that the**professionals are not immune any more than the rest of humanity to the. wiles of those glistening ivory balls was learned. t John Roberts would seem to be the chosen demonstrator of all that is new in billiards. His pathway, however, does not appear to be so hard as that generally -attributed to pioneers. He is still

the favourite of the masses. There is a magic about the name of John Roberts in <oiiu‘< tion with billiard- and billiard* J laying almost as strong as that of the great Napoleon. Surely, no player can r hope to attain the same extraordinary measure of popularity. Although eonn thing of a spent force as regard* the ordinary oblong table Roberta can yet draw large attendance* by showing hi* dazzling stroke play upon the now table designs, which have been such outstand-

ing features of the present season. His expositions upon the arc-oval drew his admirers around him again in their thousands. Having placed that make of table before the public in as favourable a light as possible. Roberts' infinite variety has impelled him to make a test of the oktang, an octangular creation of straight and slanting cushions of Messrs Thurston's manufacture. At the Grand Hall. Leicester-square, the veteran has been performing before admiring crowds. He remains the grand stylist he always was. a player of irreproachable brilliancy and quickness of decision. The public go to see him, for they know that he remains alone as an executant. Nicely suited by the small table on which he is playing. Roberts has fairly witched his admirers with deeds of noble cuemanship. What a wonderful hazardstriker he must have been in his best days! Even now he rams a ball in at express speed and at first sight, which is the chief characteristic of his game. At tit) he moves around the table more briskly than players half his age. Despite its several rivals, the arcoval billiard table continues to make friends. There are those who affirm that it is as far in front of The other departures from the orthodox pattern as it was in making its appearance. The intricacies of the angles thrown by the regular line of curving cushions continues to tax the greatest master of cushion angles and rebounds, the Australian champion, F. H. Weiss, who claims the title of first exponent at the are-oval game. Both the ovalex and oktang tables, which are looked upon as having in some measure been prompted by the are-oval, do not possess the same undeviating uniformity. The one is a combination of curving and rectangular cushions, the other an admixture of straight and slantingly disposed cushion .lengths. Each arid all are eminently adapted to the drawing-room and to the play of ladies, who are fast taking to billiards, as theV; have, done to some outdoor games. It is seldom that some representatives of the fail' sex are not seen at the afternoon seances in Soho-square—a sign of the times indeed. The shapely lines of the are-oval table and its complex angle effects render, it a subject not only for most pleasing irregular billiards, but also for close study. I have to thank those readers who entered the stroke competition for a number of most interesting, and, in m'ore than one instance, of quite original shots. It was no simple matter to make a definite selection from among a full half-dozen of these. Yet on careful consideration, I cannot overlook the claims of Mr. C. K. T. Allan, of 88, South Croxted-road, West Dulwich, S.E., to have sent me a most remarkable position of the balls, and also of an exceptional treatment of this—a 10— shot with all three balls in the same pocket. Mr. Allan’s letter reads as follows: “I send a shot made in a game in which I was playing some time ago. The player in making a cannon caused the two object-balls to approach slowly one of the middle pockets together,.with the curious result I have tried to depict—viz., they lodged in the jaWs of the pocket, the reel slightlv above the object-white, but neither fell into the pocket. The player’s ball was left in about the position indicated, and he played a cannon off the red ball —all three balls being pocketed in the same pocket, and thereby making a 10 shot. (I have placed the balls in the position myself, and have done the shot, but 1 have never again seen the two objectballs fall into this curious position.)” My connection with billiards dates back more than a quarter of a century, yet in all the millions of strokes I have seen played-by the best and-worst of billiardists, this identical position has not come under my notice. I have heard of it before, however. W. .1. I’eall, the famous spot-stroke manipulator of the 'eighties am! 'nineties, mentioned it to me. He spoke of it as being the most extraordinary behaviour of the balls in his experience The laws of chances would, in all probability, measure out tbu

odds against their ever getting into a similar locked position again in billions and trillions. You have only to imagine at what a nicety these two object-balls ran towards the pocket, the pace of either equalised to a hundredth-part of their revolutions. The angle of approach thereto must have coincided. Any inharmonising of speed or angle must have served to prevent their stopping, as must have been the case, simultaneously, and lying “frozen,” or tight up against one another. The whole performance must have been ex-

ecuted with automatic precision. It is evident, from the (standpoint of the cue-ball, that the two chief factors in this marvellous effect must have travelled some distance on the cloth. There is no suspicion that it was caused by all three balls lying just outside the pocket and a brushing stroke, light as a gossamer's wing, bad left the two objects in "the closest company, hanging on the brink of the hole. This stroke would have presented difficulties enough, as may be proved by experiments. Nor was there the saving clause of one object-ball lying in position, and acting as magnetic receiver to its companion. No; the letter states clearly that the balls ran slowly towards the pocket and. of course, timed their arrival there to such a degree of exactness as to bring about the most unlikely placing that billiards, in all its ramifications, can produce.