BILLIARDS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 20, 13 May 1908, Page 41

BILLIARDS

BY

AN EXPERT

(REVIVAL OF THE SPOT STROKE.

After a lapse of many years the spotstroke, that most potent scoring force of the “seventies” and “eighties,” was granted a fleeting revival recently in London when Messrs. Burroughes and AVatts brought the veteran W. J. Peall into the billiard picture again. He has the distinction of holding the all-in record in a great break of 3,304, almost entirely built up by spot-stroke. To add to the interest taken in this match there was the fact of the opposition being provided by Dawson, who had figured in the same role eighteeen years ago, when Peall accomplished the abovementioned record. There were crowded houses at the Soho-square establishment to watch the spot-stroke novelty—for the oldest things in billiards are the

newest, as the cycle of events dictates. The persistent holing of the red ball from its alloted stand point—the billiard spot—is a clever performance, and one best appreciated by a further and personal acquaintance. It is the manoeuvring of the cue-ball into a favourable position commanding the red ball which presents the chief difficulties, uncertain as the hazards may be. But there are some little points about the procedure which only the old hand recognises and allows for. A virgin clotlh is not too well suited to spot-stroke play. This Peall evidenced by his faulty hazard striking in the first half of the 4,000 “up,” he contested with Dawson, who was heavily handicapped with having to play all-round or spot-barred, as against the all-in or spot-stroke allowed methods. But with tihe cloth set out by oblique chalk lines on either side of the spot, acting as splendid guides to the angle of the strokes and the run of the red ball limned automatically across the nap—“tramway lined,” as the old school of players used to observe —spotstroke practice is shorn of its ordinary terrors.

Personally, I am glad to note this fresh exploitation of the stroke which first gave world-wide notoriety to English billiards. It remains what it ever was —the pivot around which the scoring and break-making revolve. Wherever the red ball goes there is the hub of the play. And none who have not the outlines of spot-stroke play at their fingers ends can hope for the smallest measure of success at the modern top-of-the-table game, which is merely an up-to-date adaptation of the spot-stroke and an ingenious evasion of the rule governing its employment. Therefore, no aspiring billiardist can afford to neglect the sequence of strokes called for in the insertion of the red ball in the top pockets. There is quite a considerable latitude for error permittted to the cueball. The varying angles induce different contacts from the dead full ball, played with a screw-back effect—the spot-stroke player’s ideal —to the thinnest of thin cuts, which sends the cueball around the table in an attempt to bring it back into position —“Mitchell’s stroke.” Every class of stroke, the slow “drag,” t heheavy “stun,” the follow through direct or off the corner angles, “side,” and “screw,” enters into the spot-stroke repertory. Only a master of the cue can play the recurring strokes at all well. For a combination of accurate hazard-striking, touch-deve-loping, and general control of the cusball at close range there Is nothing to equal the spot-stroke. An unwise legislation killed it, and so put it completely out of fashion with the amateur, who has since, by lack of good example, failed to discern its merits. This timely resurrection of the spot-stroke should work for good; and Messrs. Burroughes and Watts deserve the thanks of the entire billiard community for the splendid ob-ject-lesson they encouraged, ami which

was given lately by the old-time expert and master-hand in this particular branch of billiards, W. J. Peall. A reference to the diagrams will possibly reveal the spot-stroke movements to those who have not seen them in full working order upon the table. Fig. 1 shows an optional slow run through or “stun” speedy drive, the eue-ball crossing over in either instance to the other side of the billiard spot to that which it was fixed from awaiting the re-setting up of the red. Fig. 2 illustrates the shot played gently with running “side” steering the cue-ball on to the top cushion to take up another point of attack from the opposite side of the spot. Fig. 3 depicts the “stun” stroke, or hybrid “screw”—the most difficult of all the spot strokes as regards command over the eue-ball. A heavy-handed grasping of the cue and a forcible stroke slightly below the cue-ball’s horizontal centre and a thick three-quarter ball contact (approximate) on the red are the chief requirements. The cue-ball goes to the top cushion through the object ball sluggishly, and is sent off sufficiently far to put it in position for the next spot hazard, while the red ball makes a swift descent into the depths of the pocket netting. Fig. 4 differs from the three foregoing by reason of the cue-ball being retained on the same side of the table as that which it was played from, a proceeding only repeated in one other class of

stroke—the direct “screwback,” or recoil. We have now a half-ball shot, which has to be played at very nice “strength,” no more and no less than is sufficient to drop the red ball into its objective, as the player’s chief care must be to keep the run of the cue-ball down to the lowest dimensions compatible with holing the red. Fig. 5 is the prettiest among all the spot stroke combinations. It gives an idea of the run through shots with lead-

ing “side,” which cause the player's ball to cross the table ami come out into the zone of spot-stroke practice from the corner angles. These shots are used when the white ball is not quite dead in line behind the red and the pocket to permit of the “screw-back” retention of position. No. G is the pinnacle point to which the spot-stroke manipulator can attain. This is a shot popularised by William Mil chell, another famous hazard striker. It is the one last ray of hope left to the player when his ball has come to a point slightly below the accepted spot-stroke confines. Cutting the red ball thinly in. the white ball is sent through baulk before it returns to the vicinity of the red to effect a brilliant redemption of position.

American and Continental professors of the cue pay occasional visits to London, each and all being distinguished by a secrecy that is curiously unbusinesslike. With one or two exceptions, their displays have proved arrant failures. History repeated itself again recently when Luis Vasquez, the ehampion of (Spain, appeared in our midst quite unheralded (says a London writer). His really marvellous demonstrations were witnessed by a bare handful of people. But for the friendly intervention of that well-known player-tutor, J. I’. Mannock, Vasquez would assuredly have displayed his talents to empty benches. Mannock, however, placed his well-appointed rooms at the City of New York Hotel. Handcourt, Holburn, at the disposal of the Spaniard. The bewildering masses, the wealth of close follow-throughs and recoils, all quite impossible on an English table, that he showed were almost beyond belief. It is to*be hoped that Vasquez and his playing partner, John son, who has claims to specialise in the three-cushion cannon form of American billiards, will not be allowed to leave England without giving a course of entertainments at one of our leading billiard halls.