BILLIARDS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 16, 20 October 1909, Page 9

BILLIARDS.

TUNING MY ARM UP. A Professor’s Opinion of the Game. (By H. W. STEVENSON.) i. I have had my summer holidays, and now as I write from a Western suburb of London (England) my thoughts are turned to my profession. The English billiard season is opening, and I have to get in form again. Since 1 finished up last season in a match with Digglo at the beginning of June, 1 have not touched my cue, and I have put myself as much out of touch with the game as possible. There is a hard season’s work in front of me. I shall need to start it in good, robust condition; for billiards week in and week out, such as I am called upon to play, giving long starts to allcomers, is more trying tjpin may be generally imagined. You are apt to get very stale at billiardplaying, and once that feeling overtakes you, it requires a great deal of shaking off. To play at your best you must

feel in good sltape. The languid or tired billiard.st is the most hopeless thing os earth. You must be fresh and full of So it is my 'ask to try and fit myself so that I may go through the seven and eight months’ seasons smoothly. Past experiences have shown to me that careful living and plenty of fresh air to be obtained from walking and riding are the things which suit me. The professional billiard player must not attempt more vigorous pastimes, such as cricket, golf, tennis, ete., or any other ball game beyond that played on the billiard table, lie would put his arm out of gear and spoil his toueh. The billiardist has to look carefully to his cue arm to keep it in condition. He must not indulge in carrying weights or take any strenuous exercise with it. My brother professionals and I at e kept to the lightest exercise, so that our precious cue arms are not blunted. We have to.be as careful as the most delicate of instrumentalists or artists. By constant playing, our arms are trained to a really remarkable degree of sensitiveness, and this must be maintained at all costs. Naturally the summer’s rest puts ns out of sympathy with the cue. But the hand (which always seems to be too big after a term of idleness) and arm soon return to the old easy feel and swing with a little practice. The eye does not fail yon nearly so much as the hand and arm, although yon find yourself looking at the angle of a pocket or a cannon in doubtful, uncertain fashion until you have fairly settled down again to your work. I hold my cue near the splicing, just about where the balance of every good cue ought to be set, between the thumb and fore-

finger. They do not touch one another, but merely support the cue lightly, with the remaining three fingers away from tBie cue and all apart. I have found this to be the most delicate hold (if you can so describe it), allowing the cue perfectly free play, while enabling the player to control it to his liking. I strongly recommend this method of supporting or holding the cue in the hand to all classes of players. It may be found rather awkward at first to those who have accustomed themselves to making a loop of the whole of the hand and winding the four fingers and thumb around the butt; but they can soon break themselves of the habit, and acquire what I consider to be the proper way of holding the cue.

There is no firmer believer In the long losing hazard than I. Like other great players before me, I make this my first stroke in practising to gei back into trim. Already my old friend, the long losing hazard, and I have re-

Burned our acquaintance. Putting the red ball upon the middle spot and my own in the baulk half-circle, or “D,” I shape up the angle for a loser into a top corner poeket, playing alternately to right and left. A “ball-returner” is a ▼ery useful acessory to the table, when you indulge in a bout of these long losers. But, in any case, the walk around to the top pocket stroke after Btroke does you good, and assists in getting your legs in trim again for the movements around the table, which your ball calls upon you to perform. In playing the hazards, 1 place my ball about two-thirds of the distance between the centre spot of the “D” and the corner spots, to the left, or to the Tight, according to which pocket I play for. I am now referring to ivory balls. For composition balls, the player would have to set his ball at a point fully three quarters of the distance between the centre spot of the “D” and the corner spot, so marked is the difference in the angle rebound of ivory, and the erystallate, or bonzoline. I play the losing hazard at all kinds of paces, fast and slow, at plain ball and with “side,” and I take just as much notice of the direction of the red ball as of making the hazard itself. The art of compiling •big breaks rests in the way that the balls are “left” shot after shot. I want the red ball to come over a middle poeket, after taking to the three up-

per cushions for a winning or losing hazard in the self-same manner that many of my readers may have seen that losing hazard prodigy, the Australian boy billiardist, George Gray, play the stroke. The skilful player, on a good and free running table, can steer the red ball with considerable precision about the upper half of the table, and even bring it down just outside the baulk-line, in using these long losing hazards. I And them most excellent practice and a very nice check upon the quality of your stroke. The run of the red ball shows you this in very clear fashion. It tells your good points, and throws up your faults so -unmistakably that the more I think about it the greater does my faith in the long losing hazard as the best of practice stroke, and not the least valuable in the course of a “break,” become. It is not every day the great game tof billiards receives such an excellent testimonial as was accorded to it during the course of the opening meeting of the British Association at Winnipeg ffCanada) on August 25th last. This is a body composed of the leading British professors of science, which holds annual conferences in different parts of the Empire. The president, Sir J. J. Thomson, made the following remarks Concerning the intimate connection of mathematics with the game of biliiarde:—. “I once had an illustration of the powers of the concrete in stimulating the mind, which made a very lasting impression on me. One of my first pupils came to me with the assurance from his previous teacher that he knew tittle and cared less about mathematics,

and had no chance of obtaining a degree in that subject. For some time I thought this estimate was correct, but he happened to be enthusiastic about billiards, and when we were reading that part of mechanics which deals with the collision of electric bodies, I pointed out that many of the effects he was constantly observing were illustrations of the subject we were studying. From that time he was a changed man. He had never before regarded mathematics as anything but a means of annoying innocent undergraduates; now, when he saw what important results it could obtain, he became enthusiastic about it, developed very considerable mathematical ability, and, although he had already wasted two out of three years at college, took a good place in the Mathematical Tripos.” Such is the tribute paid to the great indoor game and, as I consider it to be, the most fascinating of recreations, by one of the most famous professors of the day.