BILLIARDS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 932, 16 January 1908, Page 13

BILLIARDS.

THE FLUKER’S SONG. Oh, harness me down with your Rules and Regs., Be sure of your baulk and play! For I don’t care a d what the marker pegs, Nor what my opponents say. Armed with a twenty-ouncer cue, . Laden with tons of chalk, I’ll puff at a fag the whole game through, And talk and talk and talk ! Strokes that a Roberts never tried; Cannons a Reece might miss. Shots that take cushions on every side, Then slides in off from a kiss. What though the marker’s eyes are dim, Though my opponent’s sick ? My game is “ Hit it, and trust to Jim, And plenty of Stick, Stick, Stick!”

THE CRAZE OF AN HOUR. “ The game of billiards is passing through a samewhat curious phase at present. Almost every week we read of some fresh ‘ freak’ invention in the way of a table, and the ‘ no-bar,’ the ‘ arc-oval,’ and the ‘ octangular’ will, doubtless, be succeeded by others. Well, it is not very long ago that billiard tables were being pulled down to make room for ping-pong, and that terrible game had desolated many previously happy homes, and ruined nearly every comfortable saloon bar. We went to bed one night with the abomination in full blast, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to write that, in the morning, ping-pong had vanished from the face of the land. Just now d'iabolo is the craze of the moment but it is perfectly certain that, sooner or later, its end will be as sudden as was that of ping-pong. As Shakespeare has it, ‘ These violent delights have violent endings,’ and the ordinary game of billiards —'the Association rules of which are now as nearly perfect as possible—will be giving enjoyment to millions when some of the fearful and wonderful experiments in the way of tables which are being made at present have been long forgotten. The arc-oval is the best that I have yet seen (says a writer in the “ Illustrtated Sporting News”), and it is easy to imagine that plenty of fun could be extracted from one in a country house on a wet day after dinner. It possesses the advantage that it is possible to play upon it in a room twenty feet long by seventeen wide, though, of course, a foot or so more each way is desirable.”

AUSTRALIAN WEISS’ SUCCESS.

Quite the most sought-after professional this season is Fred Weiss, the Australian champion (says the “World of Billiards."- If not the most stylish cueist the world has known he is without a superior as a judge of cushion angles and a practical exponent of intricate cannons which depend upon one or more cushion contacts. He was chosen to exploit the arc-oval table in conjunction with John Roberts solely on account of his ability in this direction. What is more, he justified his selection, and at the present moment there is little room to doubt that he could be matched to play anyone level, and for big stake money, at any style of billiards except the normal. He had the measure of John Roberts on the arc-oval board. In his latest role as chief figure in demonstrations upon the new octangular table of Messrs. Thurston’s manufacture, Weiss has outplayed the great spot-stroke celebrity, W. J. Peall. When the Australian was not included in the select seven chosen to do duty in the star event of the London billiard season, the most sporting tournament promoted by Messrs. Burroughes and Watts, it was thought that his engagements would be few and far between. But it has happily proved otherwise. He has been given the opportunity to devote himself to the new problems of “ incidence and reflection” (that vague combination which used to puzzle the billiard amateur so badly in the earlier books of instruction I) to his own credit and the satisfaction of the enterprising spirits which have given billiards a well-deserved fillip. For we shall never be brought to believe other than that the booming of the arc-oval and its much heralded appearance, assisted by the re entry of John Roberts into public billiard life again, was not in the best interests of our great indoor game. Weiss has played no unimportant part, too, in providing a view of many fantastical strokes. He is very much in the billiard picture just now.

Should the red winner? Yes, if the white loser.

Billiard balls are first roughly turned by a lathe from the tusk, then left for six months to £ -/ear in a room about the temperature of an ordinary billiard room'. This length time is necessary, because the ivory shrinks more in one direction than another, and the seasoning must be complete before the balls are finished and polished.

Games of billiards have been interrupted in some strange ways at times, but it is doubtful if any are more peculiar than that which is reported from Johannesburg during a locust visitation. When the swarm passed through the town they settled on everything, they got into the houses, and nothing could keep them out. At this time a game of billiards was in progress in a well-known hotel, when the pests swarmed in, they flocked in in such numbers that they covered the floor a foot deep, they covered the table, and as for the occupants, they made tracks as soon as possible, they were literally covered also. Other rooms were not quite so severely treated, but all the same then experiences will not be soon forgotten. Lt was three days before the first room was in a condition to receive customers again, and during this time five or six men were kept busy from morning to night cleaning up.