BILLIARDS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 933, 23 January 1908, Page 13

BILLIARDS.

SOMETHING LIKE A GAME. A MEMORABLE STRUGGLE BETWEEN DIGGLE AND REECE. Here is the tale of one of the keenest games ever fought which took place last month in London. —I cohs l- der this to have been the most thrilling among the many sternly-contest-ed battles upon the billiard table that it has been my privilege to watch (says the editor of the “ World of Billiards.”) Reese lost his start when little more than half the game was disposed of.. He seemed /the better able to realise his responsibilities when his score peg lagged in the rear. He began to throw breaks about with the same facility as his opponent. And the leadership occasionally changed hands on the Friday. Yet it was Diggle who was, always first, if by a comparatively small number of points, at the Handicap stages; The prospect favoured his victory, although Reece was dogging his tracks. Everything seemed to point to a most interesting final day’s play when a matter of only 105 points separated the two players. How effectually this impression was realised only those who saw the closing stages of this red-lettered game can realise. There were times, however, when the issue appeared almost at rest. This was notably so on the Saturday afternoon, . when Diggle quickly' ran over four hundred points in front —a big advantage with only some eight or nine hundred points further to go. That Reece was far from beaten, however this improved and improving young professional readily furnished very practical proof. Setting his teeth, and rising to the occasion, he pegged the leader back in no uncertain fashion. There was.no stopping the current of his scoring, and it flowed full tide for the best part of an hour. A glimpse of the notorious cradle cannons; a series of brilliant all-round breaks; a display of fine fighting grit and an unheaval of the positions on the marking-board ensued. The cheering was something to be remembered and. such as is seldom heard at public billiard matches when Reece caught his man, and then steadily and surely went nearly two hundred points in front. Here the tide turned again. Diggle put himself ahead once more with two consecutive three-figured breaks. The net result of over two hours most earnest striving found the position slightly altered;, as Diggle now only led by 83 points.' ' ■ Interesting and full of incident as the play had been in the semi-final instalment, it simply paled before the intensity of the actual finishing stage. Here we had a struggle that is sometimes read about, but seldom or never seen. A good beginning was at once made to this final score. Diggle, although himself making useful progress, lost the lea'd ’With’ the arrival ■- O-f - his opponent’s .second innings. Reece met with loud-voiced appreciation from all parts of the room when he put the score-pegs upsides again at “ 7458 all!” He pushed slightly ahead from here. Staunchly Diggle made a counter-

move which gave him pride of place by upwards of one hundred points. He wept two hundred in front at his next turn. Matters began to look onr’nous for Reece, but he did not sec - ; he situation in the same light as the more apprehensive spectators. How little he was daunted by the rapid change of places was shown by his excellent and steadily-played 82 and a double-baulk. He followed this us by a really great 226. In the course of this he -momentarily rested during the furore of applause which greeted the announcement of “ 7679 to 7678!” as he once more passed to the fore. A solid one hundred and nine points, all in favour of Reece and his cause, now marked the character of this extraordinary game. Hereabouts Diggle seemed to falter. There is no greater strain to be imposed upon a player than to be called upon to win his game three or four times over, as Diggle had practically been asked to do. He had, to all outward show, shaken off his rival not once, but four or five times since the Thursday night and put himself in a winning position. Each time, however, Reece had come up again urged on by an unshakable resolve. An eleventh hour repetition of these dogged enduring tactics appeared to momentarily demoralise Diggle. .He made two downright bad strokes in successive innings when trying to shut his man out with double-baulk “ leaves.” The first was a miss-cue, in trying tp steer his ball inside the line to .join the red which had been giyen -security; the second a double-baulk that entirely failed, as both balls remained in play. They were taken by the critics —and rightly—as symptoms of Diggle losing his self control.

The outlook became more favourable to Reece, who scored off either mentioned mistake by good shots and went to within thirty points of the winning total in .very short order. All looked over now, with Diggle still needing 240 points combined with the evidence that his faith in himself was weakening. There is, however, no guiding line to billiard effectiveness. Fluctuations of surprising rapidity from the lowest limits to the topmost heights of farm are bound to occur. Just when all were waiting to see Diggle’s expiring effort previous to acclaiming Reece as the winner the Manchester veteran came to the table, and for the space of the next quarter of an hour he was perhaps, the. least excited person in the room. He seemed as though he knew now exactly what he 'had to do, and that, in justice to himself, he was bound to do it. No better break and no pluckier one, played as • it was from end to end in a seemingly unconcerned spirit—how well some of these billiard cracks •,conceal their inner feelings !—than the 240 which earned Diggle a really sensational victory can be imagined. The strain on the spectators was great, and they were glad to voice their approval of the splendid battle with the call of «“ 7970 all!” - and, finally to go into transports of enthusiasm following the" winning stroke. With this spell . of hot weather games of billiards have not been too popular locally, everyone preferring . to be out of doors. A good season is being looked forward to. * * * * Very few amateurs take the trouble to cultivate ambi dexterity in the use of the cue. There is hardly a single professional who is not .equally at home with the stick in either the right or left hand. * * * Here are the slang names to the coloured balls, when calling a snooker game. Yellow;, “canary”; green, “shamrock”; brown, “Cadbury’s”; blue> “Reckitt’s”; pink, “pen and ink”;-black, “Brunswick.” • * * * * ... ’•<; 1 Melbourne Inman waxes sarcastic at the expense of the new table inventions, and' thinks it a pity such a

fuss should have been created ’ey the cradle cannon. He suggests that the trouble might have been avoided by the Billiard Association promptly restricting the number of consecutive anchor cannons to ten. “ Any player making more to be disqualified or detained for inquiries into his sanity.”

There are innumerable types to he met with, in billiard rooms. The slow, methodical player, whose every stroke is marked with caution the dashing, reckless man, who is frequently nothing beyond a “ stroke” player, who electrifies one monent. and is equally disappointing the next; the man who knows the game but whose execution is of the poorest; the man who does not know the gprne but scores all the same, perhaps faster than the one who knows the theory too well; the careless player, who does not realise that it is as necessary to take the same amount of care over an easy shot as a difficult one; the fluker, Whose temperament is frequently reflected by his play, inasmuch as he is a nit of a fatalist; and the man who over-estimates his game and frequently has to pay for his inexperience. They are all to he met with in an evening spent in a billiard room, and they one and all can supply material for the student of human nature.