WHO IS THE CHAMPION?

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 949, 14 May 1908, Page 13

WHO IS THE CHAMPION?

Who is champion of English billiards ? (asks the editor of the “ World of Billiards.”) The recent phenomenal form displayed by Reece in a succession of games prompts me to enter the field of discussion on this score. To my mind, the Oldham professional has placed himself right in the running for the title. There is a world of significance in the fact that he has issued a challenge—for a stake of £250 a-side and upon level terms —to play Dawson, an invitation which the last-named has studiously ignored. This is tantamount to admitting fear of the rising star, an impression, doubtless, founded upon the ready manner with which Reece has beaten, not to say toyed with, the scratch man of the Soho Square tournament in London and in Liverpool. On present form Dawson has no pretensions to concede one single point to the rising star. No decline on his part has brought about such an upheaval in the hitherto existing and set status of the professional group, which Dawson and Stevenson have, conjointly, led for the past five or six years. It is simply the inexorable march of Time, which inevitably brings the younger blood to the fore. Dawson had his turn when John Roberts vacated the field with the coming of the new century. Then Ste-

venson overhauled the leader to set up a new era and provide many stirring struggles for supremacy. Now, the swing of the pendulum has brought Reece to the fore, and with him must come another young and good player in Melbourne Inman, who has served Stevenson with the same ready defeats that Reece has extended to Dawson. We are on the eve of great developments as regards the professional championship, which distinction this time twelve months hence may, with the needful opportunity accorded him, be the proud privilege of the clever young cueist who has just won the big Soho Square tournament.