BILLIARDS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1144, 14 March 1912, Page 19

BILLIARDS.

E. Diggle, the English cueist, who is to visit Australia in June next, can claim to being inventor of a stroke. About ten years ago when playing Dawson at Argyll Hall, his opponent’s ball covered the billiard spot, and as is usual, the red was placed on the spot. From this position D'iggle made 5 6 consecutive winning hazards into the four pockets—the middles and the two tops—a very difficult feat. This led to the alteration of the rule by the Billiard Association, who had overlooked the matter.

Diggle takes his aim with the point of his cue on the cloth, and then by a curious upward action of his thumb raises it to the required height. He is unlike any other player in his style, and quite unorthodox in his methods. He appears to be thoroughly unhappy when playing, and if in form makes his opponent really so. In his methods he upsets all ideas we possess as to the swinging fore-arm as a compulsory aid to scoring, but he makes great breaks.

The billiard-lust is one of the ills the Maori soul is heir to, writes a correspondent of a Gisborne paper. It is liable to grip Henare as violently as the cigarette craze does Meri. I know a Macri shearer who does his cheque in on billiards with as much zeal as the Pakeha does on diluted soda-water. It is his invariable custom, on pay day, to wave the draft aloft, and, crying “Kaipai te pirriad!’ to go on a violent cue jag, that only ends when insolvency dawns.

The Twenty-fifth Austral Wheel Race was decided at the Melbourne Exhibition Track on 25t,h February, and resulted in a win for E. Priestley (off 60yds.) by a few inches from J. F. Hazel, with E. Birch third. Time, 4min 20 4-ssec.