"OVAL" BILLIARDS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 62, 6 December 1907, Page 4

"OVAL" BILLIARDS.

J : ITS HUMOROUS SIDE. f John Roberts, the famous billiard player emerged from his retirement recently t give a display on the new "Arc-Oval" bi] liard table at the National Sporting CM i He had as his opponent in a gamp o J 14,000 up F. Weiss, the champion player o ; Australia, who has of lato made a carefii r study ,of. "freak" billiards. 3 Except that, ho was a little stouter an , greyer, the veteran had not changed in ar - poaranco since ho was last seen in publi sixteen months ago. He was a great sho\i man, as of old, and he displayed an almos youthful keencss as he stepped into therin B and cheerily examined tho balls. tt Then he made a sweeping-inspection c ■ the table, which, it is prophesied, will n 3 volutioniso the game. ' It is almost an e I lipso in form, and is noticeably smaller tha " the ordinary table. Wondrous are the angles from which ' 5 stroke can be played, but even more wor r drbus wore tho pranks played by tho - ball B during the day. Both' players tried to kec r a straight face after these untoward hai pollings, and made mental notes in order t be able to repeat the shot later. AMUSED SPECTATORS. But tho "Arc-Oval" table is fickle, an 0 tho next time tho ball would glance off i n the least expected direction, to the chagri 0 of the' player and the keen amusement c h the spectators. _ ■ . The spectators were almost as amusing t 1 watch as the players. They never seome I to know whether a shot was a fine one, simple ono, or a fluke, arid their applaus was usually inopportune. Naturally, breaks were small, and thos ;. between 20 and 30 were rare. Roberts, wh [\ has evidently been in constant practici „ made 42 and 44 in successive visits to th J table, and later he reached 50, but thes y wore his highest efforts. Weiss made th J, highest break, 53, but Roberts out-pohite s him on tho afternoon's play. Roberts paid more than fifty visits to th table in scoring 583; When it is remen bored that Dawson averaged 107 during on n session last week at Thurston's tho difficu d tios of "oval" billiards will be apparent, c The promoters of the-now game assci ;- that "as bridge is to whist, so is thoscienc :- of the angles of the ellipse to tho scienc s of the ..angles, of the oblong." It, ma h work wonders—if it is not killed by humou i- in the meantime. The closing scores were: Weiss (in play] o 1166; Roberts, 106 S.