BILLIARDS REFORM

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1930, Page 8

BILLIARDS REFORM

< ‘SPOT THE WHITE” PROPOSAL. McCONARCHY INTERVIEWED. “Why is it that the.ee billiards reform proposals are brought forward in the off season when the, icolonial players. arri away from England?” remarked Clark McConarchy in, discussing the suggestion that the potting of the -White ball should be made illegal, which, of course, implies a penalty for so doing. . “1 think it is a little -unfair during the. off season to bring these matters up,” said McConachy. “To whose interest is it to have,the rules altered? T don’t believe in chopping arid changing about to one player’s advantage and another player’s.disadvantage. What is fair for one man must he fair to the others. After years of constant practice and keen concentration on. particular phases of big scoring billiards, such as top of the table, nursery cannons, or postman’s- knock, tv bring in a rew rule to make such play illegal is to rob the pi a,yet of the, fuits of months,' arid xpaybe years', of hard work. “So far as I am concerned it would not affect my game, but I think it is rather a serious step; to take where amateurs are concerned.”

RULES FOR AMATEURS. When it was suggested that none of these new and retsricted rules should apply to amateur billiards, McConaehy was quite in agreement, and was not adverse to ■ the proposal that the white, if potted, should icome .up and be spotted on the centre spot, just as,the red when potted should be respotted on the billiards • spot. - He thought this would tend to open up the game for amateurs and,, would bring about an improvement in their play, encouraging them to play for position. Under present conditions it was generally to the striker’s disadvantage to pot the white. r: McConaehy pointed out that this would nearly do away with double baulk after the opening shot, for the striker would bring a double baulk on himself by hold strength, forcing both balls into baulk after running in off one of them. There is, however, such a great gap between the amateurs and the profes-: sional standard, that it is time that the Billiards Association and Control. Club provided a separate set of rules for the amateur code, eliminating such rules as the limit on losing hazards, or ball to ball cannons.