BILLIARDS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 208, 26 September 1874, Page 2

BILLIARDS.

M. Adbian Izar, the celebrated French champion hand-stroke player, gave orje of his unique entertainments in the billiard saloon of the Angel Hotel, on Wednesday. He, as a hand-stroke player, stands alone. He has several imitators, but his principal strokes and singular styte of play are his own inventions, and the results of the practice of a lifetime, so that as yet no one has been able to rival him in the peculiar line which he has marked out for himself. The first event was a cannon game 150 points, between M. Izar and Mr. Joseph Mills, the latter receiving 50 points. M. Izar played some remarkable cannons, which were generally got off the cushions by the great amount of side put upon the ball by fingers and thumb ; but for about two-thirds of the game the play was slow and the breaks small, until the scores stood—Mills 98, Izar, 80. The French champion then made ten successive cannous, and passed his opponent, who could never again head him. M. Izar soon afterwards made another break of 20 (10 cannons) and one of 22 (11 cannons,) and with a few smaller breaks won the game by 38 points, the score being Izar 150, Mills 112. Mr. Mills’ best break was 10 (five cannous). The second event was a game of billiards, 500 points up, Mr. Mills receiving 200 points. The principal feature of the game was what M. Izar terms his spot stroke. The stroke is not to pocket the red, but to play the losing hazard off it, and this the French champion does as often and as certainly as our English champion plays the ordinary spot stroke. M. Izar opened with the usual miss, and after a few ui important strokes, Mr. Mills was first to show play ini a neat break of 18. M. Izar replied with 47, including 15 of his spot strokes, and followed in his next break with 30, composed of ten of the same strokes, bringing the score to—Mills 223, Izar, 106. The Sheffielder soon afterwards played a break of 14, to which the Frenchman at once responded with 5”, 19 “ spots.” A few strokes later, M. Izar made a fine break of 117, occuping 1) minute, and including 36 “ spots,” at the same time passing his opponent and leaving the score at — Izar 333, Mill 251. The latter endeavored to pull up, and soon added a good 27 and a 23, but the hand player, in 1| minute, ran up to 137, including 34 and 9 successive “ spots,” making the score —Izar 488, Mills 311. The play flagged somewhat until the score had been run up to—lzar 496, Mills 329. The French champion then made the break of the evening, 78 successive “ spots,” counting 234, in 2| minutes.

The most wonderful part of the entertainment, however, consisted of the display of fancy hand-strokes. Many of the strokes require to be seen to be understood, and want of space prevents any lengthened description, so we shall briefly indicate the chief performances. The snake cannon between two decanters and six glasses ; the express-train cannon on the woodwork of the cushion; the steeplechase cannon along the cushion; the figure 4 cannon with four balls and with three balls ; the cannon from the top cushion into the balk by two strokes of the cue ; the cue cannon from the corner into a hat, and into second, third, fourth, and fifth hats, the hats being placed one above each other ; the cannon with two cues ; the miss-cue cannons ; the cannons off the table on to the floor; and. the cannons with 10, 12, and 15 pyramid balls. M. Izar also spun two balls on separate plates, one ball spinning 5} minutes, & the other 7| minutes.—London Paper.