POTTING THE RED.

Shannon News, 23 September 1924, Page 3

POTTING THE RED.

' BRIGHTENING UP BILLIARDS. . ' ' LONDON, August ?0. The professional billiard player, T. Newman, submitted to the billiard authorities •-proposals for proving the championship tournament as a spectacle. He states that the public is tir-ed of seeing experts build up big breaks, which are '/mostly ball-control, with precious little individual stroke play." , He suggests that the red ball/ when pocketed 'Off the billiard spot, should be resp pitted on the pyramid spot, unless a cannon or losing hazard is madj'e by the same, stroke., The red should be re-spotted on the centre spot when the pyramid spot is occupied, and should be re-spotted on the billiard spot or the centre spot when pocketed off the pyramid spot/ The result would be that the red would never be pocketed twice in succession ■off the same spot. Newman also suggests the abolition of the baulk haTT-circle, proposing that all strokes, when the cue ball is in hand, should be played by placing the cue ball on one of the three spots on the baulk line.

"I honestly believe that these conditions would make the championship anybody's game* among five or six professionals, instead of the virtual certainty Qf Smith, or myself," he' says. "I took the trouble to make several three-figure breaks under' these conditions, and found the positional play could be retained to an extent which make the compilation of good breaks perfectly feasible; ibut stroke-play counted fifty times more than it does His proposed conditions eliminate ,the intense specialisation on position, which characterises professional, billiards. Newman opposes any alteration of the existing rules governing amateur play.