Billiards.

Southland Times, Issue 18822, 15 May 1920, Page 9

Billiards.

(By “Spot.”)

! Even the keenest amateur can have too much of the game at o stretch, but professionab are evidently different, at least in the Crs of the New Zealand professional champion McConethy. He tills me that, given a man who could play the game, he could play it with him all day a:ul then spend the rest- of the time until morning , talking over the game! How many n.mi ; are there so interested in their work as | this? Talking e? McConachy, all must I agree that his showing in the Grand Saloon jon Monday was an excellent one. In his , (142 break he made the biggest score ever I put up in Invercarjdll, r’Mle hi? play all : round the table was of u high fvm.iard. He ! is at present doing a tour ol .-1.9 Western j district where he is sute to su.tc many of ! the youth off in an effort at emuiai.’o.j. ! It all looks so easy the way MofX\acby , plays them! , Frank Smith’s record snooker break c\ 116 in Sydney has been the billiard; room | topic of the week (says ‘‘Snooker’ in th“, I Sydney Referee.) Naturally players would like to know how it wa? made, to the young I champion’s father, wiio posw-ases fit;;' de r -- j criptive power, verbally illustrated the break to me the other day. “it was Hite this,” said senior. "Frankie broke them up, and George Bell, having nothing easy 7 in sight, dropped down the table, giving Frankie a long shot on a red. He holed the rod in the top corner pocket, end, lullowimr it v:\ got por.ee behind the black. Down it went. Seven c ther reus and black? followed at the top end. Position not being good, although possible, a blue was holed, ;nd then two mote blacks. A pink and a blue, were the next two balls to be holed. With two reds on the board he took a 'hack and a pink, ■ ; nd thin wont down to the yellow, which, . like (he other coloured halls at the baulk, was still lying undislurb,- 1 on its original . - not. With the aid of th? eh or; : tvt the yellow was holed in the bottom pocket, and in coming back for position the striker’s cue lied r; -tod almost touching :1m brown. He endeavoured to double the green into the 'middle poeket, but it j-v.cd and ran oif, ■.vhlki the cue ball cot into splendid position behind the brown. Had the green gone in -—and it almost did— Frankie would ccr"tinly have rie; r"d the table. Be l's stroke on the green failed, but Frankie pur in bro-.. r, and Mr.-., and h;mad the pink. Bell played (wo safeties on dm 1 Ini;, which the record-holder hoVd, and than ag dn had '.tie bad luck to jaw the black. But it did not matter, as, Beil, fading to acorn, Frank pot the bird; and thu; v.-m Bus most remarkable of a runes vd dn s :v. a, a thv-y snookerist as the amateur cham am / goring a single point. 'The game had other remarkable features. For ins! .;;-;, only o:m red was notic'd in the middle pnrkc!. Kmeppt the yellow, none of the It ail-: warn iat > either of the bottom pockets. Ail the colored balls were spotted on thrir origin: l .! spot..?, at the baulk end, after {im red- hj:, disappeared, and during the whole ganm nil d-.e balls were potted direct, not. a mi-ham do;: used sueem-fully for a. double. it was. in fact, a top of (he table snook-r r •- cord.” I was sorry to have missed lid- re p ; eee of cueing, and one can only regret that the brown ball got in the road of the green/ or the youth might have gone out unfinished after having cl - :a d beard of II the balls in one break. The sensational rise of the voting Australian star, George Gray, in (he billiard dmiarnenf, end his just as sensational eclipse have been a source of wonder to ail m;c:r ted m ! te came in this pert of the world. I happened to be speaking to a man who recently visited Australia and who mixed a good deed with the cue fraternity over there. The subject of Gray came up, and he mentioned that it was commoniv .said on the other .side that Gray had lost one of the billiardist’s greatest assets —confidence. The reason for this is unknown, out lie implied that Gray, whenever he attempted to play, had a haunting fear that he would miss his shot, and no one can wonder at the consequences if this is so. ®<>S