Billiards

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 773, 20 September 1929, Page 7

Billiards

BILLIARDS COMPARED WITH OTHER GAMES

By

RISO LEVI

Author of “ Billiards: The Strokes of the Gameand *' Billiards For The Million.” [COPTRiGHTj A million men and youths in Great Britain play billiards more or less regularly. and yet the really great professionals whom we have produced in the last 20 years can be counted on the fingers of one's hands. In other sports and pastimes—cricket. golf, football, etc.—the number of players who are in the first flight is quite large, and in addition to this there is no great disparity between professionals and amateurs. What is the cause of the tremendous disparity between, say. half a dozen billiards players and the pick of the rest? The best answer that can be given to this question is the simple statement that there is no finality about billiards. In other games finality has be. i about reached. Take golf. The record for some difficult, course is. let us say, 70, or 69, or 6S. Some day t grea golfer may do a round on it in 67 or 66 or even in 65, but it is tremendous odds against anybody ev. • doing a 60 on it, and a 50 or even a 55 on this course is an absolute ia»- ! possibility. Or take cricket. Great ! as our batsmen are today, they have \ not raised the standard of batsman j ship since the days of W. G. Grace. BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS At billiards there is no finalitv When Inman, some twenty years ag >. I made a break of 300 off the red. this j record of his was looked upon as a ! most extraordinary performance, '.inf | a few years later George Gray ast i- ; ished the billiards world with me. a ihan a score of four-figure breaks -T i the coloured ball in a single season - his record was 2.196 unfinished. Unquestionably, billiards is the most scientific, and for this rea son the most difficult, of all games which are not purely mental, and it is because of this that there is so wide and unbridgeable gulf between professional play and the play of our best amateurs. By what means have our professionals become such great players? The answer is by incessant practice coupled with a great natural aptitude Cor the game. Countless boys posse this aptitude, but unless it is encouraged and fostered by years of ince. ant practice—the kind of practice that is so sustained that it becomes hard work and even 'drudgery—no hoy will ever develop into a really great player: j that is, judged by the standard of present-day professional pla In order that one may be great player, the years of ant practice must be in on hood days. The natural ap* - ■ which a b. t may possess fr - - bards becomes more or le existent if he does not t», the game seriously until I | hood days are long since pa. Next Article: — "A Cannon to Leave an 1