BILLIARDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 779, 27 September 1929, Page 12

BILLIARDS

A CANNON TO LEAVE av IN-OFF AN By RISO LEVI Author of " Uilliards : The the Game." and “Billiard, * The Million:’ [COPYRJUHTJ The ordinary player is const,, faced with simple scoring which, except for the score itself? 5 does not know what to do with t strange thing to me is that, alihJ 1 ' time and again he must have a good player deal quite easily w those positions, he has profited J' ing by having done so. olc ' If you are only a moderate D i av but are very desirous of im p your game, make a mental note 5 better still, a sketch with pencil’. 0 ? paper, of how a capable plav er A with certain positions the next r you witness some clever cueman 010 the table. ° at

diagram i 7. ! A --,-Mtlu hall-to-ball cannon t. i_, v - „ Imm the while. Obi.-, t. wl,He or u,r " For example, if a player is in hand the cannon is the obvious stroke with the balls situated as on diagram 17. And as you can spot your ball jus where you like in the D, the cannon can be made as easy as you like, bui it is just these very simple strokes that so often lead to nothing with the ordinary player. Countless thousands of men play. billiards day after day for years without getting any better They get to the pitch that they caa make an occasional 20 break and, pei haps at long intervals when the run of the balls favours them greatly, even a 30 break, but there they stick, not withstanding that they would giYe a good deal to be able to play a deceit, game. Many of these players are able to bring off really good shots every now and then: nevertheless their general all-round game never shows any improvement. Why? The only answer I can give is because, when faced with some position from which a score is a certainty, they do not know how to deal with it as regards setting up position for the next stroke, and so play it anyway. The position shown on diagram 17 is one of those which the average player generally makes a mess of. He, ot course, gets the cannon, but, far more often than not, the resultant position is bad, frequently very bad. Next time you are faced with this kind of position, play to camion quite slowly on to the white, and take care to get very full on to this balL The object white will then rebound jus: a few inches from the cushion—as indicated by the intersected line on the diagram—and you will be left an easy little stroke—generally a little sere* shot—for the centre-pocket. If, ho*ever, you use just a little too much pace for the cannon, the object white will rebound too far from the cushion to leave this in-off. Also, if the cue ball does not cannon full or nearly full on to the white, the resultant posi tion will not be at all as intended, anil may be very bad. Try this stroke a few times, and even though you may be a very moderate piayer you will soon find that there is nothing very difficult about it

DIAGRAM IS. A cannon off one ol itie anfle. »' • Diagram 18 illustrates one of f? 1 * very nasty positions that occasional* crop up at billiards. No direct strok* off the red is at all reasonably on, au in the ordinary way, perhaps, the he‘ thing to do would be to give a safe ' miss—not just an aimless miss, huone which will command the red, a° thus compel the opponent to plaf J a ball. If. however, a player has ma 1 - a break and is desirous ot takis* chance to increase it, a cannon i* ' off the angle of the pocket, as ul°trated on the diagram. A stroke this nature is, however, always *e. uncertain, bece.use no two points the angle of a centre pocket ball the same throw-off. A differ® of l-16th of an inch in the point contact makes a marked difference the direction with which the ball . bounds from the angle. Still!• cannon, though an uncertain strokequite on. It should be played 9 “ gently in order that, if it come= L " tbe balls are not scattered. Next Article.—A Camion to Be** 1 an In-off and a Problem Stroke.