BILLIARDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 839, 6 December 1929, Page 7

BILLIARDS

THE ONE GREAT THING IN BILLIARDS

By

RISO LEVI

f Copyright J True cueing is the one great thing in billiards. The player who cues really well may in time become a very fine exponent of the game, even though he may, today, know very little of its science. On the other hand, the man whose cueing is bad will never get much better than he is today, unless he can improve it. He may make a serious study of the game, and in addition to this, he may possess such power of cue that he is able to bring off really great strokes every now and then, but poor cueing will always be his undoing. True cueing necessitates a sliding of the cue backward and forward on the line of aim with something very nearly approaching the accuracy of a piston's movement in a tight-fitting sleeve. No player ever slides his cue with the obsolute mathematical accuracy of a piston’s movements, but all great players have a cue-slide which closely resembles that of a piston, and it is by reason of this, more than anything else, that they have become what they are.

Some players slide the cue backward and forward a great number of times before delivering it at the cue ball. Nothing is gained' by this “sawing,” as it is termed. Indeed, this long-re-peated sliding of the* cue is a waste of nervous energy, and thus is often detrimental to one’s game. Also, it looks ugly. Four or five times each way should be as often as the cue should be made to slide. As a matter of fact, most of our top-notchers— Smith, Newman and Davis, to name only three—and many of our best amateurs seldom move the cue more than once each way. They take a good aim at the object ball, and then when the cue is correctly aligned for the contact which they desire to make with it, they pull the cue back and deliver it straight away. And if you will reason it out to yourself, even though your own cueing is different from this, you will doubtless come to the conclusion that one slide of the cue each way should be all that is necessary for most strokes on a billiards table.

But whether you move your cue backward and forward just once or three or four times each way, or oftener, true cueing implies a sliding of the cue exactly on the line of aim. More than this, it means a piston-like movement, in that in addition to there being no deviation to the right or left of the line of aim there should not be even a trace of an up-and-down movement. In other words, in order for the cueing to be perfect, not only must the cue be made to move exactly on the line of aim, but it must also slide on an even keel. The next time you watch, say, Willie Smith, Joe Davis or Inman at the table, take particular notice of his cueing, and you will see a fine example of this sliding of the cue on an even keel.

NEXT ARTICLE: What Constitutes Good Cueing?