BILLIARDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 851, 20 December 1929, Page 12

BILLIARDS

PROFESSIONALS AND COMPOSITION BALLS By RISO LEVI Author of ‘■Jlilliardi : The Strokes or the Game.'’ and “BUnards For The Million." iCOITR.Cii I J Although composition balls ha+e been iu very general use tor -Oy.'.rs or more and have been the standard balls tor the amateur ehamplonslitn in- the last tour competitions, this | s the first season in which English j-ro-fessionals have used ihem to theibsolute exclusion of the ivory tall. When one reflects on the vast mmher of big breaks and ,he tremendous compilations which have alrctdv been made this season, and which will, in all probability, be largely added to before the professional championship is settled, one cannot help wondering why professionals as a class had such a deep-rooted objection and offered such a determined opposition to the use cf tho artificial ball in their exhibition games end matches. Willie Smith, it is true, by reason of his having been a compo-sition-ball player until be became a professional, never had tiny illusions as to ivory balls being the best for billiards. In proof of this it isonly necessary to recall this statement of his in 1919: “They' would make the game too easy. When you play with composition balls you know exactly wdat your ball is going to do. You play a stroke a certain way and you rail rely on your ball doing just wjat you intended it to do. With ivory balls the case is very different. Evirv now' and then they play you little tricks, and you never quite get to know them." And yet so opposed to composition balls tor professional b Wards teas the Darlington player for many years afterward that there is this sentence bv him in a London weekly of March 29, 1924: — •‘I can say at once and without the slightest reservation that any attcrar ! to put composition balls on the table for a championship game will haTe my unrelenting opposition.” COMICAL Other wellknown professionals, however, had very false notions regarding the suitability or otherwise of the best makes of composition balls for billiards of the very highest class previous to their being used by our .opnotchers this season. For example, in “Billiards,” by Reece, there is this passage—how comical it reads today ic the light of Newman’s various fourfigure breaks of this unfinished season: — “Composition balls are only good, ur to a point; they have their inherent limitations, those defects which are ever present when man seeks to imitate a natural product, and they ;an not provide the champagne of billiards; the best they can offer is but a sound, honest wine fit for ordinary table use.” I was privileged to witness Mewman’s 1,231 break, which he made last September iu Liverpool against Smith after be had only been playing a few weeks with composition balls, and had Reece also been a spectator of this great compilation, I am quite certain that he would have agreed with me that it provided champagne of billiards of the very finest vintage. Newman, in his “Advanced Billiards,” also damns the composition ball with faint praise. He begins by telling us that the in-off game is easier with this ball by reason o' its wider throw-off angle. As regirds centre-pocket in-off s he make 3 uss of these words:

“ . . . there is a good deal in the fact that composition balls offer nore half-ball 10/ers from hand into middle •pockets than can be played with ivories.”

But after remarking (hat comjiosition balls are beautifully true, he states that these balls “lack the svperlative polish and finish of ivories, and this deficiency counts for a great desl when strokes are played of shimmering delicacy,” and that for this reason “it makes it much harder to stop the balls from clinging too close together or even touching.” He finishes his essay on balls in these words:

“It therefore follows that billiards with composition balls is easier than with ivories when making open breaks mainly composed by losing hazards played from hand, but more difficult when the close game is exploited, perhaps difficult almost tc the verge of impossibility when some of the finer aspects of close play are considered.” Today Newman will tell you that not only do composition balls make the open game easier than it is with ivories, but that they are much more reliable in the close game as exploited by him, because by reason of hem truth they do not fall over to one side or the other just as they come tc rest —a common fault with the best of Ivories —and thus the liability of two balls touching is greatly reduced. That Newman has already made a greater number of four-figure breaks this seasou with composition iaus than in any previous season witn ivories affords proof of the assistant which his particular kind of game bos received from the artificial ball. Newman ever issues a second edition of his book, his pages on composition balls will have to be revised or rewritten. . _ Perhaps the professional wlio n«* shewn the most unreasoning hatreo of composition balls is Melbourne • man. These are extracts from so®of his w-ritten statements on com potion balls: — !th (1) “No one can give a lesson w composition ball?. It is irnpossi to explain the bastard angle t > take. * . w f2) “Correct billiards canJ l?’ e played with composition balls. who studies his pupils’ interests give a lesson with these balls, he does, he is practically detrain*® his pupil.” (3) “I am still opposed to eemp» sition balls to give good results Comment on such stupid statem is perhaps unnecessary. . e( j What correct billiards can oe J - : . with good composition balls and good results are given by these has been abundantly proved very numerous four-figure 0 already chronicled this season, a 1 Smith’s tremendous eompilatior 1,438, 1.457. 1,504. 1,554 and Next article: HOW TO SCREW—II