A Brief History of Billiards and the Tools of the Trade
1900
The early style of play for billiards was developed from the use of the mace, which demanded an upright stance. This was continued to be recommended as the ideal stance for using the cue, right up to the turn of the century, and all the early players adopted this style. The low sighting adopted for modern day billiards seems to have been introduced through the amateur ranks from the turn of the century. However, low sighting along the cue was sufficiently uncommon in 1910 for one journalist to remark of the then Amateur Champion, Major Fleming, "he bends so low over the table as almost to touch his cue with his face."
In 1900, George Birt, one of the three brothers who ran the Albany Ball Co. in America, came to England where he met Percy Warford-Davies and the following year they began to produce the "Crystalate" ball, in direct competition to Bonzoline. This was marketed in England by the Endolithic Co. Ltd. By the beginning of the 20th century most cues were still being made from Ash and the better ones were spliced with a heavier wood such as Ebony to form the butt. Unspliced cues were available for half the price of spliced cues, but were generally considered to be much inferior.
Thursday 8th November 1900 sees the first reference to the substitution of a yellow ball for the spot white in billiards. Prior to the commencement of a match involving W. J. Peall at the Agricultural Hall, Mr. George Brand, vice-president of the Billiard Association played one of the spectators with a new set of balls which comprised white, red and spot yellow. The experiment was reported in the Sportsman the following day and was generally received with favour. However, the change was considered too radical at the time and the idea was dropped.
In 1905 there began a brief fashion for unusually shaped tables. Orme & Sons introduced an oval billiard table, while Thurston's began to make Octagonal shaped tables.
1907 saw the brief reign of the "pendulum cannon" in English billiards. Skilfully bring the balls together near a pocket, where they would be retained in an "anchor" position, the professionals vied to see who could make the biggest break, and matches were specially arranged for this purpose. The "honour" went to Tom Reece who between 3rd June and 6th July 1907 made and incredible break of 499,135. In September of the same year the stroke was barred by the Billiard Association.
On 24th May 1909, John Roberts introduced the time limit match to professional billiards, playing for exactly two hours, afternoon and evening, over the 12 days of his match against William Cook Jnr; at the Lisle Street Saloon, London. This concept was regarded as something of a failure, and it took some years to become popular.