Letters
Dear David,
I am enclosing a short article dealing with Ivan's account of his experiments with damp cloth cushions, which I hope you can find space for. You may recall that I was a regular contributor to the BQR on this kind of topic - until pressure of work made this no longer possible.
In ABP no. 3, Ivan Stevenage reported on the effect that dampening of the cushion doth has on the rebound of balls. With the cushion damp, he noted, a ball impinging at 90 degrees tended to rebound a greater distance down the table and a ball carrying side tended to throw off at a greater angle.
Both these observations are consistent with an increased frictional force existing between the ball and cushion cloth during the time of impact Consider first the impact at right angles. When a ball strikes the cushion full-on, two things happen. First, the impact (which is less than perfectly elastic) brings about a reversal in direction of the ball's movement, so that it leaves the cushion along the same path as it arrived by, but with a reduced speed; second, the rotation of the ball is changed during and after the impact. This second point needs a bit more explanation. If the ball is rolling without skidding before it hits the cushion, then it must be rotating once (through 360 degrees) each time it covers a distance (measured on the bed of the table) equal to its own circumference. During the time of impact with the cushion, the friction between the doth and ball tends to slow down this rotation, but at the time the ball leaves the cushion, it still is rotating in the same sense as it was before impact This rotation will now slow down the rebounding ball which thus travels less distance than it would in the absence of this contrary rotation. (Thus, a ball struck towards the cushion with drag effect, having no rotation if the stroke is well played, will rebound further than one rolled into the cushion at the same speed.) Hence, any process which increases friction between the ball and doth win result in an increased rebound distance.
Why should the friction increase on damping the doth? One might expect just the opposite, with water acting as a lubricant The answer to that question lies in the peculiar properties of the wool fibre. Wool is an unusual kind of fibre; seen under the microscope, it has a scaly surface, like a crocodile's back, each scale lying on top of the preceding one.
Picture a line of standing dominoes after the end piece has been tipped over and you have the idea of the wool surface structure. The important thing is the way in which this structure changes when water is applied. The water gets underneath the scale edges, where it causes swelling, forcing the scale edges upwards. These raised edges form in effect the teeth of a miniature saw and will bring about an increase in the friction between any contacting object moving in the right direction. Hence, a damp woollen doth will have more friction than a dry one.
Human hair has essentially the same structure as wool and responds to water in the same way, as the reader can confirm. Pull a hair lengthways through the fingertips, and feel the frictional drag. This drag is greater when the fingers are moved towards the scalp than in the other direction. This is because of the effect of the scale edges being different. Now wet the hair and repeat the experiment. An increased drag will be noticed, especially in one direction.
Cloths made from other fibres than wool are not to be expected to behave in this way, as the unusual structure of the wool fibre makes it unique in its response to water.
Certainly, neither cotton nor any man-made fibres respond in this way, as they lack the scaly surface wool has. Was Ivan's pool table covered with a woollen cloth or not? If it was, it must have had an extremely close-cropped nap.
Dear Sir,
Many thanks for the excellent magazine; I wondered if the enclosed is any good for the Memory Comer.
During the war - it must have been about 1943/4 -1 was employed by the Airscrew Company at Weybridge, manufacturers of wooden propellers and fans.
It was arranged that we be visited by two billiards pro's who were touring the country giving charity exhibitions.
The billiards table was moved from its room to the ballroom to accommodate about 200 spectators. The players arrived - Melbourne Inman and Stanley Newman. Unfortunately the exhibition was a bit of a farce as both struggled to play well, Inman quipping, 'You need a shoehorn with these pockets'.
The reason was, of course, that they had been lavishly entertained by the directors beforehand.
A disappointing evening, but at least the charity (does anyone know which?) benefited.
One other memory (not mine - I'm only 70) -1 have a friend, 92 next February, who in the 1930's travelled daily from Chertsey to Thurstons to watch Walter Lindrum.
Dear David,
The billiards scene is very active here in South Lincolnshire; our press coverage is Spalding the biggest of the sports, even getting more space than football, which includes Spalding Lincolnshire United's results and write-ups.
At each of the 12 annual management committee meetings, 13 members attend and the month's business, including some re-handicapping, is usually completed in 2 hours The combined billiards and snooker league, with registrations at £4 each, has approximately 500 (94 billiards only) and brings in £2000 p.a.; current credit is £6000+. All individual competitions cost 50p per player (£1 pairs).
Our annual championship finals have a new venue for this season - Springfields Restaurant - Friday 4th to Sunday 6th April with tiered seating. The annual Dinner Dance and prize presentations are also at Springfields on Friday 25th April Highest billiards breaks this season remain at 96 (twice by Mick Johnson (owe 95) and once by Arthur Reeve (owe 195)). Best average is 16.46 by Arthur Reeve, who is the current scratch champion. Both Arthur and Mick have had eight breaks over 50 in league matches.
Dear Sirs,
I would firstly like to congratulate you on continuing a billiards only journal, to keep people in touch with what's going on in our game, and also to help in the undoubted revival of the game, despite what some would have us believe. I, in fact, do not believe it has ever been stronger in our area of Norfolk. There are some very good amateur players making very good breaks regularly, with several more well capable of producing good performances, though more must be done to encourage younger players to play billiards.
I was looking in issue 3 at the compilation of known leagues, so far done by Phil Welham and thought it would be very interesting to compare playing formats. We all know that the Teesside Boy's League has produced, and is still producing, some young and very exciting players. I cant help wondering if the half hour format helps in producing quick and exciting players who 'go for it' in the manner in which most of them seem to do. In our area, we are very lucky with the number leagues, which I have detailed below.
Alby League play 100 up off level; Stiffkey League play 150 up off level; Norwich League play 300 up with handicaps; Newmarket Summer League play 200 up handicapped; Massingham League play half an hour off level; Norfolk Super League play one and a quarter hours off level and the Eastern Counties Sunday League play one and a half hours off level.
The Massingham League actually changed their format this season from 100 up to half an hour's play. I have spoken to several of the players, and most said it was an improvement with some players recording their best league breaks to date. I think this may be seen as proof that this format is an improvement on the 100 up game, though some would say anything is an improvement on that I hope these comments may produce some interesting remarks regarding league billiards generally.
AH the best, John Carman
P.S. The Demise of the Pro-Ams - Surely it is in the interests of the professionals to try to revive these competitions. They get valuable competitive billiards from these tournaments!
I was at the Norfolk Charity Challenge, organised by Phil Welham and others, and we witnessed some first class professional play which was an inspiration to all us ordinary amateurs who were privileged to see the games.
Dear David,
I note with some interest the letter from Mr. P. Darby to Mr. J. Karnehm published in the January 1997 issue of "The Amateur Billiard Player", with reference to the red, white and yellow billiards balls and feel as a practising player and referee, I must make some comment on the legality of their use at this moment in time. I refer of course to the contravention of two of the rules of English Billiards, namely: SECTION 2 DEFINITIONS 3. Balls (b) The other white ball and the red are object balls.
and SECTION 3 THE GAME 1. Description Three balls are used: a plain white by one side, a spot white (with two or more black spots for identification) by the other side, and a red.
Whilst the Aramith Tournament balls are excellent to play with, there must surely be a change made to the rules and I would not be adverse to an addendum being issued to cover the situation as it is at the moment. There is, of course, the possibility of red, white and yellow balls from a set of snooker balls being used to play billiards, and this would be disastrous were it allowed to happen since there is a 3.0 gram tolerance between snooker balls and only 0.5 gram tolerance between billiards balls.
As an afterthought, not related to the above, I was taught at school in the early 40's that there was no such word as "billiard*. Maybe I'm getting long in the tooth, but I find it slightly offensive to be called a billiard player and not a billiards player.
I would like to commend you on the publication of "The Amateur Billiard(s) Player" and hope that I shall be around for many more years to come; I enjoy playing as much as I ever did, although nowhere near as well as days gone by, and I also love to referee a good game.
Yours very sincerely,