News from the editor's chair
Firstly my thanks to Albert Hanson for occupying the editorial chair last time out—if ever they take up billiards in Portugal or the USA where I seem to be spending most of my working life, then I'll be well placed to provide on the spot (no pun intended) coverage. My pleas to the Portuguese sports' authorities to formally install English style billiards as a recognised sport with its own national championship, thus giving me my one and only chance of a national title, have sadly fallen on deaf ears!!
I must say that from where I sit the magazine has definitely come of age. No, I'm not indulging in self-congratulation because my role is purely peripheral to all that goes on at the grass roots level.
But if I go back to the objectives for the magazine that I set out in the first couple of editions, it is pleasing to see that we have achieved the balance that I felt was so important. Coverage is broad and encompasses a healthy mix of local, national, amateur and professional news, and the layout, with minimal production resources, gets better all the time; my sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention the sad death of that well known Midlands stalwart, Ellis Lloyd, on Christmas day. I did not know Ellis well, having had only a couple of brief conversations with him, but from the sentiments expressed in this edition by others who knew him much better and from a letter that I received on behalf of the Cambridge players Denis McGuigan, Snowy Salisbury and Tony Henke expressing their sadness at his untimely death, it is obvious that he was a well loved character in the billiards world. Our sympathies go out to his family.
On a brighter note, I hope that you all share my delight at Norman Dagley's return to the fray at last October's Darley Dale event. May I declare, a personal interest here, for it was Norman who first inspired me to get seriously involved in billiards. I recall that about 30 years ago when I was a keen teenager, in the Portsmouth league there was a match in the national CIU championship between Norman and our local champion, Alf Hobbs, who incidentally now in his eighties, is still going strong in the Southampton league despite major heart surgery. The local press carried a prominent article about Norman who, as I recall, had just won his first English Amateur title. Having up until then seen nothing but local players who generally played all-round billiards I was intrigued to see what national champions were made of.
The game at the Portsmouth Radical club was, in its early stages, a fairly nondescript affair and I can remember asking myself what all the fuss was about with this Dagley Fellow. With Norman needing around 160 to reach the winning post I was then introduced a to a style of billiards that was totally alien to me.
Dropping the white behind the red spot Norman ran out with a break of 164 during which the white did not move from its position on the top cushion in classic postman's knock style. On a couple of occasions he lost prime position and had to play drop cannons to maintain the sequence and each time the red went unerringly over the top pocket and the white was contacted full-on and stuck, as if by superglue, to its preordained position on the top rail. With today's exploits by messrs Russell, Sethi, Chapman and Gilchrist, a top of the table break of such modest proportions must seem an almost mundane, if not irrelevant, occurrence, but in the context of my limited experience it opened up an entirely new dimension to the three ball game.
The rest, as they say, is history and Norman went on to dominate the amateur game for the next 15 years or so, My personal view is that his influence and pre-eminence at the top-end game has contributed directly to the standards we are now seeing from the UK's leading professional players. During Norman's absolute dominance of the English amateur none of his potential rivals could hold a candle to him at this aspect of the game, at least not in the heat of match-play. Norman was the best of his time, by a mile, no-one can do more. What an intriguing prospect it is to consider what he might have been capable of if pitted against Russell, Sethi, et al; in his prime? I make no apology for devoting editorial space to one of the games icons and characters.
Anyway, the days of dominance by one player in the English Amateur now seems a thing of the distant past and like last year, the 1998 event to be held in Nuneaton again looks wide open, with Paul Bennett defending the title that he won last year. The main threat to Paul's title retention would again seem to come from the likes of Darren Kell, Stephen Crosland and Peter Shelley, although it would be no great surprise to see someone from outside this group upset the form book.
On a final editorial note, I understand that Mark Wildman, who has been contributing much appreciated articles to this magazine covering the professional scene, has relinquished his position and handed over to Peter Gilchrist. Unfortunately, I'm told that Peter, quite legitimately, does not see submitting such articles as part of his new role and therefore it is unclear what, if any, input we will get on the professional scene. I for one hope that we can find a way to remedy this situation as I would have thought that the pro game would appreciate all the air time it can get, especially in view of the fact that the recent UK championship final, surely one of the flagship events in the pro calendar, attracted a crowd of only 30-odd people which was comprised substantially of previously eliminated competitors!