The second round in the Press Handicap is on the point of completion.
Entries for the Billiard Association Amateur Championship are now complete. Will the final be played in Dublin or Manchester?
Some figures in the following sentence were transposed last month:—"In the London Charity Handicap (300 up) the backmarker owes 250" is the correct reading.
The figure of the boy billiard-player, George Gray, from Australia, is passing like a shadow between the acknowledged British champions and the sun.—Freeman's Journal.
On January 14 the concluding match in the first round of the Yorkshire professional tournament was decided at Leeds, when D. Bree (Leeds) beat E. Rudge (Doncaster) by 855 points in 2,000.
E. C. Breed, who won the amateur championship two or three years ago, when he lived at York (after which he became a professional) now lives at Derby, and will shortly play W. Osborne (Leicester) for the professional championship of the Midlands.
The French Government has decided to recognise the skill of Vignaux, the famous billiard champion and professor, who is to be included in the next batch of promotions to the Academic Palms, and will receive the decoration of the Violet Ribbon of Public Instruction.
Last month we asked in this column: "Will 1,000 ever be scored within the hour?" A subscriber writes pointing out that John Roberts once scored 1,033 spot-barred in 59½ minutes, and that W. J. Peall scored 1000 all-in in 44 minutes. We had overlooked these figures.
Mr. W. Hoppe, a well-known American billiard player, has just married Miss Alice Walsh, of New York, whom he rescued from drowning in the surf at Atlantic City. We are so glad that this pretty custom of wedding the lady whom one saves from drowning is not falling into desuetude.
Personally we always do it.—Punch.
Contrasting a billiard and a boxing match witnessed on two successive days, a writer in The Morning Leader said: "Billiards came after boxing as a sedative. The soft musical click of the billiard balls and the attentive decorum of the onlookers formed such a contrast to the vicious crash of the gloves, the heavy thud of flesh and leather in impact, and the raucous cries of an emotional crowd stirred to its depths by a spirit of antagonism."
This is how Mickey Doolan describes (in The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch) a Gray red ball break—"The audience was as solemn as a collection of boiled owls in a could storage chamber. If anyone had sneezed the police would have tuk charge av him. The marrker had used up the multiplication table long before, and was chantin' away up in the region av the higher mathematics, while the scorin' boord had a line of figgers far wurrse than the National Debt."
The Liverpool Charity Handicap is commencing.
In America, Moore has broken the world's three-cushion record with a run of 15, De Oro has regained the pool championship, whilst losing the three-cushion championship, and Hoppe retains his title as champion of 18.1 billiards.
A notable figure in the billiard world in Manchester has just passed away in the person of J. Saxon. He marked and refereed the match in which John Roberts, playing Diggle, in Manchester, made his famous break of 1,392.
A billiard marker at Cardiff has been awarded compensation under the Employers' and Workmen's Acts after having partially ruptured himself whilst playing a game of billiards in the course of his employment. He stated in evidence that he cannot now make certain shots.
A writer on "billiard errors" says the left foot should always point in the direction of the cue. If "object ball" be substituted for cue the advice is not bad. The same writer says that the first-class professional draws his cue back only once. This is Diggle's way, it is true, but there are others.
A fire occurred on the premises of the Manchester branch house of Messrs, Burroughes and Watts, Ltd., Mosley Street, on Christmas Day. Considerable damage was done to the stock by water, but otherwise little inconvenience has been caused and business continues to be conducted without interruption. By the way, Messrs. Burroughes and Watts are just now equipping the new billiard rooms at the Royal Automobile and at the Veterans' Clubs.
At the conclusion of the Amateur Championship of Cornwall at the Union Hotel, Penzance, won by Mr. J. Bailey, a silver cup was on view, which the president (Mr. Gartrell) announced would be presented for competition among the amateurs of Cornwall next January. The cup is valued at sixty guineas, and the actual ownership will necessitate three consecutive wins, or five wins in all.
By the kind initiative and efforts of Mr. J. P. Mannock, a Professional Billiard Players' Benevolent Fund was brought into being at a pleasant dinner on Christmas Eve at the Bedford Head Hotel, Tottenham Court Road, and liberally subscribed to by leading professionals and others.
During the afternoon there was a flying handicap of 100 up, in which the players and starts were as follows:—H.
W. Stevenson, scratch; E. Diggle, 12; M. Inman, 12; T. Reece, 25; C. Harverson, 25; W. Cook, 33; W. A. Lovejoy, 53; J. Mack, 33; B. Elphick, 36; W. H. Sparrow, 36; F. Harwood, 36. Mack and Harwood took the places (with the respective starts of 33 and 36 against 27) of W. J. Peall (who was unfortunately ill) and Aiken, detained on the line by the accident to the Scotch express. Harverson in the final beat Diggle—the only player who really displayed first-class form—by 14. Throughout the play the evident over-anxiety of the players to win spoiled their games to an extent which amazed—and may possibly have encouraged—the large number of amateurs present as spectators.