Jottings of the Month

• Long sessions, extra sessions, and drawn games, due to excessive safety play, are becoming common in professional matches. If this goes on the average test will have to be applied, or the points reduced. If 18,000 cannot be scored in 48 hours let it be 16,000 or 15,000.
• Readers of The Billiard Monthly will learn with regret of the death of Edward Diggle's mother, which occurred at Manchester on February 26.
• "Billiards," says Malcolm Scott, "used to be played with two white balls and one red ball. Now it is played with one white ball, one red ball, and one Gray."
• At a meeting of the Billiards Control Club, held on the 2nd inst., Mr. A. Hatchard, of the Wellington Club, and Mr. G. H. Nelson were elected members of the executive council.
• E. C. Breed won the championship of the Midlands from W. Osborne by 8,000 to 7,360. By defeating Linden in a game of 1,200 up, level, W. R. Wall, of Claygate, regained the championship of Surrey.
• It is generally a long loser on the left that brings Gray down, thus conveying the impression that he is stronger on the right-hand side of the ball than the left, in these shots. However, he rarely troubles the top pockets.
• A number of clubs are in course of formation in London in connection with the Billiard League, which will be open to teams from business houses, institutes, public billiard rooms, etc. A team consists of five players, and the game is to be 500 up each pair of opponents taking the score to the next hundred.
• Twenty of the leading professionals of Liverpool have been engaged in games of 750 each for the Liverpool championship.
• The final game on the 9th inst. was between H. Longmire and F. Holt, each receiving 160. Result:—Longmire, 750; Holt, 683. Last month J. W. Collens (scratch) and H. Longmire (15) tied in the Liverpool professionals' flying handicap.
• The sergeants attached to the different regiments quartered at Bordon Camp have just decided an interesting competition for a challenge cup subscribed for by the various sergeants' messes. The 29th and 32nd Brigades Royal Field Artillery were the winners of the cup with an aggregate of 6,708 points. The highest break in the competition was 49 by Sergt. Farrell, R.F.A., who won a cue and case presented by Messrs. Thurston.
• H. W. Stevenson played afternoon and evening matches at the Billiards Control Club, Great Windmill Street, W., against leading members of the club during the week ended March 11. Each member of the club had the privilege of introducing two friends, apart from which the proceedings were quite private. Stevenson conceded 500 in 750 and on Friday evening reached his points with an unfinished break of over 300 in four completed innings, the first of which consisted of a safety shot driving the spotted red into baulk An attempt is being made to inaugurate an Amateur Championship for Yorkshire under Billiards Control Club Rules Billiards appeals to all classes in the land—to the peer in his castle, and to the pitman in his club.—Newcastle Chronicle.
• The annual dinner and distribution of prizes of the Press Handicap is to take place on Saturday, April 1, at the Bedford Head Hotel, Tottenham Court Road.
• W. Cook visited Bishop's Waltham on the 5th inst. and played two games of 750 up with Mr. H. Palmer, who received 300 start, the professional winning both games.
• Why is the bottom of the billiard table at the top and the top at the bottom? If the billiard spot is at the bottom of the table why is the top-of-the-table game played there?
• The amateur champion for Bolton (John Martin) is a furnaceman, but must know how to hold a cue lightly, nevertheless, as he has gained several local medals and prizes.
• When Gray misses a shot he looks reproachfully at his cue—a pained expression, as though he were saying, "I 'm surprised at an old friend like you serving me such a dirty trick. "#151;Umpire.
• The final heat in the London Charity Handicap is to be decided on March 16, for the handsome silver cup presented by the Crystalate Ball Company, and the silver challenge shield (to be held by the winner for one year).
• Gray will go down to history as champion off the red, as Peall will as champion on the red, but he will also live to play the full game, and to play it well, and will discard long breaks off the red, except when he has nothing else left on.
• The suggestion is made to us by a subscriber that there should be a break competition amongst readers of The Billiard Monthly. Well, it is started herewith, but there is no prize. All properly-authenticated amateur breaks exceeding 100 that are notified to us will be duly recorded.
• If there must be barring restrictions in billiard play— which we do not think necessary and which are applied to no other game—why cannot they at least be made uniform —say 25 consecutive direct cannons, winning hazards and losing hazards, and then some other stroke. But no restrictions at all would be better still.
• Diggle has described to an interviewer a shot made by Eugene Carter, the late American player, and which he asserts that no one else has succeeded in making. It is a half-masse into the top left pocket, the lower side cushion being struck after the ball contact. Positions: Cue ball two diameters from left bottom cushion along baulk line; object ball four diameters from the same cushion and rather more than midway between baulk line.