In a series of four articles in The Yorkshire Evening Post recently, George Nelson described his six months' tour with George Gray, in the course of which Gray played and won thirty-one matches, scoring 221,500 points to his opponents' 81,776.
Gray's landing in England with his father was not exhilarating. "On one of the grayest mornings of that miserable July in last year" (writes Nelson) "I met George Gray and his father. I am afraid both of them obtained a very poor first impression of England, for not only was the weather very cold, but even colder was their reception.
Much to my surprise, I was the only person to welcome the Grays to England. That they felt this more than they complained of I feel sure, for they had taken part in and seen so many different receptions when any English billiard player visited Australia. Anyhow, the luncheon afterwards given by the B.C.C. to George Gray partly compensated for this, whilst the splendid reception and whole-hearted enthusiasm with which he has been received by the hundreds of thousands of spectators he played before must have assured him that the British public lives up to its reputation of being the fairest and most sporting in the world."
Next Nelson tells of Gray's practice methods during the ten weeks that elapsed before he commenced his public play in this country:—"Six to eight hours' practice daily was Gray's self-appointed task, and, let it be whispered, he generally did a short spell on Sundays. Often he was up and away down to Kirkstall Road to practise so early that no one else in the house had risen. After he had done three or four hours of what he called ' solid ' work, I used to sometimes play him a practice game, but I soon got tired of that, for the practice was much too one-sided, and when he got on the red, I went and played on another table. Where we did get a nice little bit of pleasant relaxation, though, was at the close of the day, when Gray, senior, would join us in a game of sixpenny skittle pool.
In these games of skittle pool we were one day joined by Melbourne Inman. The first time Inman joined us he was very lucky, and managed to win a half-crown. ' I'll come early to-morrow,' he said; ' this is just my game.' He did, and we had a good long spell at skittles. When we did adjourn it was found that Inman was the only loser, so much so that he did not want to play any more skittles."
Amongst people whom Gray came across was Harry Lauder, who wished him success and said he was anticipating a trip to the Antipodes. "We have since," adds Nelson to this, "met Mr. Lauder on several occasions, notably at Glasgow, where he was particularly earnest in giving Gray, senior, some advice. It was ' Beware of the contracts, and sign no more.'" Perhaps the meetings with Gray stimulated Harry Lauder's own billiard enthusiasm.
At any rate, he since had installed into his Scottish home a handsome Burroughes and Watts table.
At Halifax they met the great violinist Kubelik, and the equally great pianist Backhaus. The latter is very fond of the game of billiards, being a constant spectator, when in town, of all the big matches. He was delighted to see the play, and at the finish he told young Gray he would have challenged him but he only played with "ivories." George Gray has an autograph book which he prizes very much, and Kubelik and Backhaus obliged by signing this, Mr.
Backhaus putting, "With best wishes to the champion of the other ivories."
To see about certain matters in connection with Gray's first visit to London Nelson came to town three days before play commenced. On the Thursday evening before Monday's play he deposited with one of the leading sporting papers a cheque for £50, with a challenge to play anyone in the world a level match for £1,000 and the whole of the "gate." Next morning, much to his astonishment, London was completely placarded with large news sheets: "Gray challenges the world for £1,000." In the tubes, outside news-vendor's shops, and at every street-corner, it stared him in the face in glaring big type twelve inches deep, until he began to feel quite nervous, and wonder what on earth he had done. He says: "I have heard people brag about ' Painting the town red,' but I certainly did ' Paint the town Gray.'" After the first afternoon's play at St. George's Hall, Nelson happened to see an elderly gentleman slip and fall on the steps. Naturally he hurried to his help as quickly as possible. Another gentleman, who said he was a doctor, also rendered what assistance he could, and they got the injured man into a taxi for home. The injured gentleman afterwards wrote to thank Nelson for his kindness and added:—"It may interest you to know that the other good Samaritan was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has been good enough to send me an autograph letter with kind inquiries as to my progress, so you will see that although I have suffered a lot of pain I have some pleasant recollections of my visit to see Gray and yourself play."
During the tour, Nelson, who frequently played against Gray, was dubbed "chair-polisher" and "cue-rack" (the latter by Harverson, who afterwards held the cue himself for two days during a 2,196 unfinished) and E. C. Breed telegraphed: "How do you like the table?"
In one of his matches with Diggle, the latter had three shots in two days. Someone sent him a wire advising him to read a magazine article by George Gray, "How to play losing hazards," but he tersely replied to this: "I can see without reading." Diggle had a lot to put up with over his games with Gray. He must have got sick of people asking: "What do you think of Gray?" but he took it all very philosophically, and his invariable reply was: "It's marvellous; isn't it?"