At this early stage the possibilities of "sensations" during 1911-12 appear to centre mainly around young Fred Lindrum's appearance on the scene. The question at once arises- Is there a field for Lindrum's abilities—as a redball specialist of the Gray type, of course—or has that field been already exhausted by his fellow-Australian? Well, Lindrum is apparently willing to take his chance. And it must not be forgotten that Lindrum is a very able exponent of the all-round English game, and that when he is so inclined he shuns the all-red route for whole sessions at a time. Indeed, Lindrum appears to stand midway between Gray and the English professionals in that he has some but not all of Gray's ability to score mammoth breaks off the red, and some but not all of the English top-sawyers' ability to weave their way in and out of the intricacies of the topof- the-table game. Lindrum should certainly "make good" over here, and in estimating the possibilities of his success from a box-office point of view, as an exponent of the red, ball game, there is one point that is worth consideration, and it is this. So far Gray has never yet met an opponent who could make him gallop. Spectators have realised that it must inevitably be a one-man show when Gray is playing on level terms. And some have stayed away. But that simply proves that an unequal contest is unpopular; it does not necessarily prove that Gray's game is unpopular. The same people would stay away if, say, Stevenson went 18,000 up level with an obviously inferior opponent who would, playing his usual game, aggregate 10,000. But a poor "gate" at such a match would not go to show that Stevenson's charming game had lost its attraction; it would show that the public stay away from matches the results of which are foregone conclusions. Pit Gray against his equal as a scoring force, or handicap him to bring him down to his opponent, and then see whether the match would be popular.
—Half-Butt, in The Sporting Life.