Having now got used to bonzoline balls, George Gray is scoring his hundreds as usual, and in visiting London prior to his provincial tours (which will carry him into December) he has administered a severe defeat to Cook, although the latter received 6,000 in 18,000.
How does Gray do it? That is a question that would seem to be worthy of consideration by billiard students, and we think it is possible to show that Gray's methods are marked throughout by the greatest simplicity.
In the first place, the principle of controlling one ball instead of three, sweeps away a whole host of difficulties and complications. In the second place, the almost invariable use of the plain central stroke in lieu of side, screw, and other uncertainties, makes equally for simplicity.
In the third place, Gray has drilled himself into a stance and cue delivery which are mechanically and scientifically correct. He creates no difficulties and takes no unnecessary risks.
That his expositions of red ball scoring possibilities have done good to British billiards can hardly be doubted. These expositions have served to accentuate the value of the old billiard maxim: "Don't disturb two balls by a cannon when you can both score and maintain position by means of pocket play." The only real difference between Gray's red ball play and that of the amateur or professional who freely uses the remunerative red ball, is that Gray prefers to exile the white altogether, whereas the other keeps his eye upon it and means presently to bring it into play again.
The professional pots the red from play and then, when it has been again potted, does not turn next to the cannon because he loves it, but because the rules say that he must.
Sometimes he would like to make a few more off the red without an intervening cannon, and in the same way the amateur appreciates the value of a nice little sequence of middle pocket losers, merely as a scoring force, although an intervening cannon may most of the time be available.
Let us now consider, for the benefit of those amateurs who are not already acquainted with the principles that govern losing hazard play and object ball control, the chief points that have to be considered by the player who desires to make a losing hazard sequence from baulk.
It is assumed that the player can recognise at a glance the grazing ball, half-ball, quarter-ball, and three-quarter ball angles, and also the four intermediate angles that require a thicker aim. It is also assumed that he is aware that, if he strikes the cue ball high he can always make a losing hazard when the object ball is at a narrower angle than right angle either by fine or thick contact, and that the aim for the thick contact is always the same distance inside the edge of the object ball that the aim for the fine contact is outside of it.
Full recognition of this principle at the outset enormously simplifies the losing hazard game, because, after a short time, the player has no hesitation whatever in running through the object ball, no matter how obtuse the angle may be. He knows that for a quarter-ball contact he would aim half-an-inch outside the edge, but that this would cut the object ball instead of driving it. Therefore he at once aims half-an-inch inside the edge instead, gains the pocket, and drives the object ball where he desired it to go.
Or there may be an easy half-ball shot on from baulk into the middle pocket and the temptation is to make it.
But a glance through the object ball at the half-ball contact point half-an-inch within its edge shows that the halfball stroke would land the object ball under the top side cushion on the opposite side of the table. So the half-ball contact point is made the point of aim instead of contact and the object ball comes nicely back down the middle of the table.
To any player who has a full-sized table of his own, and who is uncertain about object ball control when playing into the middle pocket, we should recommend the following plan:—Make a chalk mark, two feet from the baulk line in the centre of the table, and dot thence a line to within fifteen or sixteen inches of the centre of each middle pocket. Place the red ball on either of these lines at any point and spot in baulk for the half-ball angle. Now play with a little top and a nice free stroke and the red ball should return to the line from the top cushion, keeping parallel with the side cushion all the time.
Too much practice cannot possibly be given to this stroke and nothing else should be attempted until it is mastered.
The play should not at this stage be continued by means of other strokes into the middle pockets, although such might be left on. The great thing is to get perfect ball direction and strength for the only half-ball stroke from baulk that brings the object ball straight back from the top cushion and to be able henceforth to execute this basic stroke with entire confidence and success.
Although George Gray plays this half-ball stroke, especially up and down the centre of the table, with such exactitude that it comes to rest, scores of times in succession, within a fraction of the two feet from baulk—his chief uncertainty being whether it will be a trifle to left or right, and whether the right or left middle pocket will be used—it is not to be expected that an ordinary amateur will often, in a game, be able to preserve this almost microscopical accuracy. Let us suppose, then, that the ball comes to rest a trifle above or below the dotted chalk lines. What is now the best course to pursue? The answer is that, when the object ball is a little above the line it must either be played on finer than half-ball, smartly, to cut it towards the centre of the top cushion and so back, or more fully in order to drive it first on to the top side cushion and thence towards the centre of the table. When, on the contrary, the object ball comes below the dotted line it must either be played on more fully than half-ball to drive it towards the top cushion and back towards the centre of the table, or more finely and gently to recover central table play without any cushion being struck at all.
There is one other stroke that is played with side, and, so far as our observation has gone, it is the only stroke on which George Gray uses side in playing into an open pocket. This is when the object ball is a trifle above the dotted chalk line near the centre of the table and position is to be regained from off the top cushion. The angle then is rather wider than right angle, but the side, when thick half-ball aim is taken, pulls the ball towards the pocket both before and after contact, and brings the red down the table from the top cushion in a straight line. This is the limit at which middle pocket play should be attempted when there is also an alternative plain-ball loser on into a top corner pocket, and it is, indeed, a moot point whether this side stroke, even in its most favourable form, might not be discarded in favour of the top pocket loser. One other departure from ordinary plain cueing into an open pocket is when the object ball is within a foot or so of a middle pocket and perhaps a little above it, when the best game is to spot wide for a screw (without side) and so drive the object ball on to the top cushion and in and out of baulk into the easy scoring zone once more.