Jottings of the Month

• Entries for the B.C.C. professional championship closed on November 30, with Reece as the challenger.
• King George is stated to have a desire that his sons shall excel at billiards, and the game has been played night after night at Balmoral. Princess Mary has also been learning the game and promises to emulate her aunt, the Queen of Norway, who plays better than any other lady in the Royal Family.—Sheffield Daily Telegraph.
• In the Coventry Club annual handicap three spot strokes and the push stroke are allowed.
• At a conference of amateur billiardists in Melbourne recently, the matter of sending a representative of Australia to compete in the English amateur championship was mentioned.
• After some discussion it was decided that, on the past year's form, there were no players in sight sufficiently skilled to uphold Australia prestige. When one arrives he will doubtless be sent.
• Seven tables were in requisition for the Jockeys Billiard Handicap at the Bedford Head Hotel (J. W. Mannock) on November 28, when S. Donoghue proved the winner.
• At the Royal Automobile Club, the head marker, J. Jevons, plays a fine game with the use of one hand only.
• A break of 387 off the red ball has been made at the Junior Carlton Club, by George Clark, the head marker there, and in the Leeds Handicap on November 13 Harry Taylor, the fifteen year old player, scored 390 off the red (an ivory ball record) in the course of a break of 479.
• T. A. Dennis, professional champion of Nottingham, has just made a break of 77 at snooker pool.
• The draw for the first round of the Press Handicap has been published. There is a vast number of entries.
• In the Leeds £100 handicap great interest was taken in the heat in which the amateur champion beat by 52 T. Haw, who wanted 100 for game when Virr wanted 500. By the way it seems that Mr. Virr has a permit to play with professionals in this handicap, and does not, therefore, imperil his amateur status.
• Charles Roberts is well enough to play again.
• Inman and Reece meet at Leicester Square on a new table on December 9 to play 18,000 for £100 a side, Reece receiving 1,250. At present Inman is playing Diggle at the same place and conceding the same start as to Reece in the first of a series of three matches of 18,000 up for £100 each time, with additional amounts depending upon the highest proportional breaks. In reply to a challenge by Dawson offering 1,000 start in 18,000, Inman dictates the same start to Dawson as that conceded by him to Reece and Diggle and six-tenths of the"gate. "o W. J. Peall, whom he will meet at Leicester Square in February, Inman concedes half the game (spot-barred) and takes the same proportion of the gate money as stipulated for in Dawson's case.
• A suggestion has been made that a match might be played between amateurs of Liverpool and Manchester.
• Smith is willing to concede A. F. Peall 2,000 in 16,000 for £50 a side, with a limit of 25 successive red losing hazards, after which the balls would be spotted.

• The autumn handicap on average is proceeding amongst members of the B.C. Club and other fixtures are:—

  • Dec. 2.— Invitation Inter-Club Volunteer Snooker Pool Championship for the B.C.C. Challenge Cup. Holders, Wellington Club.
  • Jan. 16.—B.C.C. Championship (by invitation) open to members of the B.C.C.; leading London and provincial clubs and the Oxford and Cambridge Universities. (Entries close Dec. 31).
  • Feb. 2.—Invitation Inter-club Billiards Championship for the B.C.C. Challenge Cup.

  Holders, Junior Constitutional Club. It is also the intention to arrange a ladies' night during the season.

• Llewellin, the Welsh professional champion, has been challenged by T. Carpenter, Cardiff.
• The match at Newport between Reece and Falkiner was a particularly fine and interesting one. Reece made breaks of 248, 204, and thirty others of over one hundred, and Falkiner made breaks of 232, 209, 207, 206, and sixteen others of over one hundred. At the finish of the game, with Reece as the winner, there was only a difference of 88 points between the players.
• The illness of M. Clark, the very well-known head marker and referee at the Palmerston Restaurant, is stated to be serious.
• Miss Hilda Morley, the seventeen year old daughter of the Cheshire amateur champion, was one of the competitors on November 27 in the Manchester Amateur Charity Tournament. She is the first lady ever admitted into the competition, and giving a convincing and delightful display, registered a popular victory against W. Gillett by 138. Miss Morley was conceded 290 start on the handicap.
• The notable event in the Stock Exchange tournament thus far has been the defeat of Mr. P. Wood, although this fine player had, of course, to concede a long start to his opponent.
• The tenth annual contest for the amateur championship of Leeds was concluded on November 23, the players being the holder, A. W. A. Smith, and B. Hardwick. The game was 500 up, played with crystalate balls on a standard table, and the winner holds the Crystalate Cup, value 25 guineas ( which has to be won three times in all) for twelve months. Closing scores:—Smith 500, Hardwick 494. Mr. J. H. Teague presented the prizes, as follows:—Cup and gold medal, A. W. A. Smith; silver cigarette case, B. Hardwick; cue and case and the balls played with for the largest break of the tournament (60), J. Henry, jun.; and cue and case, J. W. Vine. Messrs. A. W. A. Smith, H. Dawson, and J. W. Vine have each won the cup twice, and Messrs. B. Hirst, F. Moore. W. D
• Reporting the Inman-Diggle afternoon session of November 26, The Daily Express said:—"The most exciting incident of the afternoon was when Inman passed a summary death sentence on a moth that made a series of volplanes from the lamp bracket towards Inman's face. This so disconcerted the player that the game was temporarily stopped while Inman made violent digs at it with his cue. The marker and the spot boy also joined in. Candidly, the billiards was not nearly so exciting as this moth hunt."
• Alec Taylor, sending a copy of The Natal Mercury, says: "In it you will see that I have made five breaks over 100 in 800 up. The paper described it as a world's record. I know it is so for England and South Africa."
• Diggle was good at draughts and various other games before he became famous with a cue. Even now he gets visits from people eminent at various simple pastimes, who want to play him. One evening, just after a championship round at Soho Square, he was handed the card of somebody who described himself as "Amateur Champion of Thanet." "Thanet?" gasped Diggle. "I know draughts, and ping-pong, and jig-saw, but what on earth's Thanet?" —London Opinion.