We have received Part III. of what may almost be termed a monumental work on the game of billiards. Even if it be true that no two strokes in the game of billiards are alike, we should still conjecture the belief that they must all be here, for even in this third part there are no fewer than 422 diagrams, each accompanied by precise wording, which is further elaborated in the general letterpress. Altogether the three handsome quarto volumes run to nearly 800 large pages, in which no space is lost, as the thousand or so of diagrams are all embedded in the text. If a page had been devoted to each, the entire work must have run to something like three times its already liberal bulk.
The author, Mr. Riso Levi, has been engaged on his work for several years, and he now says that if he had known how heavy a task he was undertaking he might have hesitated before beginning. All the same, we consider that he has rendered a distinct service to billiards by his nine years' work, which now places in the hands of students of the game an answer to most queries than are likely to arise in the mind during practice.
The subjects dealt with in Part III. are:—Screw cannons from the D; long distance cannons—object balls close together; cannons—hitting a cushion first, gathering cannons; cannons off double baulks; nursery cannons and close cannons; rocking cannons; pendulum cannons; cradle cannons; the jamb stroke; getting position for a drop cannon; drop cannons; getting position for top-of-the-table play; top-of-the-table play; pique and masse strokes; single and double baulks; safety play; some little-known strokes; and transmitted side and cushion-imparted side.
An interesting and useful portion of the volume is the prefatory pages, in the course of which the author reviews such intimately interesting points as centre pocket in-offs (in which the avoidance of side is counselled); the down-to-the-cue pose (which is advocated); the ball to look at last (which the author thinks should be the object ball); and the best class of balls (in which matter compositions are advocated).
If the very exhaustiveness of this work should tend to act as a deterrent to some purchasers two points might profitably be borne in mind. One of these is that the volumes are extremely valuable for reference as well as for sustained reading, whilst the diagrams, with their brief illustrative foot-notes are a separate and easily-grasped work in themselves.
Measurements are given in all cases, and the student who glanced through these clearly-pictured strokes—in nearly all cases leading to subsequent good position—and made notes of those which he regarded as offering some new suggestion, would not be long in deriving substantial benefit from his investigation.