Jottings of the Month

• T. Aiken leaves early this month for Australia.
• Breed retains the championship of the Midlands, having beaten Osborne on February 8 by 7,000 to 6,422
• At Croydon, Dawson beat the local professional, H. Wilcox (received 200) by 800 to 752. His breaks included 197 and 115.
• Sir John H. Dimsdale, Dr Frank Smith, and Messrs M. H. Spielmann and W. Bessemer Wright are now members of the Executive Council of the Billiards Control Club
• For the Stock Exchange handicap at Leicester Square in the latter half of this month, Mr. Colin Smith, Mr W. H. L. Goolden (the holder by one point) and Mr W. Burlinson are entrants
• W. H. Sparrow and H. Holliwell (rec 600) meet in a match of 5,000 up for £20 a side at Soho Square, March 17-20. Holliwell (Motor Club) and G. Clarke (Junior Carlton Club) will probably also meet at the same place in April for £25 a side.
• The newly-elected committee of the Billiard Association consists of (in addition to president and vice-presidents) Col. C. M Western, Messrs Charles Dowdeswell, T. A Edge, S. Eumorfopoulos, J. E. Fyfield, Chas. E. Johnson, G. W. S. Willins, Ridgwell Cullum, and J. S. Stafford.
• Col. Atkinson has retired from the position of hon treasurer.
• Playing at the Uxbridge Constitutional Club, Harverson made breaks of 301, 183, and 140 unfinished towards the 750 that he required. He has played remarkably fine billiards this winter in England as he did at the Antipodes during the Australian winter in the middle of last year
• Prince Alexander of Teck writes warmly acknowledging, on behalf of the Middlesex Hospital, of which he is chairman, the recent gift by Messrs Burroughes & Watts, Ltd, of a full-size table and appurtenances to the Cancer Department of the Hospital. "I was much struck," his Royal Highness says, "by the amount of pleasure the patients were deriving. It means much to them to have something to divert their minds."
• Newman will meet Harris (14,000 level) at Manchester on March 17.
• The Beaufort Club Handicap Cup was won by W. Morgan (rec. 65), 200, v. L Marks (rec 125), 187.
• In the annual handicap at the Victoria Club a silver cup, weighing 200 ounces, and £100 in addition, is being competed for
• The rubber in the three matches (18,000 up each) between Inman and Diggle (rec. 1,250) was won by Inman with 18,000 to 17,249
• The Charity Handicap promoted by the Liverpool Amateur Billiard Association was won by W. H. Pearson (rec. 200), 1,000, v. W. Foster (Birkenhead, rec. 120), 903.
• The Amateur Championship of Cornwall, played at Penzance, was won from Mr. J. Bailey (Penzance, holder), who had only to win to make the cup his property, by Mr R. H. Thomas (Penzance) by 172 in 1,000 up
• H. Stevenson is back in England and appears at Leicester Square on March 3 against Falkiner. The Grays are now back in Australia, but are reported to have the intention of returning to, and settling down in, England in the autumn.
• The final for the Shropshire Billiard Handicap was played on February 17. The finalists were W. P. Price (owes 70) and P. Scholz (scratch) Price played an excellent game, making breaks of 49, 37, and 30. Scores W. P. Price, 200; P. Scholz, 120.
• There have only been three breaks of one hundred or upwards in the London Section of the B.A. Amateur Championship, made by W. R. Wall, 103; J. S. Stafford, 101, and W. B. Marshall, 100; but in the Midland Section, J. G. Taylor made a break of 210 (150 off the red), which is a record for the competition in any year, and for which he has received the B.A. gold medal. In the Northern Section, Sergt.-Major Briggs (Manchester) made a break of 108.
• In the first heat of the Inter-Hospital Championship, held at the headquarters of the Billiards Control Club, the University Hospital were opposed to the St. Mary's Hospital, and were defeated by 51 points. For St. Mary's, K. M. Nelson scored 200, v. A. Scott, 124; W. N. Harrison, 108, v. H. W. Davies, 200; and G. L. Iredale, 200, v. I. S. James, 133.—Total, 508 v. 457.
• Playing Diggle in the Professional Tournament at Soho Square on February 5, Inman increased his best break record from 625 to 787. The first score of the break was, singularly, a fluke. In recognition of his great performance Messrs. Burroughes & Watts handed Inman a substantial cheque, as they had done a month before to Reece, who made a break of 751, and scored 2,737 in the course of two sessions. Inman's 787, by the way, was not only a personal record, but also a B.C.C. record with ivory balls under present rules, and a record for the whole series of Burroughes & Watts's tournaments.
• A Welsh Billiard Association is to be formed.
• John Roberts, who has recovered from a serious illness, is now in India.
• The Press Handicap is still proceeding in the smaller hall at Leicester Square.
• Inman occupies first place in the big London tournament, and with three games to play has to be beaten in every heat to be ousted from first prize.
• Mr. W. Reesby, playing Mr. W. Gooing, won the final of the Amateur Billiards Championship of Northampton, the final scores being: Mr. W. Reesby, 1,000; Mr. W. Gooing, 964.
• Stevenson and Gray, in one of their matches in India, had an offer from a well-known firm of 500 rupees to the one who made the highest break, it being stipulated that Gray should make 33 per cent. more than Stevenson. Gray's highest break was 353, to Stevenson's best of 229, Gray thus winning the prize by 9 points.
• At the headquarters of the Billiards Control Club the Royal Automobile Club opposed the Constitutional Club in the Inter-Club Volunteer Snooker Pool Championship, for the B.C.C. challenge cup, at present held by the Wellington Club, and ran out easy winners by 443 points.
• The match between young Taylor and J. Harris (Manchester), in which the former received 1,000 start, concluded in a most unsatisfactory manner with the scores: Taylor, 8,000; Harris, 5,400. Harris would not try to play in the last three sessions, complaining that the pockets were not standard.
• The Albert Club Handicap Cup was won by F. Oliver (rec. 118), 200, v. J. T. Crossley (rec. 65), 166.
• During the afternoon session at the Soho Square Tournament on February 20, both Reece and Diggle returned three figure averages, Diggle averaging 142 and Reece 111.
• In his Tournament match against Diggle, Reece, winning by 9,000 to 8,173, registered the extremely fine average for the week of 57.87 against the also fine average of 51.84 recorded by Diggle. The heat was played February 17 to 22.
• Playing against Newman in the Professional Tournament on February 24 and 25, Inman beat all ivory records with a break of 894. The previous official record under existing rules (apart from Gray's) was Stevenson's 802 in 1905, besides which there have been the 821 by Roberts on a table not previously tested and the 823 by Dawson under Rimington-Wilson rules.
• Inman put up a great game and several great breaks in the match of 24,000 up in which he undertook to concede W. J. Peall 12,000, or half the game, and which came to a conclusion at Leicester Square on February 22. The outcome of this match, which was for £500 a side, will be found in the Professional Results of the month on another page.
• There have been previous exhibitions of long-sustained big scoring, notably that in which, between May 24 and June 5, 1909, John Roberts scored 23,509 in 48 hours, or 979 per session of two hours for two weeks. In 1891 Roberts conceded North 12,000 in 24,000, spot barred, and won by 25 points. He afterwards, in the same season, gave Peall the same start and won by 2,294 points.
• The Yorkshire Professional Championship, which has been the subject of some interesting preliminary contests during the month, was won on February 22 by Pindar, who scored 7,500 to Bree's 5,531.
• At the Twickenham Philanthropic Society's Fancy Dress Ball, Miss Marjorie Bugby won the first prize for the most original costume. Her dress represented a Burroughes and Watts Billiard Table, with three pockets arranged down each side and a D above the waist. As hat, Miss Bugby wore a lampshade similar to those used in the Shetland pageant.