In an article contributed by him to The News of the World, at the half-way stage of the championship match played at the Holborn Hall during the last fortnight of March, Inman says.—
In the match that I am now playing with Reece my task is exceedingly difficult, but it is one that I did not underestimate.
This season Reece is distinctly a better player than he was. He has strengthened his open game considerably, and is by no means so impetuous. There has been no development in his top-of-the-table game, which he always plays well, whilst his close cannons are perfection.
He has twice this season made breaks of over 700 against me, and with that knowledge I went to Holborn Hall prepared for a harder battle than ever. And I was not mistaken, for whilst I am fortunately possessed of a lead, it is anything but a winning lead. Reece has hung on excellently, and made a number of sound counter safety moves, and several times has beaten me handsomely at a game that people say I play as well as most professionals. I should estimate Reece's improvement this season to be at least 150 in 1,000—and should I have the good fortune to win I shall have defeated undoubtedly the second best player.
This is not to flatter Reece, but I know my men, having played them.
Reece's strong point—and one that the heavy-napped cloth admirably suits—is his nursery cannon play. He has made several runs this week, and the manner in which he avoids the foul push, even when the balls are quite close and skims or brushes his ball by the others, is wonderfully attractive.
It is, however, a dangerous game, and sometimes he has set up problems that have beaten him, or have only been solved by good masse play. Considering the circumstances, and that I have at stake my title of champion, which has a financial value, I have played my average game. There has been a great deal of safety play, but take that away and some useful breaks are left. At the start it took me a long while to gauge the conditions. I was missing the drop cannon, and making other bad blunders, which compelled me to feel my way when danger threatened to tighten the game. Reece was possibly in the same position, and followed suit, which accounts for the safety play which has been criticised by amiable gentlemen who, I fear, have not realized how highly important the game is to Reece and myself. I am playing for £200 of Mr. Robert Topping's money, and Reece for the same amount, staked by a Northcountry sportsman, Mr. Kenworthy, and we are both doing our best to win. I may say at once that it is not my intention to, alter my methods. The public have shown no signs of tiring of them, and from what some have said I have reason to believe that a great many people enjoy watching the finesse. They apparently recognise the value of a good defence. The heavy nap to the cloth and soft ivory balls, which take a dead angle and have no spring in them, are against an all-round player, and as I score a great number of my points in that way, my game has been difficult to play. Such conditions are more suited to Reece's quieter top-of-the-table and close-cannon methods. I have, however, accommodated myself to them.
On this point I must have a little grumble with the Billiards Control Club, and it is one that good amateur players will appreciate. It is not right that professional players should each year find themselves faced with different and unexpected playing conditions. Either the cloth should be superfine or heavily napped for all time, not one and then the other. It is the same with the balls. We never know whether they are to be of Indian or African ivory, which are altogether different materials when you have to play billiards with them, the effects of certain shots played the same way being quite different. Surely the B.C.C. can select a roll of cloth and keep it for the championship as they can a few sets of balls. There is quite enough to be thought of in a big game without that worry, and plenty of wear and tear. It may cause some surprise and raise a smile, but it is none the less true, that at the end of a billiard season I generally am something like a stone lighter than at the start. I am getting finer every day, and with Reece after me I shall be nicely conditioned by the end of May. After a big battle with him I feel like a hare that has been well coursed. I wonder what Reece is like!
It is popularly supposed that Reece and myself are eternal enemies, and certainly he does tell some stories at my expense: All my wins are obtained by the interposition of good fortune, and he says that I am the luckiest man alive.
A little time since he said that if I fell over Clifton Suspension Bridge a barge laden with eiderdown quilts or pillows would be sailing underneath to break my fall, and that I would drop off to sleep on them, to find myself eventually in some pleasant West-country resort, having travelled there free of charge. He says that once I "biked" to a race meeting, and, with my usual luck, found such a nice wind at my back that I was blown there. The same wind blew all the men's straw hats off, and in the scramble I got a two-and-a-half-guinea Panama for a two-and-ninepenny, whilst, after the last race, the wind changed suddenly, and blew me home. I forget how many winners I backed, but I know that one man who was going to give me a tip— which lost—was temporarily deprived of the powers of speech, and could not do so. At least, that is what Reece says. As a matter of fact, whilst Reece would slay me a thousand times with his cue—as I would him—we are not unfriendly. I know that behind this battling for supremacy he has excellent qualities, and that, billiard play apart, he would do me a good turn if he could.
Men who have fought hard generally respect each other. Reece is a public favourite, and he certainly is more favoured than myself with applause and encouragement. It is strange, for I do my utmost to please, and play my best; but it does not matter in the end, and I do not grumble.
If I can get the stake money, he is thoroughly welcome to the applause. To attempt to forecast the result of the match is difficult, but I think that I shall retain my title.
There is, however, always danger to be scented from a player of Reece's ability, and a four-figure lead is not much, as breaks go nowadays. I have lost as many points in a day as has Reece.
In quoting from an article by G. Nelson, the Yorkshire professional, we said that this appeared in The Yorkshire Evening News. It should have been The Yorkshire Evening Post, and we are glad of the opportunity of making this correction.