230.—"Your paper is a well-finished one and very appropriate for billiard enthusiasts, but a contribution each month of general interest would improve it I think. If you will permit me I will make a suggestion. In the next month's number give a visitor's impression of his visit to a billiard factory with a description of how billiard tables are made. The following month could contain the same visitor's description of his visit to the mill where billiard cloths are made. The next could contain a short story of difficulties and perils encountered in foreign lands in obtaining ivory for billiard balls., etc."
Thanks for your suggestion
We have already given several articles and pictures descriptive of billiard-table making processes, but agree that something of a more intimate nature might yet be published, and we shall hope to do so later.
231.—"Several references to what is known as the 'billiard pointer' have appeared in The Billiard Monthly. Can you kindly state in a few words exactly what it is that this instrument purports to do?"
It indicates the exact point upon, or away from, an object ball at which aim should be taken for any class of stroke and reveals whether the correct aim has been taken or precisely to what extent it has been at fault. As we have before stated, we consider it to be a sound and practical instrument and one calculated to be of great value to all serious players who will take the slight trouble that is necessary in order effectively to utilize it.
232.—"How long have the rules authorized the marker to declare strokes to be foul?"
The B.C.C. rule (20) as to a referee's duties includes the following:—"He is, moreover, responsible for the proper conduct of the game, and must of his own initiative intervene should he observe any breach of the rules." We should take this as authorizing the referee to spot the balls without appeal after a foul stroke, which ought to be so dealt with.
233.—"Two are playing. The player has finished his break and stood off from the table. His opponent, when he goes to the table, discovers that the wrong ball has been played with. Having finished the break, and gone from the table, can a foul be then claimed? Should not the claim of a foul, as stated in the rule, be made whilst in play, and not after a break has been finished? Or how are we to read the rule if this is not so? The argument is: As the claim of a foul was not made in play no part of the rule can be claimed after an opponent has finished his break and gone from the table."
We do not agree. We should say that the striker scores all his points (under B.C.C. rules) or all except those for the last stroke (under B.A. rules), and that play then proceeds, according to rule, as though the foul had been claimed during the break. This is obviously just, as the striker has made a mistake and deserves to be penalized for it. The B.C.C. rule, page 14, section "Foul Strokes," paragraph H, reads as follows:—"By playing with the wrong ball all points made previous to the claim of foul to be scored." Under "Penalties," page 15, paragraph 2, the rule runs:—" For a foul stroke... his (i.e., the striker's) ball shall be placed on the centre spot, the, red shall be spotted, and his opponent shall play from the D." Taking these two rules together we should say that the striker in the case that you name scores the points that he has made, but the balls are spotted and the opponent continues the game from the D. The B.A. rules are somewhat different. On page 12, section 33, the rule is given as follows:—" If the player play with... his opponent's ball his opponent may play from the position of either white ball, have the balls replaced and compel his adversary to play the stroke with the right ball, such stroke to be foul, or he may either break the balls himself, or direct his opponent to do so.
Should the player exacting the penalty elect to play from the position of his opponent's ball, the ball shall be changed at once.
Should the striker discover the error before his opponent claims a foul, all scores made shall count to the striker, and he shall continue his break in the ordinary manner."
234.—" Having worked incessantly at the top of the table, I am now becoming fairly successful there in practice, and have made a forty-seven break without going to baulk. But I find that in actual play I frequently go through a whole evening without getting a single chance at the top. Yet I notice that professionals seem to reach there after two or three strokes. Can you make a suggestion that is likely to help me?"
All professionals do not reach the top of the table readily, and the best are often kept away from it for considerable spells of time.
It is not a position that can be immediately forced after any run of the balls. The simple route is by way of a drop cannon— direct or cushion—off the white on to the spotted red, or by way of the potting of the red following the previous favourable placing of the white. But even these simple shots can easily be mulled if the contacts are not exactly right. Either a favourable or a difficult juxtaposition of the gathered balls may result, according as to whether the gathering stroke is carefully or ineffectively managed. To make the drop cannon or to pot the red is not enough and may even be worse than failure to score, for an attempt to commence top-of-the-table movements from a bad top-of-the-table gathering may hand over to your opponent instead of yourself the position towards which you have been so carefully struggling.
235.—"There is a stroke that is tolerably certain to come off, but I have never seen a professional attempt it when on. I mean when the two object balls are one behind the other against the centre of the top cushion and the striker is in hand. Play at the upper shoulder of a pocket will result in a cannon along the top cushion."
We saw this done once by Diggle, just as we saw a cannon made by Stevenson (when the two balls were nearly touching and both banked against the centre of the top cushion) by playing down the table and up again. But these strokes are few and far between amongst professionals, who fear to tread where amateurs do not hesitate to rush in. Unless seeming to be necessary for the continuation of an already long break a miss would be preferable, as mere disturbance of the two balls might easily open up a game for the opponent instead of leaving him with a stiff proposition to tackle.