243.—"Your paper does not appear to me to contain quite enough with regard to what may be termed the higher flights of billiards. By this I mean percussion, incidence, and reflexion, ball rotation, etc. All that you publish seems good and sound, but it is known to most average players."
We think you are rather generous in your judgment of the average player, whose great fault, in our opinion, is his weakness at ordinary strokes and positions, to the rules underlying which he appears to pay too little attention. At the same time, we fully sympathize with your own view, and are sure that the best player in the world would be a better player still if he added technical and scientific knowledge to his acquired experience and dexterity. Recently we gave an article by an old writer on the game (Reuben Roy), penned from this point of view, and now others are appearing.
244.—"I am constantly losing balls in pockets in a very annoying way, although I do not play hard. How is this to be avoided?"
Whenever you settle down to a half-ball stroke and notice that an imaginary line bisecting the edge of the ball at which you are looking and its centre leads direct to a pocket, you may know at once that, with true delivery of the cue the ball will enter the pocket. The best plan is to treat every contact with the object ball as a pot, whether you want to pot or not. You will know then how to aim to make the pot and how to avoid it. The same applies to loss of ball in baulk, contact with shoulders, unintended kisses, etc.
245.—"You said recently that the straight kiss cannon, with the cue ball in hand and the red and white near the top cushion and a few inches from each other down the central line, was a rather difficult shot to miss, but the first time I tried it the cue ball was kicked back by the first object ball, instead of getting beyond it and making the cannon."
You must have played dead on to the centre, and if you can do this two or three times in succession we should say that you have few equals in the matter of accurate aim. If the divergence in contact had been only the thirty-second of an inch you would have made the cannon, and nine times out of ten any failure to score would result from the missing of the kiss altogether, rather than from a too deadly accuracy.
246.—"I have just been reading in a book on billiards that every cannon is six inches wide. Can you explain how this calculation is arrived at?"
It is an erroneous statement. The margin of error in aim for bad players is a shade more than four inches. The good player elects with which side of his ball he will strike the second object ball, or whether he will take it fully, and unless he plays badly his margin is restricted to two inches. Even the bad player has only four inches as a possible target. His ball can only strike the second object ball with one of its sides at a time,' and if its run diverges more than four inches and a fraction he must miss it altogether.
247.—"Is it the case that T. Reece made a break of over 400,000, if so, when and where, and with whom was he playing? Also what did Peall score when he made his big break, playing the spot stroke'"
T. Reece made an unfinished break, by means of the "anchor" stroke in 1907, of 499,135.
This was not officially certified, but there is no doubt that it was made, as a referee was present all the time. It was made during a series of days in the saloon of Messrs. Burroughes and Watts, Ltd., without an opponent. Peall's record score by means of the spot stroke was made in 1890 and amounted to 3,304, including 400, 172, 150, 123, 120, and 93 consecutive spot strokes.
248.—"I shall be much obliged if you will explain a masse shot and how it is played, and also the running-through masse. In your letter I received about a month ago you said where I should find the explanation of this shot, but it appears that only 'aiming for the masse' is described in The Billiard Monthly (bound vol. for 1911)."
The best description that we can give of a masse stroke is to say that it has to be played precisely like an ordinary stroke, with the exception that the player is supposed to be horizontally in the air, and the cue pointed vertically downwards.
To draw back with a masse stroke the part farthest from the object ball must, naturally, be struck, and to follow through the part nearer to the object ball. When side is used the great point to observe is that the aim or cue direction must be modified to compensate for the curve that the combined side and screw impart.
249.—"Re touching ball in taking aim, I understand that this must be treated as a stroke. Does this rule apply when the ball is played from baulk? I fancy I saw it given as a foul in a recent match. Also what happens if, after touching the ball in aiming, the player plays the stroke?"
If the cue ball is touched with the cue, either when playing from hand or otherwise, it is a stroke. If again touched the stroke is foul and the balls must be spotted for the opponent.