274.—"Can you, or any of your correspondents with a knowledge of rigid dynamics, explain the following:—Two balls are in contact, and the straight line joining their centres when produced strikes the cushion at two or three inches below, say, the top right pocket. But if the cue ball is struck without side, but rather on the top with a gentle stroke, so as to impinge on the first object, about half-ball on the side away from the pocket, the second ball will be driven into the pocket. This I have often found men ready to lay long odds against before they have seen it done but, as doubtless you know, it comes off at least five times out of six, if the balls are placed about two feet from the pocket, and if the stroke is made with just enough force to drive the farther ball the distance to the pocket. If, by chance, this stroke has never been brought to your notice, try it and be astonished."
The same point was put to us in April, 1911.
Our then correspondent wrote:- "The while being struck by the cue ball the red is sent on a slight surve to the left, and this can be judged with practice so that a slow stroke will give a considerable curve to the red ball and a sharp stroke very little curve. What happens to the red ball? Surely it gets a spin from friction; or it is a double kiss?" Our reply was: "We do not, as we have staled before, believe that side can be imparted to an object ball except by squeezing in a cushion or between the other two balls. We have put up the interesting position that you name a great many times, and have come to the conclusion—as we think you have yourself—that the divergence is —as you suggest—caused by a double kiss, the second kiss taking the red ball a shade off centre. That there is no side is proved by the fact that when the stroke is played down the table the divergence is in the same direction as when played up the table, which would not, of course, be the case if side were operating, and this point is further established by playing the stroke from both skies of the balls with differing results. The slower the play the greater is the scope allowed for the kiss to take place."
275.—"Would you kindly settle a question for me? I was under the impression that the huge break made by Reece a few years ago was indeed a record, but a friend informs me that there is on record a break of no less than four hundred odd thousand made by some player. Could you tell me if this is so, and was the break made in a game of billiards?"
There has been no break running into hundreds of thousands besides Reece's 499,135 (unfinished), including 249,552 anchor cannon, made between June 3 and July 6, 1907, at Burroughes Hall, Soho Square.
276.—"I shall be glad if you will kindly decide a disputed point for me. I am running a handicap in which we are giving a special prize for the highest break. One of the players is handicapped at 40 behind in a game of 150, and ran to his points with 29, continuing his break up to 78. The point in dispute is:— Whether he should be allowed to continue his break after reaching his points or whether he should finish at the 150? Considering that there was no stipulation made that the break should be within the 150 and that the prize is additional to the prizes of the game, I think he should be allowed to finish his break.
It was understood at the time by the competitor in play and by the spectators that the break in question was being continued with the view to making the highest in the handicap, and it was not until the following day that it was disputed. The previous highest break was 48, but that was made in the middle of the game. There being no stipulation that the highest break be made before, or up to, the 150 all competitors have the same opportunity of continuing a break if occasion requires."
We do not think the break should count unless the principle was agreed upon by all the competitors at the commencement of the tournament.
Continuing a break when all anxiety as to the heat is over is rather a different thing from making a break as part of an undecided and, perhaps, still strenuous match. "Game" is called as soon as a player has reached his points, and for a player to continue to score under these circumstances is an exceptional rather than an ordinary occurrence.
277.—"How may I know whether a run through near a cushion will result in the object ball kissing back upon the cue ball?" Note where the object ball would go if hit dead straight and then decide whether sufficient margin of contact away from it is left for the object ball to clear and the stroke to he made. Sometimes the kiss, otherwise inevitable, may be avoided by slight stun or gentler play, in the one case getting the object ball away, and in the other case the cue ball before the time, at which the kiss would, in the ordinary course, take place. Clearance can also sometimes be effected by reversing the side employed, the cue ball being in this way "cut" rather more than normally, and for which, as regards the cue ball, the side employed compensates.
Another and quite familiar way of avoiding the kiss when the object ball is very near to a cushion it to play fine and fast, so that the object ball has not time to get back and interfere.
278.—"I take a very keen interest in billiards and have been a subscriber to your paper since November, 1910. There is one question I would like to see explained in your paper, and that is the principle of doubling balls and various doubling angles about the table. An article such as this by some of the expert pool and snooker players, I think, would be very interesting and very instructive I hope to see, at no distant date, an article on this branch of the game."
We do not think that a great deal can be written about doubling, which is really aiming transversely at a cushion with the idea of obtaining equal incidence and reflexion. In practice, except in very gentle strokes, the reflexion is more acute than the incidence and this has to be allowed for.
Thus, if a chalk mark made on the cushion exactly mid-way between a middle and corner pocket be struck, aim being taken with a plain stroke from the opposite middle pocket, the ball will not enter the opposite corner pocket but will strike the side cushion or shoulder. Aim must, therefore, be taken sufficiently beyond the chalk mark—perhaps two inches—to allow both for the circumference of the ball and the somewhat narrower rebound.
This applies, of course, to ordinary billiards as well, but in snooker a double, otherwise impossible, may often be made by the use of side (and particularly running side), which takes effect after the cushion has been reached and guides the cue ball in the desired direction.