Jottings of the Month

• A snooker break worthy of note was made at the Wilton Club, Nottingham, on July 8. The marker (B. Revill). aged 19, made a run of 54 without the semblance of a fluke.

• In The Yorkshire Evening Post, C. H. Wilkinson, ex-Yorkshire champion, tells a number of very interesting anecdotes of humorous incidents that have come under his own notice, mainly in the "county of broad acres." One of these anecdotes is reproduced on another page.

  Two others may also be briefly given. In a colliery district one of the spectators suddenly said to Wilkinson's opponent:—"Put thi pick dahn, Jack lad, thar't getting nowt but muck; he's getting coil ivvery time."

  On another occasion the local oracle explained to someone who was puzzled when the red ball was placed on the centre spot that when a player had put the red down three times he could have it on whatever spot he liked.

• When Inman returns to this country in 1915 he will probably be accompanied or followed by the American champion, Hoppe. So far Hoppe's play is not very widely known in the United Kingdom, but the attention directed to it during his matches with Inman in America will bring it into considerable prominence. Early next year Hoppe and Inman will be matched in Britain.—Scottish Country Life.
• As a result of the Halifax Charity Billiard Tournament ten guineas goes to the Royal Halifax Infirmary and ten other local charities benefit. A new challenge cup has also been bought.
• A very fine photogravure engraving has been prepared by the Magna Charta Publishing Co., 59-64, New Oxford Street, W., representing all the leading professional players of the present daw
• At Forest Hill two little boys of 4 and 5 play billiards in the garden on a table built for them by their father, and The Newcastle Illustrated Chronicle makes half-a-page of interesting pictures out of this circumstance. The subjects an: "Is it a double baulk," "Using the spirit level," "Plenty of Chalk," "Horace making a double-figure break," and "Ernie making a cannon."
• A. B. M. writes to The Daily Sketch: "I wonder what sort of game the King plays now —if he ever plays at all!" (He is referring to billiards.) "Years ago, as Prince George, he played an excellent cannon game. I had the honour of being one of his opponents in a homely four handed game at a house party in Bishop's Stortford, and his well-considered round-the-table cannons gained the victory easily for his side."

• The Northern Whig newspaper has unearthed from a copy of The Encyclopaedia Britannica of the eighteenth century a description of the game as then played. Amongst other things the article says:—"The game is played with sticks called 'maces' or 'cues.' The mace is the prevailing instrument and is preferred for its peculiar advantage of 'trailing ' or following the ball to such a convenient distance as to make it an easy hazard. The degrees of trailing are various, and undergo different denominations among the connoisseurs of this game—namely, the shove, the sweep, the long stroke, the trail, and the dead trail or turn up; even the butt end of the cue becomes very powerful when it is made use of by a good trailer."

  The game, was played with two balls, and the concluding rules were as follow:—"10.—He who retains the end of his adversary's stick when playing, or endeavours to baulk his stroke loses one. 11.—He who stops either ball when running loses one, and if near the hole loses two. 12.—He who blows upon the ball when running loses one. and similarly he who shakes the table when the ball is running loses one."

  Why is not billiards played under these rules now? As The Northern Whig remarks:—"The price of admission would be amply repaid by a vision of Roberts's face if during a delicate run of nursery cannons his adversary joggled his cue and blandly demanded to be penalised one."

• Important Notice.—The October issue of this Journal will be a double one, and 20,000 (Twenty Thousand) Copies will be printed. A prize of Twenty-five Guineas will be offered for the correct placing of the Contestants in the next Professional Billiard Tournament. Of this Competition further details will be published next month.
• George Gray and Claude Falkiner have been touring freely during July with F. Dixon accompanying them as referee.
• During the first week of July, T. Aiken, the Scottish Champion, played matches with local amateurs at the Masonic Hall, Lerwick. Aiken conceded to each player 300 in 800, and his best breaks were 285 (unfinished), 228, 222, 158, 156, 108, and 103.