THE FORTHCOMING CHAMPIONSHIP

WE have much pleasure in announcing that at length a day is fixed for the event of the year, so far as billiards is concerned, viz., the match for the championship, which is now definitely arranged to take place at St. James's Hall on the 20th of next month.

It is, perhaps, at present difficult to prognosticate as to the result, which probably depends upon the manner in which the two antagonists intend to spend the next six weeks.

The science of billiards has of late years been brought to such a pitch of perfection that a certain species of training is as necessary in order that a player may come to the table in a fit state as that a young horse may be brought fit to the post.

The eye, the muscles, and above all the nerves, must be thoroughly healthy in order to secure any chance of success. For instance, unusual muscular exertion shortly before playing is fatal. The eyesight often varies with other bodily organs, and a bad sailor, after a rough voyage from Calais to Dover, would probably find himself quite out were he to attempt to play immediately after landing; though were he a very bad sailor and the sea unusually rough, he might probably find his voyage absolutely beneficial after a day or two had elapsed.

Again, in anticipating the result of a match at billiards, it must never be lost sight of that it by no means follows that the best player must win.

The element of chance, as we have often before remarked, enters so largely into our calculations, that whenever a great match such as the one in question looms in the future, we may confidently assert that it is anybody's game. We have had an admirable illustration of this very point during the past week. On Monday evening Cook and Roberts met to play an exhibition match of 1,000 up; Cook reached 500, 143 ahead of Roberts, but during the last half of the game he scored 500, while Roberts only made 93. Now, of course, were these two players to meet again, even the next night, it is quite possible that the same disparity between the two might occur, only exactly the other way.

Still it should be borne in mind, and by none more than the players themselves, that by careful and steady living and constant practice, it is quite possible for a man to bring himself into a state of health where he can fully be depended upon for doing his best. We have never seen this point illustrated more markedly than in the great billiard tournament that took place this summer at Manchester.

Roberts had to play seven games with probably the seven best players in England, and was heavily handicapped with six out of his seven opponents. The result was that he not only won every game, but in each 500 up that he played he succeeded in making a splendid break, viz., with Cook, 194; with Bennett, 145; with Taylor, 205; with Stanley, 122; with Kilkenny, 244; with A. Bennett, 110; and with H. Evans, 106, the last and least break being perhaps the most wonderful of all, as Roberts ignored the spot in order to win the prize for the largest all-round break in the handicap.

Now the fact of this play, which we believe to be the most wonderful on record, taking place day after day, shows undoubtedly that good form can, by patience and self-denial, be not only obtained, but retained.

A man who lives an easy-going life and exhibits indifference as to what he eats and drinks, and the hours that he keeps, will have but little chance in a long match with an equal player who takes the greatest care of himself.

The next match for the championship will be a particularly interesting one. Cook and Roberts have met in these matches five times, and though Cook has at present the honour of having won three games to Roberts's two, nevertheless the latter player holds the champion cup, and on the 24th of May last showed as superior form to Cook as Cook did to him in the match that took place on the 4th of February, 1874. We shall probably have opportunities during the next five weeks of observing the form which each player exhibits, and consequently be the better able to prophesy as to the result.

There is one point that should not be forgotten in connection with championship matches, and that is that there is far less luck about them than in ordinary ones. For instance, in an ordinary game between Cook and Roberts we know either player might make 800 off the balls. Now in a match on a championship table a break of even 100 is very rare. Consequently a match of 1,000 up on one is quite equal to a match of 2,000 up on another, as a test of play.

An interesting feature in these championship matches is that they are an admirable test of the advance or retrogression in the standard of high class play. All the pockets are built exactly according to model. Now every billiard player knows how very much his game will vary according to whether the table is what may be called an easy one or a difficult one. The pockets, too, to be easy, depend quite as much upon the way in which the slate is cut out as upon the mere width of the extremities of the cushions from one another.

Should, therefore, we find in years to come that we have players who, on a championship table, make breaks of three or four hundred off the balls, we shall know that this improvement of play is real, and not dependent on the alteration of the table. In fact, in ordinary tables there should be some fixed rule laid down as to the size of the pockets, just as much as at cricket there is a fixed law as to the width of the stumps. Many maintain that the marvellous improvement in billiards observable in the present day is simply owing to the modern tables being far easier than they were in the time when the late Mr. Kentfield was in his prime.

This opinion we do not share. That the tables are perhaps a trifle easier may be the case, but that the modern tables beat the old ones in being far more perfect pieces of workmanship is certain; and this, combined with the fact that modern professionals work hard at the game as a profession, and not as a mere amusement, is amply sufficient to account for the change. Let us hope that the players in the forthcoming championship match may work so hard that each may surpass even himself.