THE HANDICAP

COOK'S annual billiard handicap, which will be concluded on Monday, with the match between Louis Kilkenny and Gr. Hunt, if not equal to former handicaps in regard to the number of persons present, at any rate has more than surpassed its predecessors in interest. Several new players, comparatively speaking unknown to fame, have had opportunities of displaying their skill before a really critical audience, and one that differs considerably from the ordinary assemblage of spectators at the generality of exhibition matches.

As we have good reason to believe that before long another handicap, on even a larger scale, will take place in or near London, and that there is a probability of some more being arranged in the provinces, we will, even before the conclusion of the present one, criticise what appears to us a few of the weak points that occur in handicaps generally.

In a previous article on the subject we said that we trusted that hostile criticism would be made before, and not after, the handicap was over.

Now, apropos to the match between Stammers and Taylor, a contemporary observes: "We think the time has now arrived when such an old supporter of the game as Stammers should either receive a favourable start or else be omitted from the list of players, as in recent handicaps he has been far from fairly treated," &c. (The italics are our own.) We honestly confess we are undecided whether this remark is a cruel piece of irony towards that deservedly popular City veteran, or if it really means that 270 points in 500 is an unfavourable start, and that we are to blame? If the latter, "Stammers' champion reminds us somewhat of the old woman in a country village who took the part of a poor Frenchman who was being ridiculed by.a lot of boys for being French: "Ah! my dears, you should not laugh at him, recollect God made him so."

As the match turned out, had Stammers received 400 out of the 500 he would not have won; but then the real state of the case is, Stammers does not pretend to be in practice; with a large business to conduct, the veteran sets, to our mind, the best example possible to the younger men with whom he has competed—the admirable example of one who, in every sense, "minds his own business," the secret of success in life. No player, playing as he does a good, sound, old-fashioned game, but not practising once in a month, can have the slightest chance in meeting players, like the majority of those in the handicap, who are in constant play, just as a horse that has been for a long time out at grass is quite unfitted to run a race; but we must protest against the theory that, when such horses are entered, it is the duty of the handicapper to impose heavy weights on other horses to make up for want of training. We must draw the line somewhere, and to give a professional player a start of 350 out of 500 would, in billiards, to our mind correspond to handicapping a horse to carry 5st. 71b. against another at 20st. On the contrary, we declare that, should we again be called on to make a handicap for professionals, we shall make the limit of the points to be received by any one player as half the game.

One feature of the recent handicap, especially in the early part of it, was the unusual smallness of the breaks. During the three first days the largest break made was one of 70 by W. Cook, notwithstanding that each of the twelve players had played. There can be no doubt that, as a rule, these very large breaks are not made in matches for money, although there are plenty of exceptions to the rule. For instance, Taylor's great break of over 400 in the four-handed match, with Stanley for a partner, against Cook and Roberts last year. Still the first series of matches in the present handicap are so inferior, in respect to the breaks, to the generality, that we cannot help thinking the table must be rather more difficult than usual, though the players themselves do not seem to think so. One extremely practical explanation was suggested to us during one of the matches—viz., "Perhaps they are all bilious after Christmas."

There is one point in billiard handicaps to which we would call attention, and that is the common fallacy of calling the handicap a bad one if the scratch men get knocked out in their first heats.

The fact is, persons often persuade themselves into believing things to be true simply because they wish them to be true. Now they wish to see Cook play more than once, and consequently they think he ought to win his first heat, and that the handicapper is to blame if he does not. This is, of course, extremely illogical. In a commercial sense the success of the handicap very much depends upon two very good men being left in for the final heat, but it would be an act of great injustice for such a motive to influence the handicapper. In looking back on past billiard handicaps a very considerable number have been won by scratch men, and the almost universal complaint in the profession has been that the men with long starts have never had them long enough to have a chance. When, however, long-start men have a chance and avail themselves of it, the complaint is that the handicap is spoilt because Cook is not left in at the finish. We fear the office of handicapper is an extremely ungracious one to fill; indeed, our greatest praise is when everybody finds fault. It may, indeed, be said of us, "Happy are ye when all men speak evil of you."

It is on account of the best men being all left in at the finish that the American system is so popular, but then it should be remembered that the effect is to throw all the play into the hands of six or eight players, and rising men have no chance of coming to the fore. In all professions the front rank wants recruiting from time to time, and we should be very sorry to see professional billiard players arrange themselves into a sort of clique like what we fear is too often seen in county cricket elevens, into which sacred band a rising outsider has no chance of making his way.

Messrs. Burroughes and Watts, who supplied the fine table on which the handicap has been played, announced on the first day their intention of offering an extra prize in the shape of a gold locket to the scorer of the largest average during the handicap; as, however, it is not yet over, we of course forbear commenting on who will be the probable winner. We trust that the match this afternoon, at two o'clock, between Hunt and Kilkenny will be attended in sufficient numbers to reimburse Cook for his liberality in offering £50 as first prize.