THE LATE HANDICAP

COOK'S handicap concluded on Saturday last with the victory probably of the most popular man among the whole twelve of the competitors, for the simple reason that Kilkenny combines with unvaried straightforward conduct a reputation for having on several occasions had the good or bad luck to run second; and, certainly, at the conclusion of the first out of the three games he played in his final heats there seemed to be a strong impression that, despite his best endeavours, his bad luck would still attend him.

There was one marked feature in the match of Saturday last that professional players would do well to consider, and that was the evident popularity of Kilkenny. We trust North Countrymen -will remember this whenever the occasion should occur of some popular London player competing with any local celebrity. We feel a natural pride in London that we can afford to be not even merely English but Cosmopolitan, and to judge of men not simply because they are North or South, or even British or Foreign, but by their intrinsic merits.

We have no hesitation in saying that an American or Frenchman would meet with not merely fair play, but with as genuine support in London were he to challenge the present champion, as if he were born and bred in the country, supposing always that his past career was not contaminated with foul spots that dimmed the lustre of his fame. What we want to see is not the best Englishman, but the best billiard player, so far as it is combined with the "honest player."

Unfortunately, in many branches of what we may term public life in this country, this cosmopolitan feeling is carried to the opposite extreme.

At Covent Garden Mr. Jones would have no chance against Signor Jonini, or Mrs. Gubbins against Madame Gubini, just as it would have been impossible for Signor Webbini to have swum across the Channel without some decoration being pinned upon his loyal breast by royal hands. We are rejoiced, therefore, to find the "fashion" in billiards consistent rather than inconsistent with common sense, and trust sincerely that it may long remain so.

Kilkenny won the handicap on Saturday last in a manner never to be forgotten. In the first game of the three he succeeded in reaching 499 all, when nine men out of ten would have despaired; the second game he won when at one period it seemed any odds against him; and in the third game he won the handicap. We do not for one moment wish to disparage the play of the loser, but it is at times necessary to criticise and admire men who come before the public as well deserving winners. The winner of the Derby, for instance, is a hero; the second horse, though he lost by a neck, comparatively speaking nothing. Yet we are bound to write about the winner. When however, the winner is a popular favourite, how much more is the victory admired! Among professional players there are many whose success is hailed with universal delight, and among others success is met with the remark, "He played well, but I should have liked to have seen the other man win."

The match on Monday last at the Guildhall Tavern, between Kilkenny and Alfred Bennett, was, or ought to have been, an instructive one.

Though the stakes were only £25, it was well known that the audience would witness a good game. Attempts have been made in almost every branch of sport at times to dazzle the public with matches for gigantic stakes. Unfortunately for the getters-up of these affairs, the British public is not nearly so green as people imagine. Money by itself will no more make a match popular than it will get a man into good society. The cloven hoof will somehow or other assuredly protrude itself, as it has done of late, and will again on the next attempt being made.

There are, unfortunately, a large class of men whose bane is, like that of the majority of the criminal classes, that they have no power of mind to look beyond the necessities of the moment.

It is these men who risk their whole prospects in life for a small immediate gain, ignoring the principle that if these things continue long "this our craft is in danger of being set at nought." We have before instanced the "ring," which magic circle, once the pride of princes, and whose best representative obtained a seat in the House of Commons, has collapsed completely from its own inherent dishonesty. Professional players should ponder these matters, and not lend themselves to even countenance sham exhibitions by their presence, should they know them to be such.

We are, of course, referring to many years ago, but the air is at times filled with rumours; and Capel Court morality, without the talent to conceal the little eccentricities of genius that will of necessity appear at times, would be disastrous to a profession in which the law decides a game of pool at an hotel for sixpence a life to be illegal.

Perhaps the most interesting match in the future is the one between Taylor and Alfred Bennett, who play a 1,000 up, level, on the 21st instant, for a stake of £200, on a championship table, similar in every respect to the one supplied by Messrs. Burroughes and Watts for the last match for the championship between Cook and Roberts. There can be very little to chose between the two players. Taylor is, we believe, slightly the favourite since Alfred Bennett's defeat by Kilkenny, but it should be remembered players have hitherto failed to make the spot stroke to an appreciable extent on a table restricted to such small pockets as the games for the championship are played upon; those therefore who judge of Taylor's chance must judge of his game without the spot. There is no doubt, however, that the match is genuine, and that both players will try their best.

Notwithstanding Alfred Bennett's pretty all-round play, we rather fancy Taylor's chance as the best. The game will commence at six o'clock, at the Guildhall Tavern, Gresham-street, on Friday next, an hour by no means too early considering the table. We have been informed that S. W. Stanley intends challenging the winner.