THE match between Tom Taylor, of London, and Alfred Bennett, of Birmingham, 1,000 up even, on a championship table, for £100 a-side, took place last Tuesday evening at the Cambridge Hall, Newman-street, Oxford-street. It will be remembered that on a former occasion the same men met at the Guildhall Tavern, Gresham-street, when the game was brought to an abrupt termination-at a time when only 50 points were required to complete it-owing to the gas being summarily turned out at the legal closing hour of 12.30. Bennett and Taylor, however, arranged the matter amicably between themselves, the former receiving £20 compensation for the number of points he was ahead at the end of the game. The stakes remained in the stakeholder's hands; and the match of last evening decided their ultimate destination. One of the conditions of the match was that it should be played on a table similar in every respect to that on which the last championship match was conducted at St. James's Hall, and Messrs. Burroughes and Watts at their own expense put up the very table on which the championship match was played, a splendid piece of workmanship, composed of English and pollard oak. Considerable delay again occurred at starting, and it was not till more than an hour and a quarter after the appointed time, five o'clock, that the string for choice of balls, &c., took place.
Taylor gave the first miss. Bennett, however, was the first to score, making a fine cannon on his second attempt, but failed to score more. Taylor replied with a break of 28, and from the first began to draw slowly but surely ahead. No breaks particularly worthy of record occurred during the first two hundred, up to this point Bennett's best break being 32. Taylor, on reaching 221 to Bennett's 149, made a fine break of 57, and followed on with another of 22, thus reaching 300 to Bennett's 149-no small start on a championship table. Both men continued to play on slowly and cautiously, Taylor having decidedly the best of the luck, the balls often kissing just right for him when the kiss made the difference of a score being left instead of the balls running safe. From Taylor's break of 57 to the interval his best break was only 33, while Bennett, though playing well, failed to surpass his previous one of 32. At the interval the score stood-Taylor 625, Bennett 397.
On resuming play Bennett began to gain slightly on his opponent, but on reaching 638 Taylor made a good break of 33, bringing his score to 671 to Bennett's 466. On reaching 802 Taylor again got the balls, and scored another break of 51, thus reaching 853 to Bennett's 635, and continuing to play remarkably well, eventually won the game by 315 points, Bennett's bad luck attending him to the finish of the game. The time occupied by the play was four hours ten minutes. Oxford Jonathan scored the game, at the conclusion of which the stakes so long held were gladly handed over to the winner by the stakeholder, and we only regret that at the termination of two matches, in which the conduct of each player has been so honourable, and contrasts so favourably with what too often takes place in other branches of sport, that it was impossible for both men to have won.