IT will be recollected that these players were to have decided the match in which Stanley conceded 282 points in 1,000 for £25 a-side, at 367, Strand, on the 16th inst., but Shorter being unwell on that evening, an adjournment until Monday last was agreed upon. Shorter was present at the appointed time, but Stanley did not show up until just upon an hour later. The former player had then left the room, but upon a meeting taking place Shorter declined to commence at so late an hour, and the match has thus ended.
AN exhibition billiard tournament took place at Newsome's Amphitheatre, Liverpool, on Thursday night, in which J. Roberts, jun., champion; W. Cook, ex-champion; T. Taylor, and Louis Kilkenny, champion of Yorkshire, were engaged. The first and last named were drawn together and played the final heat, the champion conceding 225 in 750. Kilkenny was in rare form, while Roberts, on the other hand, was completely off his play; and an uninteresting game ended in favour of the Yorkshireman by 557 points. Kilkenny's breaks were 30, 48, 60. and 197, inclusive of fifty-four spots; Roberts's best contributions being four breaks of 35 each, 32, and 54. The game between Cook and Taylor was far more interesting. Taylor broke the balls, and presently got in with a nice all-round break of 48, this
being shortly succeeded with a similarly-obtained break of 58 by Cook, when the game was called-Cook 77, Taylor 290. The former ran to 111, when he obtained position for the spot and holed the red thirty-nine times in succession, when he again lost position, but by fine all-round play reached 319, when he miscued, the total of the break being 242. Taylor, by means of minor contributions, the principal of which were 71, 40, and 76, reached 522 to Cook's 425, when the latter again got in, and with the aid of 89 consecutive red hazards ran out with a break of 276, a winner by 178 points, the heat in this instance being only 700 up.
THE four-handed match that took place at St. James's Hall on Friday, the 17th inst. between Cook and Stanley on the one hand, and Roberts and Taylor on the other, formed no exception to the rule, which seems to be that four-handed games are invariably slow and uninteresting. The probable reason of this is, that as some time necessarily ensues between each turn to play of each player, the men do not get into their play so quickly as when they have only one opponent, and consequently play twice as fast.
They commenced at 8.32, Stanley giving the first miss, Taylor following with another, when on Cook trying for but missing the cannon, Roberts broke the ice by making a break of 26. Stanley then scored 2, and for some time play was exceedingly slow. The first break worth mentioning was one of 49 by Taylor, who by its means brought his score to 96 to his opponents' 39, whereupon Cook replying with a good break of 54, brought up his total to 93. Roberts failing to score more than 2, and Stanley failing to score at all, Taylor, in his next innings, made 34, when Cook again beat it by following with a break of 41. Here again the play became very slow, till the score stood-Cook and Stanley 228, Roberts and Taylor 280. Up to this point Roberts had made breaks of 33, 27, and 33, Taylor's best being 49, 26, and 34, Stanley's 30 and 26, and Cook's 54 and 41. Cook now made a break of 62, and his next break but one consisted of 34. Stanley's next four breaks were 14, 15, 51, and 17. In the meanwhile Roberts and Taylor had had but little to play for, and on the interval being called, Cook and Stanley had reached 505 to their opponents' 375, the time up to this point being one hour and a half.
On resuming play the game became still slower, 13 misses for safety being given in the next 24 strokes, and both Cook and Roberts failing to score six times each in succession. After this a break of 55 from Roberts, followed by another of 36, began to change the appearance of the game, and Roberts and Taylor reached 541 to Cook and Stanley's 581, when Roberts, by means of a well-played break of 87, passed his opponents, who seemed at this period of the game to almost stand still. Another good break of 70 from Roberts brought his score to 712 to 613, but it was reserved on this occasion, as on a previous one, when the same players played a four-handed game, for Taylor to make the break of the evening, which consisted of 116, the break containing only 11 spot hazards.
This break virtually settled the game, as by its means Taylor and Roberts reached 896 to their opponents' 665, and after a few more small breaks Taylor won the game with a break of 20, by 232 points.
The room was by no means crowded. The table was a very handsome specimen of carved walnut-wood, and was by Cox and Yeman. Oxford Jonathan scored th e game with his usual distinctness.
A GAME of 1,000 up was played at Mr. Crag's Room, Glasgow, on the 16th inst., between Sam Street, a local player, and an amateur, the professional conceding 300 in the 1,000. Street played remarkably well in the early part of the game, and succeeded in passing his opponent before the 500 was reached, and on the interval being called Street's score stood at 619, the amateur being more than 100 points behind. On resuming play the amateur began to play much better, and gradually gaining on his opponent, got to within 11 points of him, amidst great excitement among a somewhat noisy audience. Street, however, ultimately succeeded in winning the game by 76 points.
In our account of the match between Collins and F. Bennett at Bristol last week, we stated that a table, recovered for the occasion by Burroughes and Watts, was used; we are now informed that Messrs. Abbott and Co. performed that operation.