The Clashing of the Champions
As The Billiard Player for January is going to press the issue in the great 16,000 up match at Thurston's Hall, Leicester Square, between Smith, the professional champion, and Inman, the ex-champion (who declined to play through last season's championship and was not, therefore, actually beaten by Smith) remains unfinished. At the end of the first day (January 3) of the fortnight there was only 34 between the players, and at the end of the first week the difference was 516 in Inman's favour.
It was a week of big attendances and concentrated interest, and a much larger hall could undoubtedly have been filled at each session.
The scoring, although retarded by much safety play, has been on the sensational and big break scale, and on January 8 Smith eclipsed his previous record break of 799 (in the same hall recently against Newman) with 802.