How "Potting the White" came to be Called "Whitechapel."
"In your next issue" (writes Mr. G. H. Nelson)"there is to appear, I understand, a symposium of opinion upon the much-debated question whether it is quite good form to put down the white, when the exigencies of the game call for such action. Readers of these expert opinions should find any doubts which they may have entertained on the subject finally dispelled, but probably few of them are aware of the reason for which this particular stroke became stigmatized as 'Whitechapel' play."
"Many inexperienced players contracted the habit of potting the white, upon any and every occasion when an opportunity of doing so presented itself, quite irrespective of whether further scoring could thereby be rendered more probable or not, and, as such a practice could only be attributed to lack of knowledge, it became known as the 'Whitechapel' game, Whitechapel, at the date when the epithet was first applied, being rightly regarded as having a lack of knowledge of the game."
"Obviously, in certain circumstances, it is an ignorant game to play, since it limits the striker's further possibilities of scoring, inasmuch as he subsequently has only one ball to play at, instead of two. Whenever it is the correct thing to do so, however, no player need hesitate for a moment about putting down the white, and no mistaken idea of conventional courtesy should be allowed to prevent him from playing the game."
The Milliard Player is glad to have this interesting letter from Mr. Nelson, who, besides being Secretary of the Billiards Association and Control Club and a good amateur player, is the originator of the present excellent billiards handicap system with which he deals on another page—although he does not allude in any way himself to this circumstance.
We should like this question of the putting clown of the white ball to be settled once and for all.
Meanwhile we think it can be asserted with some confidence that a billiard player who does not know how and when to put down the white ball, and has not full confidence in doing it, does not know the game and will never be a really advanced player.