I cannot remember why and when I decided to adopt billiards as a profession. To be quite frank I don't think I was ever allowed any choice in the matter, for the simple reason that I seem to have been playing billiards ever since I could walk, and therefore the profession claimed me before I arrived at an age to decide for myself. The impression is general that I was born and bred a Cockney. This is not strictly accurate, and it is just as well to correct "Mr. General Impression," more especially as I have heard of a few "bets" being won and lost relative to the place where I first saw the light. I was born at Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, on March 23, 1894, but for the rest may be considered a Londoner, for I was most certainly reared within sound of Bow Bells. I commenced playing in public when 9½ years of age, so I suppose I may be regarded as having been something of a prodigy. I was so very small, too, in those days, that I had to carry a little box arrangement around with me on which I stood to play every stroke.
"Me and my box," if I may be allowed to be ungrammatical, became a familiar sight in various social clubs around London, where I gained heaps of experience, if not much money. When eleven years of age I was making my "hundred" breaks, and round about this time I was honoured with an invitation from Messrs. Burroughes & Watts to take part in a boy championship at their hall in Soho Square.
There was some difficulty, however, because of my immature age. I could not play in the evenings without a permit from a magistrate, and although application was made for this, backed up by my appearance in court, it was refused on the grounds that I ought to be in bed at the time set for play in the evening.
However, the difficulty was surmounted by my playing my various games in the afternoons, and although I did not win the event I played well enough to give complete satisfaction to a fond parent who guided and watched over my billiards career then and for a long time afterwards.
I suppose I must have had a natural aptitude for the game, and, young as I was, I determined to make good. Every week almost I had engagements to fill with opponents three and four times my age, and could then concede starts in many cases, and was very rarely on the losing side. Looking back, I cannot help thinking that the experience gained in these " side shows "really laid the foundation of what success came my way in after years in the first-grade circles. Long before reaching my majority I flatter myself I could hold my own with all but the cream of the profession.
I got the one great opportunity, which comes to all at least once in a lifetime, when the late John Roberts became my mentor some nine years ago. I signed up with the" great master " for three years, toured Canada with him, and, generally speaking, what my own work could not do alone the prestige of John Roberts's name did for me. I got big games in public, and, profiting by the advice and experience of the creator of modern billiards, I have never looked back since. I was included in the big tournament of 1913-14 for the first time, and opened the eyes of a few of the big guns by winning the event without dropping a point.
I dead-heated with Smith and Falkiner in the same event for 1915-16, and when it was revived last season after a long lapse I came out on top again. For a time my Army service interrupted my billiards, and a somewhat severe illness after demobilization retarded matters still further; but taking things all round I am satisfied with my position in the billiard world today. That has entailed a good deal of hard work, assiduous practice, a whole host of up and down experiences, and careful living.
When I win the championship, as I hope to do one of these days, I shall have achieved an ambition formed when I discovered that billiards was my forte. Hut whether or not that ambition is achieved, I shall always do my best to prove worthy of the many kind things said of the Benjamin of the billiards profession.