The Professional Championship

(By GEORGE REID.)

Stevenson and Falkiner at the Burroughes Hall and Newman and Tothill at Thurston's set the ball rolling on February 14. The former suggested an excellent struggle, and so it proved up to a point. But when Falkiner on Friday afternoon dashed away on a phenomenal piece of work that yielded him 1,431 points, against Stevenson's 130, in no minutes, it was all up with the old champion.

Falkiner, who scored a break of 560, returned the wonderful average of 143 on that occasion, which for the points scored undoubtedly set up a new championship record. Stevenson never recovered from the blow, and when indisposition prevented him from appearing at the final instalment it merely restricted Falkiner's winning margin to 2,250, when it might easily have been a good deal wider. Falkiner thus repeated his triumph of the previous year over Stevenson, whose star, one is afraid, has set for good.

The other heat was pretty much of a procession, Newman winning by as many as he pleased. His"pleasure"was 4,733 points, but on Tothill's behalf it may be urged that his hard match with Harris the fortnight previously left him stale. The new aspirant must not be judged on his form in the championship, for normally he is a real good player—capable of heaps of improvement, of course—and in my opinion will be a much better player twelve months' hence than a good many people bargain for. Tothill has the right temperament, an excellent conception of the game, is given to assiduous practice, and ambitious to get on.

He is a player to keep an eye on, and even now would, I think, beat all the junior division with, perhaps, the exception of Arthur Peall.

What should have been the second week of the championship was drawn blank, Reece walking over from Inman and Lawrence from Smith, to meet in the semi-final the following week at Thurston's. Reece won all right, as he was expected to do, and comfortably in the end. But it took him four days to shake off Lawrence, who, if his ability equalled his grit, would be a real" top sawyer."As a matter of fact, Reece was harried and worried by the game way Lawrence stuck to him, and had the senior professional not found a bit of form on Friday the game might easily have ended in " tragedy."The form was very poor, even for a championship which does not always provide great displays, and for the greater part of the week scarcely was ever above good amateur form.

The other semi-final at the Burroughes Hall provided a striking contrast, inasmuch as Falkiner and Newman served up one of the most brilliant games ever seen in the event, recalling the wonderful final that Smith and Falkiner gave us last year. Falkiner seemed to have taken the wind out of his rival's sails when he scored 667 to 296 and averaged nearly 167 per innings at the first session. Newman, however, was in front the same evening, and stayed there to the end. Falkiner touched the extreme on Tuesday afternoon with the meagre aggregate of 99, but the same evening assisted Newman in a remarkable achievement when the latter averaged 333 for 666, and Falkiner 164 for 328 points, the whole session requiring but four complete innings all told.

On Wednesday night Falkiner rallied further with 1,067 to 360 and continued afterwards to play a magnificent up-hill game. But a big "gap"and Fate were against him, and in the end he suffered defeat by 1,373. Falkiner, however, was decidedly unlucky, which is not to say that Newman had all the good fortune that was going. The latter merely profited by the exasperating experience of Falkiner with a" kicking "ball letting him down badly on several occasions. One of these" kicks " cost him 627 points on Saturday, plus a probable big addition to his own break of 204.

But these things are all in the game, and while there is nothing like 1,373 between these remarkable players (both of whom are up to the best standard), Newman is at the moment a little more dependable on big occasions.

The final is still in progress, so criticism on this must of necessity he postponed, although as I write it would seem to be all over bar the shouting home of Tom Newman as the champion for 1921. Reece is clever enough and talented enough to give the best in the world a great game, but temperamentally he would still seem to be unsuited for strenuous match play. Reece has an idea that all players are lucky excepting himself, but he will have to search much deeper and wider for the true cause of his non-success on really great occasions. Should Newman win, and there can be no reasonable doubts about it, the forecast in the last issue of The Billiard Player will have been verified to the letter.

Some Professional Championship Figures