Fifteen years ago the present editor of The Billiard Player wrote to John Roberts suggesting that a new departure might be taken in the public exposition of billiards by the giving of demonstrations with explanatory remarks.
The champion, replying from the Grosvenor Hotel, Hull, on January 30, 1906, said:— "I have had the idea as suggested in yours of yesterday for some time. It seems to me that it is the proper and best way to teach, and also the way to make capital out of teaching— a most difficult thing to do under present systems."