The Billiard Season of 1920-21.—A Retrospect
Glancing backward is not without its fascination even if one does not derive much material satisfaction from the process. But I am not sure that the real billiards enthusiast can conjure up a great deal of contentment by ruminating on the happenings of the autumn, winter, and spring billiards campaign that has just gone. Viewed in its broadest aspect the season that opened under the most favourable of auspices fell a little flat, and so far as the chief competitions are concerned, it was largely saved from failure by the amateur element.
Whilst the professional tournament developed unsatisfactorily—for which, be it noted, the promoters were in no way to blame— and the professional championship was sadly bungled, the big amateur competitions achieved a striking and gratifying success.
On the amateur championship one, indeed, can look back with nothing but the most pleasant feelings. This was an epoch-making event with Sidney Fry setting up a record of records, and the greatest of all Australian amateurs—J. R. Hooper—coming within an ace of carrying the title overseas for the first time in history. It was indeed fortunate for our insular sense of pride in our supremacy hitherto that we had a Sidney Fry to stand up to the virile attack of the talented and popular Australian. For with our champion out of the way it is a "guinea to a gooseberry" that our cherished title and the cup as its emblem would by now have been resting on an Australian sideboard. It may, however, be said that in winning the amateur championship for the seventh time (and, incidentally, for the third year in succession) Fry set up a record that may outlive the present generation. That was a great personal triumph, but in a national sense it was even greater, because, with our supremacy in other pastimes severely shaken, it is good to know that we are still supreme on the board of green cloth, and in the most scientific and difficult of all pastimes.
Although the great Australian player just failed in his ambitious quest, he left his mark and impress on our billiards world. Few of us can forget the sensation that he caused with his wonderful record break of 228 off the red ball in the third round. And how he galloped away from Fry in the first instalment of the semifinal heat in which only the stamina and doggedness of the holder preserved the honours for the old country! Hooper, too, proved how very dangerous was his rivalry to our very best when, subsequently to the championship, he met and defeated Fry in a great exhibition match of 3,000 up.
If one remarks that one was both glad and sorry that Hooper failed in his chief quest, it may be taken as a well-deserved compliment to our Australian visitor. He is a great sportsman who endeared himself to us all alike by his sterling qualities as a man and one of the greatest amateur exponents who ever handled a cue. It would have been an honour to be beaten by such a man; it was a greater to triumph over a player who did more than anyone else to make the amateur championship of 1921 an epoch-making and very successful event.
The snooker championship was also much more interesting than usual, and it was all to the good to see the title carried into the provinces for the first time. The winner—M. J. Vaughan, from the Birmingham district— fully merited the honour. As I view things he was the finest exponent of this excellent coloured ball game that I have seen in these championship events. Not so showy or such a brilliant "potter" as one or two of the others, perhaps, but in finesse and the elements which form the real art of the game, he had the others "guessing" most of the time.
Vaughan had no easy passage to the honour. He met and defeated the holder (A. R. Wisdom) in the semi-finals, and then ran up against Sidney Fry (the champion for 1919) in the final.
Another very successful amateur event was the clubs competition, organized by Messrs. Burroughes and Watts actually, if not nominally, in aid of Earl Haig's Fund. The promoters gave all the £600 worth of prizes, including a full standard table valued at 300 guineas, and the event realized over £1,000 for the fund. The chief honours—and the table—went to the Eccentric Club, London, who were represented by Sidney Fry, the champion. The latter, however, may have had a bit of a fright in the final of 2,000 up, when a comparatively unknown amateur in national billiards, by the name of W. P. McLeod, from Middlesbrough, held him for the greater part of the course.