Billiard Incident and Humour

• "Been to Egypt, haven't you? Pyramids, I suppose? "" No, they only played snooker."
• One evening, during the progress of a match, whilst Dawson was compiling a good break, an Irishman amongst the onlookers remarked audibly: "Oh, bejabers, he's ounly to spake to thim, and they come togither."
• I remember a rather humorous incident in relation to John Roberts's sight which happened some 16 or 17 years ago. He was to give Reece 2,000 in 9,000, and I asked Reece how he fancied his chance. "Fancy my chance," replied he "Why, I could beat him level, and with lots to spare." When later on Reece played his game I looked in on the Thursday afternoon. Reece was then only some 300 points ahead, and when I chaffed him, quite good-naturedly, about Roberts's million to one chance, he whispered: "They told me the 'old man' was blind. But he isn't." Reece was quite right.
• The "old man" was not blind, and as he made his record break of 821—spot-barred and push-barred—three years later, when he was 57, his eyesight for billiards showed no signs of failing even then.—Riso Levi.
• In the billiard room at the Dallas Hotel, Nanaimo, we were having a quiet game, a few loungers seated around. Now in Western Canada players are expected to bring their own balls, for reasons which every player in those free latitudes well understands. (The billiard table is considered to be sufficiently immobile to be reasonably safe.) A disagreement arising between us as to the legality of a stroke played with both feet off the floor, we walked to the end of the room to consult the rules. On returning we at once missed the red, which prolonged search failed to discover. Going to the street door I found there one of Jack London's typical tramps, and explained fully to him our little difficulty, placing a half-dollar in his hand. Within ten minutes he was back, with a piebald ivory red, which is still in the writer's possession.—J. P. G.
• George Nelson, the ex-professional champion of Yorkshire, says that it is quite possible, on a fairly fast table, to screw in off the red from spot without bringing the red into baulk, and also to screw back from spot into the middle pocket, the cue ball being in hand in both cases. He relates that he once got Reece to play the latter stroke under somewhat curious circumstances. In conversation (says Nelson) Reece told me that he had lost all idea of screwing a ball the length of the table away. I ventured to tell him that I knew the reason and that I could make him screw in-off into the middle, let alone the top pocket, if he would take my advice. He took me to his house at Golders Green, and there in about ten minutes I had him screwing in-off into the middle pocket. It was just a little matter of cue delivery. "To screw a ball three-parts of the length of a table away, the stroke must come from the shoulder. Otherwise, you have great difficulty in getting the ball to carry the spin any distance."
• At a recent dinner to Sid Pemberton, the Sunderland professional, one of the speakers, a member of the local Town Council, said that in a game of billiards he once wanted 88 to win, whereas his opponent only wanted 12, and to the great surprise of everybody he (the speaker) ran out. This was greeted by applause, whereupon the councillor added: "Out of the door!" When I play billiards it is generally with three other members of the Town Council. We enter the billiard room at twenty past seven and start a game of a hundred up. People keep coming in, and, seeing who are playing, go out again—they know there is no hope! The game, with its many thrills, continues, and, when closing time arrives, we pay our threepence each and declare the match a draw! "—A North-Country Town Councillor.
• Reece was rather bothered over a "covered leave," and he finally tried a steeplechase, or jump shot. Getting the edge of the tip right under his ball, Reece lofted it all right, but, unfortunately, altogether too high. It went beyond the table, straight to where Inman was sitting. Like a cricketer taking a snap catch in the slips, the old champion fastened on to the flying ball and called "Out!" amidst much laughter.— "Ivor," in The Sporting Chronicle.
• A correspondent recalls, apropos of Sergt. Goundrill's one-arm performance at billiards before the King and Queen, that some years ago an amateur who had lost an arm took part in a handicap in which he used a small weighted block for a rest, and this was removed by a friend after each stroke had been made. The Billiard Player does not see why a cue with a tiny rubber wheel fixed below it should not be used by one-armed players.
• The Billiard Player had always regarded the familiar story about the origin of billiards as purely imaginative, but now Mr. R. Coddington, of Buxton, Derbyshire, says that he has actually in his possession a manuscript, written in the latter part of the 16th century, which claims to give the origin of the game. It states that a man named Bill Kerr, a pawnbroker, had a shop near St. Paul's Cathedral, and amongst things that he possessed were three gold balls. He spent his spare time in knocking these balls about with a yard measure. He seemed to have been on very friendly terms with the canons connected with the cathedral, one of whom suggested that he should have a board made, with cushions round, and a pocket at each corner. Bill took the hint and had the board made as suggested, and also a stick to play with, which he called a" kue. "The new game was noised about, and soon became popular. The game derived its name from "Bill"—after the name of the inventor—and "iard"—after the yard measure. That, says Mr. Coddington, is the history of the game's origin and nomenclature.