Here and There Notes

• With Stevenson, Falkiner, Harverson, Ferraro, and McConachy all playing there, South Africa has had good billiard times of late.
• As there are now 24 clubs in the Bath Billiards League, which is divided into three divisions, the season will commence on September 13.
• The Chairman of the Billiards Association is Mr. Hall-Say. It is not Mr. Hall-Saye, as some papers gave it, nor Mr. Hall-Jay, as others have insisted upon.
• Inman played an amateur (Mr. J. Bailey, ex-Cornish champion) at Mount's Bay Club, Penzance, whilst on holiday, and, giving 400 in 800, won by 134.
• At the London Press Club the Douglas Straight Billiard Challenge Cup was won by Mr. F. G. Lavers (Daily Telegraph), who beat Mr. A. J. Kempley (Amalgamated Press), who received 15, by 250 to 187.
• It is worth recalling that it was Frank Ferraro, by whom Stevenson was beaten on points in South Africa in June, that Stevenson defeated in the South Africa professional championship nearly thirty years ago.
• Clark McConachy, the New Zealand billiard champion, who will arrive in England shortly, has made a break of 1,080, and holds the Indian record of 870. He plays the red ball game well, but is more varied in his methods than George Gray, using the top pocket as often as the middle ones.
• T. Newman, the professional billiards champion, has won his first bowling prize, by defeating C. R. Clemoes (rec. 3) in the final of the Crouch Hill B.C. Novice Handicap. Newman was on scratch, and the score was 20-18 against him. A successful drive by Newman, which took the jack to the string, and a second shot drawn, made the score 20 all, and at the next end Newman drew two and won.
• The new billiard hall in Hull, known as the "Pavilion," is now opened. Sixteen full-size regulation tables have been fixed, fourteen in the main hall and two in private rooms. The tables and hall fittings have been manufactured at the Burnley Billiard Works, Burnley, the proprietors of which are the owners of billiard halls in different parts of the country.
• "We shall esteem it a privilege to supply the materials to repair the billiard table at the British Club at Ypres," Mr. J. R. Abbott, director of Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, writes to The Evening News. They are willing also to pay transport costs. Mrs. M. C. Russell, of Ealing, who has recently visited Ypres, has written to The Evening News concerning the men's club and its worn-out billiard table, which is used by the men who look after the British war graves in Flanders.
• Miss Mary Fraser, the lady journalist who wrote the Forum Club playlet "The Prize Story," is said to be a clever billiard player.
• When Inman refused to defend his championship title in 1920, as Smith did this year, history was only repeating itself, for the late Charles Dawson did the same In 1900, and Stevenson then became champion by default.
• Mr. W. T. Rainbow, billiard-table manufacturer, of 15, New Bridge Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, is to be nominated for the next vacancy in the representation of Heaton Ward in Newcastle City Council. Mr. Rainbow has resided in the ward for thirty years.
• The remains of the late Charles Dawson were interred at the Almondbury Cemetery, Huddersfield, after a service at the Almondbury Wesleyan Church. Mrs. Dawson and four daughters were amongst the mourners. Amongst the wreaths was one from the Billiard Committee of the Huddersfield Liberal Club.
• On the form of last season there would not seem to be much doubt that Arthur Peall is more likely than any other of the second-grade professionals to be the representative of that class in the main professional championship. Nor will it be an altogether novel experience for him, for it is now several years since he qualified in a similar way for the senior professional tournament.
• The late Harry Hawker, the famous airman, lived in the house at Surbiton that was built by the late Charles Dawson, the ex-champion billiard professional, who, after his professional retirement, spent much time in attending to his garden there. Between Dawson and Hawker the occupier of the house was E. Wheatley, the jockey, so that its sporting associations were well maintained!
• "Last night I saw a player of twenty years standing give an opening miss in baulk, when his ball ran into the corner pocket. When I asked him how much side he had put on, he replied, 'Oh, I don't know. I suppose I miscalculated the strength.' In reality, he had miscalculated the amount of side. On the other hand, I knew a young man who, a week after he had been shown how to use side, could confidently expect to hit the side cushion at any point required."#151;A. D. Macmillan, in The Badminton Magazine.
• At the conclusion of his match at Johannesburg against Ferraro, who (receiving 2,000 in 16,000) won by 2,232, Stevenson congratulated his opponent on playing an excellent game of billiards, and expressed the hope that he would meet Mr. Ferraro again before he left the country, on the same terms. He also eulogized the enterprise of Messrs. Morris and Soutter in procuring the services of professional players, and concluded his remarks with thanking Mr. Malraison, the popular referee, for his services, and congratulating him on his 77th birthday.
• The coming season should settle once and for all the supremacy amongst the trio—Newman, Smith, and Inman. There may be a dark horse to add in McConachy, and Falkiner, his penchant for close play notwithstanding, is not to be left out of the account.
• From Mr. C. Roberts, "Ivyside," Addington Grove, Sydenham, S.E.26, we have received copies of "Roberts's Billiards for Amateurs" (2s. net), written by himself, and "How to Make a Hundred Break" (2s. net), by his late brother, John Roberts, and which seems likely shortly to be out of print. Both are handy and informative volumes.
• In the course of Stevenson's River Diggings journeyings he met a number of South African leading amateurs, and usually conceded about half the game. Playing Mr. N. M. Erasmus at Windsorton, and conceding 300 in 800, he made his 800 (including an unfinished 247) while Mr. Erasmus was scoring 261, although the latter made breaks of 50 and 49.
• Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, Ltd., have appointed J. P. Mannock as the match manager of Burroughes Hall, St. James's Street, Piccadilly. No better selection could have been made. A man of forceful, whilst genial, character, a good organizer, and a past master in all that pertains to the game, alike in its technical and playing aspects, J. P. Mannock may be counted to gather around him all that is best and most representative in billiards, alike from the professional, amateur, and match-frequenters' standpoints.
• Frank Farraro wrote, in connexion with his challenge to McConachy, that he was still prepared to concede him 1,000 start in 16,000 up for any sum up to £200 aside. Ferraro, as challenger, laid down the definite condition that the match must be played at Messrs. Morris and Soutter's match room.
• Falkiner is back. In his last big match in South Africa he defeated Stevenson in a week's game in Cape Town by 2,157 points (including two breaks of 419 and 417) in a level game of 9,000. Stevenson included in his last four hands breaks of 180, 135, and 103. It will be remembered that Falkiner also defeated Stevenson in the last two professional championships at home.
• Opinion seems to be divided in Australia as to whether Fred Lindrum or his younger brother Walter, who has beaten him on recent occasions, is now the better player. Fred Lindrum says that, given championship conditions, on a table strange to both, with a new set of balls, and in a neutral room, he is confident that there would be no alteration in the holding of the championship.
• A billiard table temporarily loaned to the Dollis Hill Hospital for wounded soldiers, being required for the hall that had been in course of erection for it, Mr. Harry Young, whose great work for blinded soldiers finds its overflow in other directions, quickly raised the sum necessary to provide the Dollis Hill Hospital patients with another, which will be specially inaugurated on September 12. Messrs. Thurston & Co., Ltd., have kindly supplied a first-class table at cost price.