Being asked by pupils so often how to play the above stroke, I think the following explanation may be of help to amateurs. Having played against George Gray in many matches, I had a good chance of watching and studying his methods.
A modern full-size table is required for practice, on which by striking a ball hard a five lengths run can be obtained—(George Gray himself could not play the stroke on a slow table)—and a very great help would be found in the use of a billiard ball returner, as it would be impossible to accomplish the stroke successfully if one had to take the balls out of the pockets one's self.
The secret of the stroke, in my opinion, is explained in the two words," Cue action," and this applies to all strokes in billiards. No doubt any advanced player will have noticed that George Gray's action with the cue was different, after the stroke, from that of any other player.
Practise the following cue action:— The cue ball is placed on the baulk line, or very near to it. Now follow through with the cue, after striking the ball, so that the hand holding the cue touches the woodwork of the cushion rail. This will be found to be a tremendous follow through, thus getting greater impetus on the red ball at easy strength and bringing it farther down the table and available for middle-pocket play. The cue action is more in the nature of a push, and nothing whatever like a hit or sudden striking of the ball. Of course, the cue should be held as loosely as possible—merely laid on the tip of the first finger—and great care must be taken not to let it jump off the bridge hand. Above all, there must not be a semblance of a stop or jerk in the cue action, or a species of screw will occur, thus deflecting the cue ball at an entirely different angle even if aimed properly, and this of necessity spells failure.
The player must try fully to understand the placing of the ball for the required angle. Many seem to imagine that all the middle pocket strokes may be made by half-ball contacts. This is, of course, absurd. Almost every stroke is a variation—the red ball hardly ever returning to precisely the same spot. Consequently the angle to be played at alters continually.
Roughly speaking, the nearer the red comes to the baulk line the narrower is the angle required, and the stroke is more of a run through. The farther the red ball is away from the baulk line so much the thinner is the contact that is required on the red ball, and the angle is more in the nature of the natural angle.
Remember that no matter where the red ball is you are always striving to drive it to the one ideal spot of all, which is 16 inches from the middle spot on the table towards the baulk line. This is with ivory balls.
If this stroke be practised assiduously, smooth cue action, which is the essence of billiards, is bound to ensue, but it must not be forgotten that this type of cue action, in which the hand is brought up to the rail as previously described, must be used for none other than middle:-pocket play, as, generally speaking, the idea of the player in proper billiards is not to allow the object ball to run more than is necessary.
Of his follow-through George Gray himself writes as follows:—" This follow-through must be a perfectly free, flowing movement, and in no way forced. That is to say, from start to finish the swing of the cue should be as nearly as possible one movement.
"To cultivate the follow-through I have spent many months of practice with one ball only, and the object was to drive this up and down the table in a perfectly straight line, allowing the cue—or, I should say, cultivating the cue —to follow through as far as possible. To make me follow through, my father chalked a line 10 in. from the D; then, spotting my ball on the D line, I had to strike it straight up and down, and in every shot make my cue finish over the chalk line. It is important, too, that the tip should finish on the cloth, not in the air.
"To bring the ball back in a straight line allow the cue to follow through and the tip to finish on the cloth; getting the ball straight up and down is the best practice shot I know. Few players can be found to do this correctly, and anyone who has mastered it is in a fair way to making a big break off the red ball."
[There were those who criticized George Gray's method of extreme follow-through and of leaving the cue tip resting on the cloth, their point being that this action (quite unconsciously, of course) had the effect of roughing up the nap across the table a little below the middle pockets, and so preventing the cue ball on its return from the top cushion from getting too near to the baulk-line. The Billiard Player has a photograph of a table surface as George Gray left it after an afternoon's tenure of the table, and there is no sign on the photograph of any cloth disturbance above the baulkline, although there is plenty, as made by the bridge hand, below it.—Ed., B.P.]