The Burroughes & Watts Tournament (Second Division) is providing play quite up to first-class standard, but not enough people have witnessed it. It seems to be a fetish amongst the billiard-going public that names count for mere than good billiards. Why, it is difficult to understand. But the fact remains that Smith, Falkiner, Newman, and Inman, even if serving up moderate billiards, draw good houses, whilst Peall, Davis, Carpenter, Tothill, and Lawrence, whilst showing fine billiards, get small houses.
For instance, the twenty-years-old Chesterfield professional, Joe Davis, averaged 83, 51, and 92 and 91 in consecutive sessions against Tothill in one week, and Tothill, too, played splendidly, yet there was a mere handful of people to see play that the stars of the profession might have envied. By-and-by these youngsters will, no doubt, receive the public encouragement that their play deserves, but a little more of it just now would be appropriate.
Arthur Peall looks like winning the first prize of £35; but had Davis steered clear of the lumbago attack that laid him low for a week, the premier award might easily have gone to Derbyshire. For the second prize of £15 there is likely to be a great struggle between Davis, Carpenter, and Lawrence. The prize money is another testimonial to the generosity of Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, whose encouragement these young players greatly appreciate.
Smith's almost perennial smile was not much in evidence during the first week of his match with Falkiner at Thurston's. Falkiner was causing quite unexpected trouble, and, unaccustomed to playing the "sitting" role, Smith was clearly anxious. The old determination was there, however; his wearing-down tactics proved effectual; and Smith became once more his old smiling self. But even when caught, Falkiner did not by any means collapse, as a good many people anticipated.
Falkiner seems to have benefited by his South African trip. He still passes from one extreme to the other— brilliancy and mediocrity—but seems to be more tenacious than of old. He cuts and comes again, to use an old sporting phrase, with more gusto than before, and as he is unsurpassed in skill, and without a compeer in rapid scoring, he strikes one as being, upon the whole, as dangerous an opponent any player can have.
An artist in everything that he does on a billiard table, Falkiner is exceedingly popular with the public, to whom his extraordinary scoring pace makes a powerful appeal. The other afternoon he made a break of 251 in a trifle under ten minutes. Two days later he came near record (held by himself) with a wonderful sequence of 146 cannons. The record is 165, made in March, 1921.
If the matches in which George Gray was a participant are excepted, there have only been four instances, since the spot-stroke days, of a leading professional going through a session without scoring. The late Charles Dawson experienced this unenviable notoriety twice; with Diggle, at Brighton, many years ago, and with Tom Reece in one of the Burroughes & Watts tournaments. Inman was another victim when playing Falkiner at Thurston's a year or two back, and the fourth victim was Falkiner himself the other day, when playing Smith.
It is remarkable how small and seemingly unimportant incidents turn the whole fortunes of a big professional match. Round about 4.30 on Wednesday afternoon, October 19, Falkiner caught his hand on the table and miscued badly, and from then until about 3.30 on the Thursday he had three strokes only, yielding but 2 points. Meanwhile, Smith had scored 1,403 with breaks of 227, 46, 340, and 790, placing Falkiner 1,560 behind.
Then Falkiner rallied magnificently, scoring 393, 166, and 392 inside four visits, and later in the same day he ticked off a superb 509, but could not shake Smith's supreme confidence or loosen the grip the latter had on the game.
Six breaks of 500 or over have been compiled since the season opened. Smith claims five of them (554 against Falkiner; 503, 507, and 661 against Aiken; and 790 against Falkiner), whilst Falkiner claims the remaining one.
The Second Class Championship conditions have been unfavourably received. Criticism is mainly directed against the choice of venue for the preliminary heats, and against the duration of these heats, which are fixed at 3,000. A protest has been lodged with the Council, and a demand made for heats of 6,000 and the venue to be left open until after the draw is made.
The test match between Sidney Fry and Tom Reece has been postponed until after the Amateur Championship has been decided. Certain leading amateurs protested against the match taking place before the Amateur Championship, but that is not the cause of the postponement. Reece could not play in November.
One has known of chapels, cinemas, etc., being converted into public billiard rooms, but surely a mere striking "conversion" is the utilization of a railway station waiting-room for this purpose. Over in South London a railway station waiting-room has been turned into a public billiard saloon, and leased to a company.