Something like a billiards miracle was achieved when Newman (champion), Smith and Inman (ex-champions), and Falkiner (runner up for the championship of 1920) were persuaded to discard the conceding or receiving of points in the Burroughes and Watts tournament of the season 1921-22 that has opened with this first week of December.
Where matters of prestige enter into an argument amongst the leading "Knights of the Cue," it is difficult to get even two players to look through the same glasses, but when you get four of them, and these the world's best, to cry "content," then there is real hope for, shall I say, the future of professional billiards.
But that by the way. Hitherto a handicap, since the series was introduced in its present form in 1904 (although Messrs. Burroughes and Watts have really been sponsors of the tournament type of competition since 1875), the tournament that opened at the New Burroughes Hall on Monday, November 28, should provide the most searching test of ability that has been undergone by the first-class coterie. A scratch event in which each meets the other in heats of 10,000 up, should, at its conclusion, leave no doubt in the minds of any (the fanatical partisan, perhaps, excepted) as to who is the best player of the year. Such a competition has advantages that even the Championship lacks, because it permits a player's recovery from one of those lean periods that come to all in turn. So if one may not be permitted to designate this season's tournament an official championship, one can at least assert that no championship could have more manifest advantages for the players. "Of course, Smith will win it all right," seems to reflect the general feeling. Most likely he will. Yet, to be quite frank, I do not think that Smith is at this moment quite the player that he was. So far he has won all his games, but, for the moment at least, he seems to have parted with that wonderful consistency that was wont to be a marked feature of his work. He seems, too, to have lost some of that remarkable concentration of effort that carried him through triumphantly even when the balls were running badly for him. In his last match with Falkiner, Smith did not have much to spare when all out. And against Inman in London recently, he was "clean off" on numerous occasions, although he won by a big margin. All this is, however, clearly of benefit to the tournament, because when you have uncertainty regarding the result, you have a piquant flavour that might otherwise be lacking.
Tom Newman and Claude Falkiner are, one imagines, much "nearer" to Smith than they were twelve months ago, say, and with a little fortune either, or both, may easily give Smith something to think about. And Inman, provided that he maintains the form he has been showing against Smith at Newcastle (where from the seventh to the twelfth instalments the old champion had five century averages) can by no means be left out of the reckoning.
The only representative of the old school, Inman will fight with all his old tenacity to prevent a line of demarcation from being drawn between himself and the younger trio. Still, with all his great experience and tenacity, I fancy that Inman will get the "wooden spoon," Smith the place of honour, and that there will be a great fight between Newman and Falkiner for Number 2 in the order of merit. McConachy's presence would have enhanced public interest, but, unfortunately, the New-Zealander's intentions were unknown when the tournament arrangements were completed. With England's very best in, however, an unqualified success would seem to be assured.