THE first competitive event promoted by the Scottish Billiard Association this season will commence in Edinburgh early in February. This will be followed by the Scottish Amateur Championship, so that four weeks or more of championship billiards and snooker will, I think, be greatly to the liking of Scottish enthusiasts. The brunt of the work in organising these events in Edinburgh will fall on Mr. G. Lawson, the popular East of Scotland Secretary, and Mr.
Atkins, the Scottish Association Secretary, is fortunate in having such an enthusiastic colleague.
With the great popularity of snooker the governing body would be on sure ground in instituting an annual Snooker Championship for Scotland. George McCall, the present East of Scotland champion, recently had breaks of 72 and 61, and there are many other players who are quite close to this high standard.
The recent visit to Dundee of a team from the Edinburgh Inter-city League was such a success that a return match in Edinburgh is being arranged early in the New Year.
That the playing standard of amateur billiards in Scotland is steadily improving is shown in the breaks returned in the League games week by week. The games are 200 up, and breaks of 70 and 80 are frequent. The best break in League games this season was made by J.
McGhee with a run of 114. This player is strongly fancied to win the Scottish Championship, but he will find Malcolm Smith, J. S. Paterson, A. Ramage and W. G.
Young, the red ball expert, amongst the Edinburgh players and Neil Canney and R. King from Glasgow all dangerous opponents. I venture to predict that the Scottish Amateur Championship this year will be notable for big breaks and show Scottish billiards at its best. It is also more than likely that the Scottish Amateur record will be beaten.