THURSDAY, July 17, saw the finish of the London Veterans' Championship. This competition, promoted by the ever-entertaining Lucania Company, aroused great keenness amongst our more mature players. The event has always been a popular one, and is open to all residents in the Greater London area who are over 49 years of age at the time of entry.
In their progress to the final neither Mr. S.' J. Rent on nor Mr. F. E. Robertson had experienced great difficulty. In the semi-final Mr. Renton had beaten Mr. Bond by 412 to 252, and Mr. Robertson had triumphed by 449 to 292 over Mr. Crux. With such victories to their credit we were looking forward to a brilliant and keenly-contested final.
The match opened with three frames of snooker. In the first, Robertson quickly established a fair lead, and although rather unfortunate, held the advantage by 12 at the end of the frame. The opening of the second frame was disastrous for Robertson. With the opening stroke he hit the black and then proceeded to foul the blue and miss a red. In face of this, however, he led by 88 to 78 at the close of the second set. The third was a remarkable affair. For 20 minutes neither gave away a point, and then Robertson ran in-off the green. Still, with pink and black on the table he was one in front. Renton, fighting all the time, took both to gain a rather fortuitous lead of 12—138 to 126. Robertson had been distinctly unfortunate.
The standard of play had not been in keeping with the men's high reputations: we felt it was the importance of the occasion, and were hoping they would give us a better show at billiards.
Robertson once more started well and led by 84 to 39 after a good all-round break of 34. At the end of half-an-hour the score was 101-85 m Robertson's favour. Neither player seemed able to get going properly, and the score mounted by very easy stages with Renton still 40 behind at the 200 after one hour's play. Both players missed extremely easy shots and could rarely maintain position. From this point onwards, however, the game took a dramatic turn. With his score 250 Robertson led by 37, but Renton, still calm and unruffled, refused to be upset, and with an excellent 40-break levelled the score at 253 all. This was more in keeping with the occasion. Again and again the lead changed hands, but eventually Renton showed himself the better stayer, and won by 300 to 287. Thus, on the aggregate, snooker and billiards, he triumphed by 438-413, and worked up to a thrilling climax.
On the whole, Renton just deserved to win, though Robertson may be judged an unfortunate loser. When steadiness was required Renton proved the more calm, and he really staged a great recovery.
Arrangements for this match were carried out under the personal supervision of Mr. H. J. Mead, and at the close Mr. Arthur Goundrill introduced Mr. W. G. Clifford, who had kindly offered to present the prizes. In the course of a humorous speech, Mr. Goundrill mentioned the valuable work the Lucania Company was doing in fostering billiards, and what care they took so that the public might play billiards under ideal conditions. Mr. Clifford, the Editor of the BILLIARD PLAYER, said that billiards was the one great game for which we were never too old. Football, cricket, and all the energetic games come and go, but billiards goes on for ever. We could see that by the display that evening.
Then followed the presentation of prizes. To Mr. Renton, a handsome silver cup and hearty congratulations; to Mr. Robertson, a gold medal and the sympathy always granted to a gallant loser. Mr. Bond (last year's winner) and Mr. Crux, the semi-finalists, each received a silver medal with a gold centre. Cues and cases were presented to the four best losers and the compilers of the highest billiards and snooker breaks by non-prizewinners. A touch of irony was introduced by the fact that the snooker break was made against Mr. Clifford himself, and that, as a "best loser," he had to "present" a cue and case to himself. He concluded by saying that he hoped next year to have the pleasure of beating both finalists.