Editorial
A belated Happy New Year to all readers of B.Q.R. though, away from the billiard table, its not too easy to find very much to be all that cheerful about.
Martin Goodwill
I am sure that all billiards enthusiasts will want to wish a Happy New Year to Martin in particular. It is not a military secret that Martin is a serving R.A.F. Pilot and that just at the moment he is finding little time for billiards. We all hope that Martin, together with all his fellow servicemen, will soon be home from the Gulf. Martin Goodwill is, of course, the Amateur Billiards Champion and whilst billiards must be way down on his list of priorities let's hope he will be able to defend his Title at Cubbington in May.
Steven Whiteley
B.Q.R. wishes an especially Happy New Year to Mini-Prix regular Steven Whiteley. Steven had a pretty miserable end to 1990. He had his car stolen, bad enough, but even worse is the fact that his cue was in it at the time. Shortly afterwards he had a serious stomach operation. 1991 has started a little better for him, as on his return to the game, he made his highest break in competition 105 at Norwich. A good start Steven.
New Professionals
Some 450 players have paid their £500 enrolment fee and £100 annual subscription for the privilege of being members of the W.P.B.S.A There were 15 new Billiards professionals at the last count though World Amateur Champion Manoj Kothari, runner-up Ashok Shandilya, and Semi-finalist Subhash Agarwal are also expected to take professional status. Looking down the list of the new snooker pros that well-known line from Shakespeare's, "Julius Caesar, " came to mind - "If you have tears prepare to shed them now." it is a list full of dreams that for many will turn into nightmares And yet, and yet; somewhere in that catalogue there could well be a name that will one day be engraved on the World Championship trophy. I was talking to one young hopeful sometime ago who said that whilst he did not expect to win the World Championship this year it would be nice to play at the Crucible and even nicer to be paid for playing. Well, we all have our fantasies. It makes one wonder how many professional players realise that all prize money ultimately comes from the public, and if public interested waned sufficiently, then many pros would be back to the good old days of one-night-stands in any old club prepared to pay them a few quid.
Billiards Professionals
I have heard that one or two players were rather upset by remarks made in the last issue of this magazine, the inference being that they were not good enough (it was overlooked that elsewhere B.Q.R. wished all the new pros the best of luck.) It is rather more to the point to ask why professional billiard players exist at all. One answer to that question, indeed perhaps the only answer, is that there are some players whose ability is such that there are billiards enthusiasts who are prepared to pay money to watch them play. There must be some forty or so professional billiard players. How many of those players can attract a paying public?
I mentioned this to a very well known personality in the game and said that I was sorry if anyone had been upset by the inference that they were not good enough. His reply was short and to the point, "hell," he said, "they aren't bloody good enough."
B.Q.R. wishes them all the best of luck though, in common with all other professional sportsmen, they should be prepared to accept criticism as well as praise even in such a minority sport as billiards.
Mark Wildman
Mark comes in for more than his share of criticism at times. This magazine would like to give credit where it is due. It was (I believe) entirely due to Wildman that billiards went to Moscow where it was a great success and to the Barbican where it was much less of a failure than it might have been. Wildman deserves credit for his initiative in getting these two events in such prestigious venues.
Darley Dale
The Darley Dale invitation (Royal Bank of Scotland) was postponed this year because there seemed to be difficulties in arranging a date when all the invitees would have been available. As it turned out it could have been played but organiser Jim McCann was not to know that and could only work on the information that was available to him. Jim tells me that it should be on again next year.
Nursery Cannons
Fairly recently I have seen two men playing, or rather demonstrating, nursery cannons. Geza Gazdag at Leeds and Martin Spoormans at Derby. Both of them are able to make runs of nurseries from a set position and both are able to play delicate positional masse strokes. I have never seen Geza play billiards but I saw Spoormans play two games in the international match at Derby. I am not convinced that a run of a dozen or so nurseries is beyond the capabilities of any decent player; what I am convinced of is that it is very difficult indeed to get position for nurseries and that is what I want to see demonstrated. Jack Karnehm is the only person I have ever seen deliberately work the balls into position and then make a run and also take the balls round a corner, though I did once see Grimsby amateur Bill Turner make twenty or so cannons in a match. Until I see somebody actually play the balls into position and then make a good run I shall stick to my definition of a present-day nursery cannon player as being someone who can play nurseries before a match, after a match, but not during a match.
Teesside Boys League
Thanks to Albert Hanson B.Q.R. is able to give readers a copy of the 1990 Teesside Boys League handbook. It make interesting reading from Mike Russell making a break of 307 in a half-hour match at the age of 17 to Michael Westthorp scoring 183 in half-an-hour at the age of 11.
Good Cueing and Good Luck.