The Last Issue of The Billiards Quarterly Review carried an overview of that method of Top-of-the-Table play known as "Postman's Knock. " This is the classical method of scoring at the spot end and I maintained that it is not beyond the ability of many players these days to score moderate breaks by this method. Given that tables prepared for snooker have pockets of a more generous size than tables used to have, that the slow screw is easier with the Super Crystalate ball, and that many players are much better potters than an earlier generation were, then it is not surprising that many quite ordinary billiard players fairly often score a few points by that alternative top-of-the-table method known as, "Floating White," A further reason is that it is a fairly simple matter to play the object white into a suitable position.
It is generally agreed that the Floating white method poses more difficulties than Postman's knock in as much as all three balls must be controlled whilst in Postman's Knock, the position of the object white being fixed, the problem is basically one of cue-ball control only. It is a relatively easy matter for me to write on the subject of Floating white and make diagrams, it is a quite different matter in practice and the best advice is as given before, i.e. to take every opportunity to watch those players who can actually play the Floating white, observe their methods carefully and spend as much time as possible working things out in practice. I would particularly recommend Mike Russell, Geet Sethi, Peter Gilchrist and Ian Williamson. Gilchrist and Williamson I think provide the best models of orthodox Floating White, Russell's method, when at his best, sometimes borders on the impossible, whilst the problem with Sethi "is that if you blink or blow your nose then you will miss twenty or thirty points. Norman Dagley, Robby Foldvari, and Bob Close can, of course, all play the Floating White but when in form have generally manoeuvred the object white into Postman's position within a shot or two. I mentioned this to Foldvari and he agreed that his top-of-the-table play was largely Postman's Knock but that he had been to some extent unaware of this until it was pointed out to him. It is an interesting aside to mention that Norman Dagley uses the cross-loser more than most even though a superb potter at the spot end.
This describes that method of play which alternates pots and cannons at the spot end and in which the object white is kept in position behind and usually slightly to one side of the spot as opposed to Postman's knock where it is pinned on the top cushion. Floating white is more difficult demanding a greater variety and delicacy of touch and cue ball control, it puts greater demands on a player's potting ability, and the method of play is more influenced by the speed of the cloth and the state of the cushions. It makes greater demands on a players creative ability, imagination, and capacity to visualise the results of his stroke. Bearing in mind that there are countless fractional variations in the lie of the balls, a typical sequence might be:-
Pot red to leave cannon from top cushion; Gentle cannon leaving pot red at an angle and white behind spot; Cannon from top cushion to leave an angled pot red from which to return as near as possible to the original position.
How simple it all seems. Russell's great Mini-Prix 500 breaks were made almost exclusively by this method. When players of the calibre of the World Champion, or such fine players as Gilchrist, Sethi, or Dagley get to the spot-end they can make this kind of play look as easy as shelling peas! Whilst I am maintaining that most competent player should be able to make reasonable breaks by this method they must be aware of the dangers, of what can so easily go wrong, and the correct plays to keep out of trouble,
It is hardly possible to over -emphasise the point that to be successful at the Top-of-the-Table, a player must have the ability to sink the red time after time with very good cue-ball control. That great billiards writer Riso Levi put it this way:
"Before anyone can become really good at it, he must be able to pot the red into a top pocket when it is on the spot, or when it lies anywhere between the spot and a top pocket, with unfailing regularity. When a pot is reasonably on, he must be able to get it with ease and certainty, by any kind of stroke which the retention of correct position demands. It must make no difference to him whether the stroke requires to be played with plenty of pace, or with so little pace that the red ball travels with very little more speed than is necessary to carry it to the pocket, or whether the stroke is a thin cut or a follow through, a screw-back or a stab, or whether he has to strike his ball without side or with plenty of side.
In order to greatly excel at top-of-the-table play it is not sufficient for a player to be good enough to get any of these pots the correct way, eight or nine times out of ten; he must be good enough to get them 49 times out of 50." ("Billiards for the Million "Vol.1. P64 )
The case could hardly be put better though Levi wrote those words nearly seventy years ago. He did not live long enough to see the Snooker boom and the consequent rise in potting standards. His words are as true today as when he wrote them, the difference is that whilst such skill was, in his day, seen only in the very best players, the necessary ability is nowadays far more common. Floating white play makes greater demands on a players potting than Postman's Knock, the strokes are more varied and the player's ability to visualise the after position and get the cue-ball into that position is of prime importance, I feel that it is in lack of vision and positional knowledge that is the problem for many players rather than a lack of cueing and potting ability. Put simply it amounts to having the ability but not knowing what to do with it.
The positions that the ball may take at the spot-end are infinite and the diagrams and explanations in this article are intended to show some basic positions and variations as played by the World's best players. No two breaks can be the same and no other aspect of the game more allows the player to express his individuality and imagination than Floating White Top-of-the-Table. As regards practice I think that a player has to practice different sequences of three or four shots, marking the position so that the sequence may be played over until some king of mastery has been attained - easier said than done. Ten minutes at the spot stroke is good practice before using three ballsand I feel that it is important that a player should practice under varying conditions as far as is possible.
It is quite remarkable how the leading players can adapt to a strange table. I have seen players such as Dagley, Russell, and Gilchrist, make centuries -and sometimes double centuries at their first visit on strange tables and tables that are often not of the best. Above all, practice must be purposeful, a half-hour's concentrated effort is worth a couple of hour's of knocking the balls about without very much purpose in mind; and I should imagine that, as for most players practice time is limited and valuable, it makes sense to use it to the best advantage.
The Floating White game has a charm and a fascination not found in any other aspects of the game. This in itself should help the keen student of the game to maintain his interest, more so than in other, more repetitive, aspects of the game which seem to demand a type of personality and motivation bordering on the obsessive. I hope that this brief review of the Floating White game, based as it is, largely on my observations of the leading players, will be of interest to all readers, and of practical use to some. The next issue of the B.Q.R, will conclude Top-of-the-Table with a look at how the best players get there.