Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the spot stroke (repetitive potting of the red from the spot) was becoming barred in more and more competitions, and the push stroke was finally outlawed in 1898. Top players therefore looked for other methods of making big breaks. John Roberts Jnr. the legendary father figure of English Billiards had a harsh lesson administered by the visiting American player, Frank Ives, who, in a match with the English Champion, jammed the object balls in a corner pocket and made a break of 2539.
Most billiard players are aware of the break of 499,135, made by Tom Reece in 1907. A mythology has grown about this break which should be corrected.
a) The object balls were not locked in the corner pocket as is generally believed, but were an inch or two apart on cushions near the pocket. b) The method, known as the anchor cannon, was not invented by Reece, but by J. P. Mannock, the professional coach, and one of his pupils, a certain Capt. Trevor Key. The stroke was first exploited by the 1904 Amateur Champion W. A. Lovejoy.
c) The stroke was not barred as such, no scoring method can be outlawed but may, of course, be limited. Thus the concept of the indirect cannon was introduced and direct cannons were limited to 25. An indirect cannon meant that the cueball had to hit a cushion before the completion of the cannon.
This change in the rules did not deter Reece at all; he had in fact embarked on his mammoth break with the main intention of forcing the hand of the billiards authorities. Later he reverted to a version of the, "Jam," stroke exploited by Ives years before, but was able to utilize a cushion now and then to interrupt a run of direct cannons with an indirect one. This was a much slower scoring method than the anchor because it required the player to walk round the corner of the table almost every shot.
The scoring rate with the Pendulum must have been some three or four times slower than the anchor. It is obvious why this method became known as the Pendulum and it was exploited by most of the top professionals of that time. In 1927 Joe Davis made a pendulum break of 2501 in his championship match against Newman (Davis was beaten.)
Although fairly easy to score - for good players - these methods (Anchor and Pendulum) required a high degree of skill in order to obtain position. This problem was overcome to some extent by the use of the, "Nursery," cannon or, "Rail-nurse." With this stroke the three balls could be gathered anywhere close to a cushion and not necessarily within the jaws of a corner pocket. There was nothing new about nurseries. American and Continental experts had been profiting from them for years. British players such as Roberts Jnr. Cook Jnr. and Stevenson used nurseries a lot, but mixed in with all-round billiards. By the twenties, the top professionals were all exploiting the nursery cannon and methods were being evolved for negotiating the corner pockets and, with more difficulty, the middle pockets. The notable exception was Willie Smith, possibly the greatest of all-round players who denounced his contemporaries as, "Cushion crawlers."
When the great Walter Lindrum first visited Britain in 1929, he astonished the billiards world not only by beating all of the established English Professional players but by conceding them large starts as well. He did this largely by his mastery of the rail nurse. The B.A.&C.C. came under intense pressure from various quarters to change the rules again, but it was not until 1932, following a big break by the New Zealander, Clark McConachy, that something was actually done about it. McConachy wrote:-
"My recent world record of 297 close cannons made against Joe Davis was compiled on a new principle that I was the first to exploit. Instead of manipulating the balls past the top pockets, I executed a turning movement and took them nine times backwards and forwards along the top cushion. Why did I do this? Because I wanted to demonstrate that close-cannon play has reached a point where further limitation is necessary in the best interests of English Billiards. I do not want to do anything to put a stop to a fair proportion of scoring by means of this exquisite three-ball movement but feel that we ought to avoid a surfeit of it." (News of the World. 28.2.32.)
McConachy reinforced his point by making further runs of 424 and 464 cannons and, soon after, the rule which became known as the, "Baulk-line rule," came into force. It read:-
"The cueball shall be made to cross the baulk-line at least once in each hundred points in a break." Although this rule was introduced to curtail cannon play it actually affected all scoring methods. A top-of-the-table break, for instance, would have to include a stroke where the cueball was sent all round the table thus crossing the baulk line. The rule further stated that the line had to be crossed whilst the cueball was travelling down the table - a simple in-off from hand would not satisfy the rule. After a four month trial period the rule was amended and the limit raised to 200 points.
Not surprisingly, Lindrum was highly critical of the new rule and in the 32/33 season he failed to make a thousand break. Claude Falkiner, also a nursery cannon expert, sided with Lindrum but most other players including Newman and Davis welcomed any move that they thought might lessen Lindrum's dominance. Nevertheless Lindrum learned to live with the rule. By crossing the line early in the first 200 of a break and crossing it again late in the second 200 the rule was in effect extended to almost 400 points. Again the Authorities tightened things up by stipulating that the baulkline had to be crossed (In any direction) between 180 and 200 points in every 200.
Lindrum's method with nurseries had been to keep the balls close together thus conserving cushion space and reducing the problem of negotiating pockets. When the baulk-line rule came in Lindrum modified his technique to move the balls either a fraction of an inch or by three or four inches along the cushions depending on how near or how far was the baulkline at any time during the break. Nothing could stop him and in 1932, against Joe Davis, he made a run of 529 cannons taking the balls two-and-a-half times round the table.
If we assume that the cueball was 3.25 inches from the cushion then the distance round the table would be about 400 inches i.e. about 2 inches per cannon. However, as it was necessary to cross the baulkline twice during the break, we must note that the distance from baulkline to baulkline via the top cushion would be 282 inches or 2.82 inches per cannon, but, upon crossing the baulkline and moving towards the bottom cushion, it was necessary to traverse only 115 inches or 1.15 inches per cannon.
The distance to be covered from baulkline to baulkline via the top cushion is far more than via the bottom cushion.
Considering these cannons in more depth we can see that, due to a certain "zig-zagging," of the cueball, the actual distance travelled was probably slightly more. Also, when negotiating pockets or regaining position from more difficult leaves, a number of very tiny cannons were no doubt played and all of this probably means that some of Lindrum's cannons were moving the balls 4 or 5 inches along the cushions.
How difficult it must have been to referee such games. Not only did the official have to call the break, he had to keep a count of the number of points in relation to the baulk line rule, the number of cannons made since the last hazard had been played, and at any time be able to inform the player how many points had been scored since the baulkline had last been crossed. The job was not made any easier by the fact that some of the cannons were so delicate that the referee would have had to stand so close to the player that his head was practically over the balls. There must have been instances where push shots were overlooked and even cases where failure to actually score the cannon went unnoticed.
Later in that season of 1932, the, "Big Four," (Lindrum, Davis, Newman, McConachy) agreed between themselves to ignore the baulkline rule in competition and limit cannons to 75. Even so the arguments continued and the old rule was resurrected.
In 1934 the 200 point rule was eased to 400 - for Amateurs only (!). Direct cannons were at 35 and it was not until 1970 that the limit was changed to the present-day 75 - as confirmed in a letter from the B.&S.C.C. As nursery cannon play these days is virtually non-existent there seems little point in having a limit at all and perhaps the authorities should consider abandoning it - at least until another Lindrum turns up!