A few weeks ago my billiards team played a league match against the People's Hall, Nottingham. One of the People's Hall players brought with him a set of Ivory balls which had been given to him by a friend. After the match we all decided that we would like to try a few strokes with this old set. The results may be of interest to readers. Let me say that never previously in my life had I played a stroke with ivories. I had seen two or three sets but my knowledge of how they play is from reading and diagrams in the older books. I had, of course, read Levi and his remarks on ivories and the superiority of composition balls. The impression I have always had of the ivory ball is that it is generally untrue and throws a narrow angle. As regards the throw, judging from diagrams and measurements in the classic books, it would seem that the angle, though certainly narrower, was not all that much different. I had also read that ivories could have an inconsistent throw and that the angles of one set could be quite different from those of another The first test we did was for trueness of roll. We found that this particular set rolled as true as the supers we had used in our match. In truth the balls looked in very good condition, as if they had had little use, they had certainly not been turned. We were all able to play screw strokes quite easily but it was the throw in standard positions that was very surprising. This set must have been exceptionally narrow even for ivories. Several players tried - all with the same results.
The long loser when spotted as for the modern ball hit the top cushion a good five inches from the pocket. The effect was quite a shock to the system. When spotting the ball much nearer to the centre spot of baulk it was very difficult to convince oneself that a half ball stroke would score the in-off from that position.
The cross-losers gave an equally strange impression, hitting the side cushion about two inches below the pocket.
I feel that this particular set must have thrown a quite exceptionally narrow angle. I suppose it would have been an interesting experiment to have played a hundred up with them. However as far as I am concerned it would have been one of those experiments that I prefer somebody else to do. Nevertheless an interesting little insight into the game as it was known by Stevenson, Inman, and Co.