Dear Sir, I have been finally tempted to write to you in regard to comments in B.Q.R. No. 7 (April 1992) Joe Minici is about 30 years old and was once ranked No. 3 in New South Wales for snooker (pardon me for mentioning that game). He preferred to concentrate on billiards and is a former winner of the NSW Billiards and NSW Minor Billiards championships. He is a regular century plus player and could be a future Australian champion but he has some good seasoned players to beat first. I was also interested in the comments regarding a touching cue ball. I agree with the rule book as there is no skill in playing away from a touching ball and sending the cue ball into a pocket or hitting the non-striker's ball. With regard to a referee informing a player, two different situations were mentioned. A referee cannot tell a player what is going to happen as that would be against the rules. For a ball on or near the baulk line, a referee can inform the striker but only when he is in-hand and asks first. The referee should not just volunteer this information. This situation is covered in the rule book and is for a situation that already exists or did exist. When asked, the referee is just confirming a matter of fact situation. Also, it was most probably a slip of the pen, but both object balls are not always spotted. Consider that a player makes a cannon and pots the non-striker's ball in the same stroke and ends up touching the red ball. The rule book tells us that only the red will be spotted and the non-striker's ball remains out of play until it is his turn to play. Has anybody else got any comments on this matter?
Yours sincerely, Geoff Williams
Dear Tom, I thought the following might be of interest to you and your readers. Reg Shaw from Seaford in East Sussex has won the E. Sussex Billiards Championship beating Peter Jennings of Bexhill, 527 -473. Nothing too remarkable except that Reg is a mere 87 year old and still a very fine and accomplished cueist at both billiards and snooker.
Originally from the West Midlands a chat to Reg is like a page from history. He recalls winning Midland Counties and West Midland and Wolverhampton billiards and snooker championships 'fifty or sixty years ago.' He played exhibitions for Red Cross charities with Willie Leigh who he recalls was Lindrum's marker, and also met Tom Newman and the one-armed Arthur Goundrill with whom he recalls playing a challenge, and with Goundrill in two hundred up, on 199, and he on 198, playing from hand and deliberately spotting wide to give the pro the winning shot, inadvertently potting Goundrill's white to win the challenge. When he apologised amid the applause Goundrill whispered"It's alright Reg, it's what they wanted."
Reg was a close friend of Rex Williams' father and believes that he played Reg at the age of 14 at Dudley British Legion in his first ever public game. He worked for many years in the building trade for Frank Edwards who was five times English Billiards Champion in the late forties and fifties.
Reg plays almost every day at the Q-ball Club in Eastbourne where I regularly see him and I recall the incredulity of members and staff recently when having run well past the hundred, Reg suddenly checked his watch and announced it was time for his bus and put his cue away. I hope you feel the above is worthy of note.
Referring to April BQR one of the most cherished parts of my billiards and snooker collection is a card sent from Murt O'Donoghue in 1989 acknowledging my coaching of young people together with a final sentence which reads as follows -"To reach the top you have to practise, practise, practise and more practise quote Walter Lindrum, excuse scribble - old age, I am 89." All the very best to you Tom.
Frank Sandell
Dear Mr. Terry I am glad that you found my book controversial. The Fine Art Method is to detect the exact reason why a shot is missed, in both billiards and snooker, and not dismiss it as just a bad shot. The old fashioned excuses like, bad stance, bad balance, no follow through, moving on the shot, are acceptable excuses but too simplistic and are often wrongly used for a player's lack of skill or"Going off the boil. "he games are played reasonably well by millions of players all over the world who are actually practising their faults while they play and long may it continue as this is the reason why the games are so popular. The technique of the game is disregarded as it is hard work compared to the sheer enjoyment of just having a game. The player who is only as good as he was last year, and the year before, is obviously practising the faults and imperfections that have arrested his improvement. Good amateurs are capable of playing at a much higher standard and would do so if they would spend some time concentrating on technique only. For example, a good stance and balance are important as they eliminates two of the reasons why a shot might be missed; but the answer to moving on the shot is not simply to try to keep still but to define why you are moving on the shot and rectify this by developing the correct technique. One more point, the professional player who coaches himself, has an old fashioned fool for a student. Yours sincerely, Daniel Marner
Dear Tom When the mini-prix was in Bradford Ivan Stevenage showed me a Dutch magazine according to which only snooker, pool and the carom game were accepted as 'demonstration games' by the IOC. It is unthinkable that English billiards was not submitted along with the others so, have you any ideas what has happened? Surely the IOC must have given some explanation? As there will be tables put in for snooker the whole thing does not make any sense.
Chris with the 'touching balls' has yet again opened this quite old Pandora's box. I have lost count of how many times various parts of the rules have been attacked over the past 30-40 years, all of which have been ignored. If your own comment on this rule is correct i.e. the 'touching balls' created by a completed shot (by the player at the table or by his opponent), could be transferred to a shot not yet played by hitting the free object ball only (or even firing into a pocket), must have been the most stupid rule ever thought up!
I wonder how many readers will take up your invitation to put forward what they consider to be the silliest rule. So, as always, I am looking forward to the next BQR.
Yours Geza