How Far can You Screw Back

And from What Distance?

In a recent conversation with Jack Karnehm, the talk turned to the question of screw. Karnehm mentioned that, some years ago, he used to practice with Pat Houlihan, and that after they had had a session of billiards, and snooker, they would try out various positions and unusual strokes. Jack said that, at that time, both he and Houlihan could screw back from hand into baulk from the spotted red. This is some shot and one that very few players could achieve. The screw back into baulk has some history in the literature of the game, and, as is so often the case, much of this is to be found in the work of Riso Levi.

Levi wrote that he had heard that this stroke had been made by the great spot-stroke expert W. J. Peall, and he raised the question as to whether or not the stroke might be possible in his, "Strokes of the Game." Vol.l.P168. He returned to the question in his, "Billiards for the Million," Vol.l.P40, and again in Vol.3 of, "Million." (P.107) He had been rather sceptical until reading the following, written by one Dudley Pontifex, in the, "Badminton Book of Billiards,":

"I have never known a professional do a stroke which most amateurs could not copy, though I have known one instance of an amateur being able to do that which probably no professional living could do. The gentleman was an undergraduate at Cambridge, and it was said that he could from baulk screw back off the red on the spot into baulk again. One day I asked him to do it for my edification, and at the third attempt he succeeded. The balls used were two of the usual set with which we ordinarily played. The white came straight back without touching a cushion. There are many other persons who have seen him do it, but I have never heard an authenticated case of any other person who could perform the feat."

Levi wrote that there could be no doubt of the truth of this as the lines had been written by Dudley Pontifex. Whether Levi knew Pontifex or not is unknown but quite clearly he believed that there could be no possibility of him recording anything but the truth. Dudley Pontifex was described as being of, "Middlesex County Cricket fame." ('Strokes.l.P168.) As a slight digression there is a discrepancy between Levi's reference to Pontifex and the, "Wisden Book of Obituaries," where Dudley David Pontifex is recorded as having played for Surrey and later for Somerset. He was born in 1855 and died in 1934. It must be the same man - there could not be two of that name! - just a Levi slip of the pen?

Being thus convinced of the possibility of the stroke, and his curiosity stimulated, Levi wrote to W. J. Peall and received a reply dated February 21st, 1905, in which Peall says that he did accomplish the feat once - but only once.

That did it! Old Riso set to work with typical thoroughness, and after going at it for a month or so concluded that the stroke was beyond him, though he had managed to get the cue-ball back as far as the centre pockets. This in itself is no mean feat and, convinced that the shot really was possible, there the matter rested for the next 17 years.

It was in June, 1923, that the subject was raised in, "The Billiard Player." A correspondent asked what weight of cue Peall had used in screwing back to baulk. Peall replied that he had never succeeded in doing this and that the best he managed was when the red was about 12 inches down the table from the spot. Levi was up in arms. He had a letter from Peall saying that he had made this shot, and now, here was the same Peall saying that he had never made the shot. After some correspondence Peall virtually admitted that he could not remember whether or not he had ever been successful at the stroke. Levi waxed very sarcastic indeed (Million.3.P111) and came to the conclusion that Peall had, if fact, never made this stroke. It would seem that Levi however, remained convinced that the shot was possible. Most players nowadays, whilst conceding that such a screw shot is beyond the capability of all but those players gifted with great cue power, would almost certainly agree that this shot can be played. But we have to remember that the, "Cambridge undergraduate," would almost certainly have been playing with ivory balls which would have made the shot so much more difficult than with composition balls. Incidentally, why on earth could this chap not have been named, I'm sure Levi would have been after him for either a demonstration or confirmation.

Three Big Screw-shots

I give three examples of very big screw strokes that I have seen which are not too far short of the stroke under discussion.

Diagram l. This stroke was played by Mike Russell in an exhibition game. The white ball was almost exactly level with the pyramid spot. Russell just missed making the cannon onto the red which was well in baulk.

Diagram 2. I was present at the Crucible some years ago when Jimmy White was playing Alex Higgins. I forget whether this was a quarter or a semi-final match, but an already fading Higgins won the match on the last frame by making a sixty-or-so clearance in a style reminiscent of his great days. I remember very clearly the shot by White depicted above. The red was no more than a foot out of the pocket and the cue ball an inch or two inside baulk. I don't know what position Jimmy was after, but marvelled at the power as the cue ball made its way back to the baulk cushion.

Diagram 3. At the Loughborough ABC last December I raised the subject with Martin Goodwill who said he would like to have a go at it. At his third attempt, the Amateur Champion screwed well past the middle pocket - at one stage it looked as if the ball might find the pocket. Martin reckoned that with some practice at the stroke he could make it.

There is no doubt that screw strokes Are much easier to play than they used to be. The main reason for the relative ease of the deep screw lies in the nature of the Super-Crystalate ball. Shots which were once the exclusive domain of the class cueman are now commonplace. I have been told that big screw shots are even easier with the Aramith ball but cannot comment on this from experience as I have never played with this make of ball. As youngsters, my friends and I thought it was a great feat to pot a black and screw back to the side cushion - a stroke played with no difficulty at all by 10-year-olds these days. Incidentally, when Jack Karnehm was able to achieve the screw into baulk, he was playing with the old Crystalates.

It is beyond any doubt that screwing back from the spotted red into baulk is a possible. It has been done and, there are players today who can or could do it. Why not have at try?

How far can the average player screw back?

It is generally reckoned that a player cannot claim to be good at screw strokes until he can screw back to baulk from a ball placed on the centre spot. I have carried out a small investigation the results of which show that for most players, screwing back from the centre spot is about their limit; that many players find this difficult and have a limit of a few inches below the centre spot; that only a few players are capable of reaching baulk from a position of more than a few inches above the centre spot; that even less can get back to baulk from a ball placed on the pyramid spot. My conclusions are that the average player, say the fifty - eighty break man, is not able to screw straight back from a ball more than about three feet away and that he is not able to screw back from this ball more than about a couple of feet. In statistical terms my sample was small (about thirty players) but I do not think I am very far out. Have a go and write in with your views.

Two very difficult - but possible slow screw strokes

All players are very well aware that it is much easier to screw at an angle than it is to screw straight back. Not so many players are aware that it is possible to screw from hand into the centre pocket from a ball placed on the centre spot, and even more difficult, it is possible to screw from hand into a top pocket from a ball placed on the top spot, in neither case bringing the object ball into baulk. I have done the first but have never achieved the second though coming close. Have a try

The deep screw with side

It is beyond question that the technique of cueing and striking the ball has advanced a great deal over the last twenty years or so. One result of this has been an been an enormous rise in standards of potting both in billiards and snooker. Potting used to be considered something of a, "Knack." It is now realised that potting is something which can be learned, a fact which is proved conclusively by a rise in the standard of snooker which was unimaginable thirty years ago. Lured by the prospects of fame and fortune, twelve and thirteen year olds are making snooker centuries daily. Only a month or two ago an eighteen year old was being talked about as a possible world champion. All the younger billiard players are excellent potters (A lot of the older ones aren't too bad - especially when they play me!) and it is for this reason, in my opinion, that the old myth about top-of-the-table play being exclusively for the highly gifted has been well and truly exploded. Let me quote Levi once again. In his, "Billiards for all Time," (P.90.) talking of Joe Davis we may find this:-

"The great Chesterfield player, with a red ball situated on or near the line between the centre pockets, as shown on the diagram, plays such a powerful screw-back stroke with side that the cue ball recoils with great speed from the black, and then rebounds at an acute angle from the cushion - as shown on the diagram. During the last year or so I have put up this positional stroke to quite a number of first class snooker players. Without exception, each was quite confident that he could play this might stroke in exactly the same way that the world's champion plays it, but none of these men succeeded in bringing it off. Sometimes the black went down and sometimes it failed to enter the pocket, but on no occasion did the cue ball travel very far after striking the cushion. Indeed it seldom rebounded more than a few inches from it. If you are good at strong screw-back stroke have a few tries at this scorcher, and then you will appreciate how difficult it is when played with strong side." (Diagram 4.)

I think that this proves the point. It is true that, though still not an easy shot, the type of balls and cloth in use today make such a stroke much easier than it was. But it is also true to say - with no disrespect to the great Joe - that what once the prerogative of the great is now a standard stroke to the young, and the not so young, billiards or snooker player It would be interesting if a reader or two could make a survey of some of their playing companion's ability to make deep screw strokes and let us know of the results.

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