American Champion Willie Hoppe writes of his encounter with the redoubtable Melbourne Inman who visited America in 1914. It was typical of Inman that he should issue such a challenge as Hoppe describes.
"When the war broke out in the summer of 1914, Melbourne Inman, champion of the world at English billiards left England, where all sports were abruptly terminated, and came to the United States. His manager, R. L. Benjamin, issued a sweeping challenge to me for the world's championship of the green cloth, to be decided in a series of matches at both English and American styles of the game. He suggested a long contest, with a series of matches in New York City, Chicago, Montreal, Winnipeg, and Toronto, six days of play in each city.
The proposition sounded attractive and I accepted. For two weeks I practised steadily at the English game on one of their huge tables, 6 feet wide by 12 feet long, the balls slightly smaller than the regulation three-and-three-eighths inch championship size. I found that I had to learn the game all over again. The whole theory of scoring and positional play was different. The English game is played on a table with six pockets. Thus, they have a variety of alternatives on each shot, and the game is greatly diversified.
I could hold my own at caroms, despite the difficulty of handling smaller balls, and I was fairly accurate at pocketing the red, but when it came to hazards I was all at sea. Those pockets were so small and so contrary. Time after time I would send my cue ball skimming for the corner, only to see it catch the jaw and hang there, refusing to go down.
I used to marvel at Inman's accuracy on these shots. With a long graceful sweep of his cue he would send his ball shooting off the red in mid-table, to plop straight as a die in the corner pocket. From any angle, with that same sweeping stroke, he could score hazards at will. I used to wonder too, at the way he held his cue, catching it in the tips of his fingers, he seemed to play with a stiff wrist, most of the work being done with the forearm.
By diligent practice I gained a fair technique at the English game and when we played the first match at the Hotel Astor ballroom the night of September 29, 1914, I succeeded in rolling up 304 while Inman was completing his string of 600. That night they took the table down and substituted a regulation 5 x 10 American balk line table for the following day's matches at my style of game.
The balk line matches were even more one-sided. I scored 1,000 points in two sessions against Inman's total of 295. His stroke was too solid for the American game. He made some difficult shots in open table, but when it came to close position he was lost. He didn't have the touch nor the delicacy of stroke to hold them on the line, where we in America make most of our points.
The following day, in two sessions of English billiards, I scored 621 while Inman was accumulating 1,200. At the end of the week it was clearly demonstrated that I could outplay him 5 to 1 at balk line, whereas he could play me only 2 to 1 at his own game. We went on to Chicago, played our week's engagement there and thence to Montreal; but by this time the score was so lop-sided in my favour that the so-called "World's Championship" became a farce. I noticed one peculiarity of Inman's play, which I have since learned is a characteristic of all English players. He could masse fairly well from left to right, but when it came to a back-handed masse, he was lost. He couldn't make the bridge for a back-hand masse. Consequently his nursing suffered by the absence of this valuable stroke. As well as to winning another, "Championship," at this hybrid game, I also acquired a manager. Mr. Benjamin made a deal at the end of our tour whereby he took charge of my business affairs, booking engagements, taking care of the press notices, handling the tickets, and fulfilling all the functions my father toiled at when we were barn-storming about the country years before."