"In your No.14 you had an article from Mr Eric Gray. I met Eric and his son when in Brisbane a few years ago. When I was in Melbourne back in 1931 I met Harry Gray, George's father, but never had the good fortune to meet George. What a great red ball player he was. That same year, 1931, I had my first game with Walter Lindrum. It was a public exhibition at St George's Hall in Alan Street, Perth. My ball was right in one of the baulk pockets and Walter made 1,512 off the red. Imagine how long I was waiting for my next shot; when it came I made 252 and Walter seemed so pleased. He said, that is as good as my break. I said, how do you make that out Mr Lindrum? and he said, I play amateur players all over the world and after I make a big break, nine out of ten would miscue; you've got it right son, you've got the right temperament. Some years after, he wanted me to turn pro, but I declined. There wasn't any money to be made those days and by then I had a family.
Without a doubt there are some very fine players in England today judging by your reports. I did ask you once if Roxton Chapman's grandfather played in the English championship back in the fifties? (No.Ed)
Never had the good fortune to meet Norman Dagley. I would have loved to have had a game with him. What a great player he is. I agree with what he said to you, when playing postman's knock you rarely leave anything when you break down. I remember playing Kingsley Kennerley in the final at Melbourne in 1938 and playing postman's, I scored 400 and 427 in two consecutive shots without him scoring and I averaged 109 for the two hours. (Marshall won that World Amateur winning all his games with a record tournament average of 59. Kennerley scored the then record break of 472)
Just a point. How often do you see a player miss a shot and is quite upset. This is something you should never do it only helps your opponent and you lose concentration. Just relax, even Lindrum used to miss and if you never missed you would go on for ever. The only thing to help you not to miss is practice, practice, practice. I enjoyed reading your interview with Jack Karnehm. He is a gentleman and a great player. What an opportunity he had with all that talent round him. In my case the Lindrums were in Melbourne 2000 miles away and I never really got started until 1936. Like Jack I was in the Airforce until 1945, but then, all sportsman met the same fate at that time, Don Bradman just to name one.
Jack was quite wrong thinking that I was upset with him flogging the red, it was the only thing you could play. I was upset with the table, Walter Lindrum would have had a fit. He advocated a table should be about 5 lengths and the Australian Council had it in their rules that a championship table be between 4-and-a-half, and 5-and-a-half lengths. That table was miles faster with, as Jack said, a cloth with no nap. I don't know just how many times I tried to drop the white from the middle to just behind the spot, if it just touched the cushion it came back past the spot. Jack would remember me playing one shot (he probably had a good laugh) where the cue ball was an inch or two away from the side cushion and about half-way from the side pocket to the baulk line. A bit wide for a forcing shot, but I thought that this table, not being a billiard table but a skating rink, I would give it a go. Well, the cue ball flew off the table and if it had hit anyone I think it would have killed them, and the red, I think, had to be stopped so that they could start the next session. The only other similar table I found in all my travels was in a club in Johannesburg and it had a napless cloth, nothing to stop the balls rolling.
Michael Ferreira's 629 was made mostly off the red and had the visiting players realised how fast the table would be they would all have gone back to square one and practised the losing hazard. In 1985 the tables in India were beautiful and we were all allowed practice time, but in 1969 we were allowed only three shots before each game, no practice.
I was very interested in your report on the U.K. final played on a shaven cloth, it evidently upset Gilchrist but Mike Russell seems to have found it OK. It was a good move for the game to have the billiards at the same venue as the snooker. If this could be a regular thing then the billiards boys could get some practice on the faster tables.
As regards Robby Foldvari taking you to task for describing his break-making as painstaking. Well Robby knows only too well that he is regarded as a slow player. I have never heard anyone say otherwise. In fairness to Robby, I don't think the frames games help the slow players, I do not think these games are in the best interests of billiards. I did say to Robby in Perth that in any sport a professional needs to be attractive. Players like Russell and Gilchrist will always get a gallery. One of the most attractive billiard players I have seen is Subhash Agrawal when playing at his best.
I saw a video of Mike Russell and Peter Gilchrist playing in the final of the world championship in Sydney, both players have improved quite a lot since then. This bears out what Walter Lindrum said to me; that you need to be playing all the time, not like Rhys Cochrane who is still at university and has very little time for practice. By the way, I have been helping a lad here in Perth, Michael Bolton. He is 14 years old now, but you will hear more of him as time goes by. In your No.16 there is a diagram with touching balls in baulk. I think that player 'A' should be allowed to play away from the red as in snooker.
With all my very best wishes to you and your readers for a wonderful festive season and keep up the good work,
Bob Marshall"