B.C.C. Championship

Stevenson Retains The Title

Coming,at the fag end of a somewhat overcrowded season and during a period when conditions out of doors were not particularly conducive to good attendances at indoor sports, the championship game of 1911 scarcely obtained that measure of public support which has previously been accorded to it.

At the same time, interest in purely billiard circles was as keen as ever, and with the challenger putting up a fight for the greater portion of the game which must have astonished even his warmest supporters, it seemed at one time that the finish would be of an exciting nature, and there w,as indeed a great possibility of the title changing hands.

After the initial victory the challenger made remarkable headway, and with Stevenson in comparatively poor form, quickly placed himself in the possession of a comfortable lead of four figures.

Not until the first half of the game had been almost completed did Stevenson commence to make satisfactory inroads on the younger player's advantage, and, as will be readily seen from the appended figures, Inman once more proved his right to the title of "the terrier" by regaining in full his advantage after having quite lost it.

In the final stages, however, Stevenson played billiards of the most brilliant kind, in one day's play completely wiping out an adverse balance of almost a thousand points. The ease with which the champion eventually Avon suggests-that Inman has but little chance at present of competing successfully with him on level terms, but th-a younger man is so excellent a fighter that he will always be a menace to the holder, and in all probability as Diggle seems disinclined for the arduous strife of championship games, the Twickenham man can be marked as the next holder of premier honours.

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