Interview with Melbourne Inman
His Opinion Of The Gray Game
We have all seen the "Terrier" at the billiard table, but I detected him in a new role when I called on Melbourne Inman at his charming old-world residence at Bedford Park.
Truth to tell, the doughty cue-man who has never yet said "die" until the marker called game, was busily engaged in a new ball game when I was announced. There was only one ball, made of indiarubber, and about eighteen inches in diameter, and with it Master Sydney Melbourne Inman, a promising youngster who has yet to see his second birthday, was performing great deeds of derring-do on the lawn. And when he "lost control of the object," papa Inman had to field the errant sphere, and he did it in a style which showed that he was thoroughly accustomed to obey the imperious commands of "His Majesty the baby."
Adjourning to the house, over the teacups and cake, I ventured to explain that I wanted to know what my host thought of his prospects in his match with Gray. "Well, I think I have a chance he remarked, quietly and seriously— "I am not saying I shall win, but you may be sure I shall do my best to come out on top." After this, the conversation veered in the direction of red ball billiards as Gray plays it, compared with losing hazard breaks off the ivory balls. Inman, who is certainly one of the very best strikers of the losing hazard off ivory balls we have ever seen, was very emphatic on the point. "To my mind," he said, "losing hazard breaks are a great deal easier with the ball Gray is using than they are with the ivories. I do not say that the difference is enough to discount the fine performances of the young Australian—he is good value for every point he has scored—but I do say
that the composition ball confers an artificial advantage on the losing hazard striker. It is like a man jumping in the ordinary way and then jumping with the aid of weights in his hands. In each case very wonderful jumping might be accomplished but, of course, the records for distance would go to the man whose natural ability was assisted by the use of something the other man could not utilise. Come with me to the billiard room, and I will show you what I mean."
Mr. Inman led the way to the billiard room, and I found he had a table erected specially for practising in view of his match against Gray. Placing a set of the type of composition balls used by Gray on the table, Inman set up a run-through losing hazard from hand into one of the side pockets, "There you are," he said, "that is the master stroke which, I confess, has surprised me more than a little. With ivory balls it is an extremely difficult stroke to run-through, but with these balls it is quite easy. Why, I cannot say, but it is a fact, and I never should have believed that such a difference was possible if I had not experimented with this class of stroke."
"And, of course", he continued, "all the angles are different with these balls. They throw a wider angle than the ivory, which is nothing against the long loser into the top pocket, and makes certain, strokes into the middle pockets ordinary natural-angle strokes instead of the difficult slow screws they are with the ivory ball. Altogether, it is beyond question in my mind that the red ball game is, as I have said, far easier with the composition ball than with the ivory."
"What do yon think will happen when Gray plays with the ivory ball?" I ventured to ask. "Not a great number of breaks of a thousand or more off the red," replied Inman. "Big breaks, of course, as Gray will always take full change out of the red. But he cannot do more than the ball allows and he can no more govern that funny little curl an ivory red occasionally makes at the end of its journey than he can control the red on the tables at Monte Carlo. And this slight deviation is quite enough to destroy the sequence of a break. It may leave an awkward long loser instead of a simple stroke into the middle pocket, or if the red comes well down the table it may leave the run-through, which is a gift with the composition ball, but a teaser with the ivory."
Inman then took up his cue and indulged in a little red ball practice for my edification, and although the light was none of the best, and he was chatting and explaining things all the time, he made more than one break off the red which would have called for special comment in the papers if it had been compiled during a game with the ivories. He did not make a four-figure break, but he did quite enough to convince me that he knew what he was talking about when he said that the red ball game with composition balls was a much easier proposition than the same game with the ivories.
Before leaving my host, I ventured to wish him a successful tour in South Africa. He will sail in the Balmoral Castle on the 24th inst., and he expects to be back about October 1st. His tour is under the auspices of Thurston & Co., Ltd.