There can be no doubt that the all round scoring powers of many players outside front rank would be greatly improved if more attention was paid to one-ball practice. This is no new theory. Joseph Bennett insisted on it before most of us were born, and to-day the phenomenal success of George Gray proves the supreme necessity of mastering perfect accuracy with the cue-ball alone before proceeding to practise scoring strokes. It is stated on indisputable authority that the young Australian practised for months before he was allowed to even see the red ball on the table, and without going so far as this, Bennett and many other first-rate teachers of billiards, have emphasised the supreme importance of one ball billiards as the only sure foundation of success. Yet it is obvious that much of this advice has been wasted, the temptation to get to work with all three balls is too strong for most beginners, and the consequence is that they never recover from the effect of trying to run before they can walk, in a billiard sense. How true this is, and how much depends on one ball practice, can be ascertained quite easily in any company of billiard players. Place the cue-ball on the centre spot of the "D," and let each player in turn make a dozen attempts to send the ball straight up the table at varying strengths and make it return direct over the line of spots in the centre of the table. It is astonishing how few will emerge from this test at all creditably, and it will be found that the best players are those who are nearest to perfection at this stroke.
And if only players would devote the time to practising this stroke, which is now frittered away by aimless attempts at all sorts of strokes, a marked improvement in their billiards would assuredly follow.