The billiard season proper opened on Monday, September 4th, at Thurston's Grand Billiard Hall, Leicester Square, when a match of 18,000 up was commenced between Edward Diggle, the Lancastrian, and Tom Aiken, the Scottish champion, the former conceding a start of 3,000. Diggle registered the first century of the season with,an admirable 130. Aiken countered with 136, and his final visit to the table for the afternoon enabled him to make a break of 174 (unfinished). To this he added 15 at night, making the full break 189. The closing scores were: Aiken (rec. 3,000), (in play), 4,196; Diggle, 1,055.
On the 5th, Aiken made 173, and in the evening 161. Diggle afterwards made the 'best break of the match, so far, a faultless 225. Closing scores: Aiken (in play), 5,436; Diggle, 1,991.
On the 6th, Diggle made 104, following it up at his next essay with 132. The Lancastrian afterwards registered the best break of the session, 161. In the evening Aiken made a total of 320 for four visits. Closing scores: Aiken, 6,583; Diggle (in play), 3,151.
On the 7th, Diggle compiled 146. Aiken managed to run up 103, and than 125. At night he maintained a good sequence with 136, to which Diggle retorted with 140. Closing scores: Aiken (in play), 7,882; Diggle, 4,238.
On the 8th, Aiken make 136, and from the leave Diggle, exploiting the winner-cannon perfectly, put together a stylish 273. Diggle's night-play included a sequence of 196, 143 and 108. Closing scores: Aiken, 8,759; Diggle, 6,021.
On the 9th Diggle made a break of 109, but in the evening Aiken contributed a faultless 161, a feature of which was spot-end work. He also made a grand 181. Closing scores: Aiken, 10,146; Diggle, 7,020.
On the llth, Diggle notched a succession of brilliant breaks, including a sound 100 and a beautifully-cued 182. He returned to score faultless breaks of 145 and 172, as well as a rapid 160, a perfect spot-end 194, and an attractive 155. In the evening, he put in 100 and 104. Closing scores: Aiken (in play), 10,813; Diggle, 9,030.
On the 12th, Aiken made a capital 126, and another of 132; while Diggle, playing a superb game, registered a faultless 269. At night, Diggle made a magnificent break of 423 by top-table work, ended by failure at an awkward screw-cannon played from hand. Then he supplemented this fine performance with a beautiful break of 241. Aiken sent up a sound 131, which was promptly countered by 102 from Diggle. Closing scores: Aiken, 11,787; Diggle, 10,730.
On the 13th, Diggle made a break of 187, and Aiken improved his position with 121 and a stylish 125. He also secured honours in the evening with 107, the feature of which was a brilliant swerving masse cannon. Diggle made,a break of 123. Closing scores: Aiken, 13,232; Diggle, 12,040.
On the 14th, Diggle sent up 143, and Aiken 133. Diggle afterwards marked up 149, 122, and 109, and at night 168, which was ended by a miscue. Aiken hit up a faultless 230. Later on Diggle gave a glimpse of his finest form in & break of 228. Closing scores: Aiken, 14,378; Diggle, 13,752.
On the 15th Diggle, in his third and fifth innings, produced 173 and 138, both top-of-the-table runs. Later on he made 130 and 131. In the evening Diggle contributed a stylish 135. Closing scores: Diggle, 15,829; Aiken, 15,608.
On September 16th, the match was abandoned as a draw. Diggle, in the afternoon, started in sensational style by collecting a grand 329 at his first visit to the table. He afterwards made 163, returning later to register an attractive 104 and a grand 203, in which the close work round the spot was as fine as anything he had done in the match. He had a further run of 101. Final scores:— Diggle 17,626 Aiken (rec. 3,000) 17,433
At Thurston's, on September 18th, George Gray started his season's work with a game of 18,000 up against W. Cook, who received one-third of the game. At his ninth visit Gray made a rapid 199, 171 of the points coming from the coloured ball. He afterwards sent up a break of 208, and soon ran to his scheduled 750 points. At the night session Gray brought a suspended item of 72 to 108, and also made a beautiful break of 163 (159 off the red). His next visit produced the finest break of the day, when he made 374 (357 off the red). Closing scores: Cook (rec. 6,000), 6,347; Gray, 1,500.
On the 19th, Gray collected one of his special items, a run of 111 being composed exclusively of red losers. At night he made 166, all but seven off the red. He followed this up with 227, 225 off the red. Closing scores: Cook, 7,042; Gray, 3,001.
On the 20th, Gray made some daring spectacular shots and a brilliant masse cannon in a break of 278. Before the first session ended, the Australian made 161 unfinished (159 off the red). In the evening he brought this up to 269, all but two off the red. Closing scores: Cook, 7,446; Gray, 4,500.
On the 21st, Gray made 181. He also made 116, all but eight off the red. He then initiated his best break of the session, finishing at 193 (189 off the red). In the evening he took a small unfinished item to 126, and afterwards made 183 (171 off the red). Closing scores: Cook, 8,437; Gray, 6,001.
On the 22nd, Gray made 240, and later on contributed 221 (204 off the red). Then he proceeded to make a wonderful break, including two red-ball hazard sequences of 390 and 240 respectively, the compilation at the close of play having reached 642. Cook, after making 40 by open play, proceeded to collect 102 points by exploiting Gray's methods, making 142 in all. Closing scores: Cook, 8,947; Gray (in play), 7,502.
When play was resumed on Saturday, September 23rd, Gray was in hand with 642, which he increased to a full break of 714, of which 702 were off the red. Then he marked up 310 (272 off the red) 102, 233 (213 off the red), and 151. Closing scores: Cook (rec 6,000), 9,493; Gray (in play), 9,001.
The second half of the match was entered upon on September 25th, Cook having lost all except 492 of his original concession of 6,000. Gray carried his unfinished break of 36 to 231 (207 off the red), and followed this with a perfect all-red break of 315, another of 320, and what was, up to then, the second best effort of the match, a faultless 520, unfinished. Closing scores: Gray (in play), 10,501; Cook (rec. 6,000), 9,615.
On September 26th, the Australian increased his unfinished 520 to 640, and made 241 (228 off the red), 156, 145 (138 off the red), and 480, entirely off the red. Closing scores: Gray (in play), 12,001; Cook (rec. 6,000), 10,295.
On the 27th Gray compiled breaks of 202, 203, 165, 193 (189 off the red), and an all-round 118. Cook made a praiseworthy 144. Closing scores: Gray (in play), 16,500; Cook (rec. 6,000), 11,344.
Next day, Gray converted an unfinished 128 into 323; afterwards making a varied 114, a grand "all-red" 383, an all-round 145, and another all-red break of 195. Closing scores: Gray (in play), 15,002; Cook (rec. 6,000), 11,171.
On September 29th, Gray achieved his best feat this season. Having increased his overnight unfinished 45 to 117, he ran to his scheduled points next innings with 676 (unfinished), thus making the extraordinary average of 748. In the evening he took his suspended innings to 1,135—his 24th four-figure break in England. Closing scores: Grey (in play), 16,500; Cook (rec. 6,000), 11,344.
The match came to an end on the 30th of September, when Gray romped home the winner by 6,470 points, having taken his 117 (unfinished) to 468 (435 off the red), and also made further breaks of 154, 304 (285 off the red), 104, and 356 (unfinished).
Final scores:— Gray 18,000 Cook (rec. 6,000) 11,530