Ladies first. Miss Ruby Roberts has commenced her engagement at Thurston's, and her displays in the Minor Hall, Leicester Square, have aroused considerable interest.
With Miss Collins for an opponent, the fair cueist from Australia has played bright and attractive billiards each afternoon; and I strongly advise the many lady patrons of the game to pay a visit to the Minor Hall and see extremely pretty billiards played by a young lady who is undoubtedly the leading feminine exponent of billiards now before the public.
Miss Ruby Roberts compiles an abundance of useful breaks of between thirty and fifty, and is capable of better things should occasion demand. Is it too much to hope that one of these days the Old Country will produce a lady player able to make Miss Ruby Roberts do her very best to win?
It is a pleasure to see Miss Ruby Roberts at the table. Her artistic pose and elegant execution add a fresh charm to the game, and although she is minus the marvellous continuity of accuracy which enables our leading professionals to compile their big breaks, yet she makes all the strokes a first-class player requires, and collects her points in a style which cannot fail to please the most fastidious critic.
Miss Collins plays a sound game, and with more opportunities of playing in public she would probably make larger breaks. Her style is distinctly good.
Turning to "mere men," Edward Diggle and Tom Aiken were the first to give Londoners a show of first-class billiards this season. Upon the whole, their game was well patronised for an opening match, and some really excellent billiards was seen.
Diggle struck me as playing in a rather more enterprising vein than usual. Always a supreme master of positional billiards, he has seldom shone as a stroke exponent to the extent noticeable during his fortnight at Thurston's.
On several occasions he made some clever and effective cannons by striking the cushion first with the cue-ball, not the stereotyped stroke when the two object balls are fairly close together, and every tyro knows how to hit the cushion for a score; but difficult cannons where the angle had to be judged to a nicety. The cue-ball had to travel a couple of feet or so after hitting the cushion.
Diggle manipulated several of these "teasers" in grand style, and I also saw him score off one double-baulk by a stroke off four cushions reminiscent of the wizard of the cue at his very best. The amount of side Diggle called into requisition made the cue-ball swerve off the cushion in a beautiful curve delightful to see.
Of course, such strokes always have a speculative element attached to them even in the hands of the very best players. But they are so attractive when they do materialise, and so much appreciated by followers of the game, that I feel sure the big stroke referred to was the outstanding feature of the session to many present.
I know this is rank heresy to the billiard purist, but Diggle so completely satisfies those who want their billiards "according to Cocker" all the time, that it would be ungenerous indeed to cavil at an occasional gloriously spectacular departure from the orthodox.
Diggle might have given a miss instead of attempting to score off the double baulk. A score off the red was none too easy even for a player of the calibre of the Champion of Scotland, and it would have been an easy matter for Diggle to have placed the white so that a cannon was next to impossible.
But, as I have said, he went out for the stroke and made it, and, incidentally, proceeded to help himself to well over a hundred of the best. It was particularly gratifying to me to see enterprise rewarded in this way, and I often wonder whether similar tactics would not profit some professionals in a double sense—first by adding to their score from unpromising openings, and secondly by increasing their hold on the public.
Spectators enjoy seeing something out of the ordinary in the way of a stroke, though it must be conceded that most visitors to billiard matches are thoroughly able to appreciate the delicate taps at the head of the table, and enjoy to the full the beauty of a positional stroke which transforms a most ordinary shot into a difficult proposition.
Diggle's robust play must be taken as indicative of the improved health Diggle has sought for years, and if fit and well there is no reason why the great Manchester player should deny himself the honour of crossing cues for the Championship.
Because I have said so much about Diggle it must not be inferred that Aiken is not entitled to a full share of the honours. As a matter of fact he played grand billiards, and at times was positively brilliant. Nothing could have been finer than his thousand points in two hours, including a break of 316, registered during the last evening of the match.
Yet I cannot wholly acquit Aiken of his old fault of inconsistency. He has improved in this respect to an appreciable degree during the last few years, but it still remains the besetting fault of his billiards.
At his best, Tom Aiken is as good as any player we have with the ivory ball, but at his worst he is just below second-rate. This makes him a very difficult player to gauge, as whenever you are watching him there is always the feeling that however badly he may be travelling for the time being there is no telling how soon he may strike a good patch and pop along at a merry pace.
And when he does get going in his happiest mood it is so hard to understand why he cannot keep it up. When reeling off hundred after hundred he progresses in the easy style of a real champion, and when he is playing badly is the only time he seems to be fighting hard for points.
This is true to an extent of all the leading players, but it is more true of Aiken than of any of the others. It seems to me that of him it is indeed correct to say that the faster he plays the better he plays. When he was cueing along like a world beater during that memorable two hours at the last stage of the match he scored with equal ease and rapidity, and collected his points, stroke by stroke, at a much faster rate than usual.
At the time of writing, George Gray is making his first appearance in London this season at Thurston's Grand Hall, he will not be seen in town again this side of December, and large numbers of billiard lovers are taking the opportunity of renewing their acquaintance with the marvellous youth who has made so much billiard history.
Well, there is no great change to chronicle. Stance, cue action, and scoring methods remain unaltered. He has lost a little of the boyish appearance which made his achievements appear such a phenomenon of precocity last season, but his billiards remains virtually the same as ever.
It is early yet to expect him to run into four figure breaks, but I feel sure he will do so again very soon, and it is quite on the cards that he will rattle up a break of a thousand or so while this copy is in the hands of the printer —he is playing well enough to do it.
But although the main tactics of his game remain of the type which has earned him billiard immortality, yet it was noticeable that at times he indulged in far more all-round play than I have ever seen him attempt before.
This appeared to me to be quite voluntary on his part, for as soon as he desired to do so he steered the red into the familiar position over the middle pocket, and forged ahead with his consecutive hazards in his own irresistible style. True, he did not keep it up so long as is his wont, but unless I am very much mistaken he will do so in due course.
The glimpse he gave us of his all-round ability was a distinct revelation. Once, I saw him collect a score or so at the top of the table in a style of his own which suggested to me illimitable scoring possibilities in the hands of such a billiard genius as George Gray undoubtedly is.
During his transient exposition of the top of the table game he operated at much greater range than our professionals are in the habit of doing and every time he made the cannon he cut the red right into the jaws of the pocket, thus leaving himself such an easy winner that he could place the cue-ball almost anywhere.
I was sorry when he put down the red and left the familiar cross loser which opened the all red route once again, and I fancy I am not the only one who would give more than a little to see just what George Gray could do at the "top" if he went all out in that fascinating department of the game.
As for the remainder of his fleeting utilisation of all-round play, it appeared to me that his cannons were somewhat weak, especially the all-important drop cannon. But as he was obviously out of touch when I saw him at work it would be wrong to press this criticism, and I hope that before the season is out George Gray will give us much more extensive exhibitions of his undeniable ability as an all round player.
The news that Charles Dawson is returning to the game was hailed with universal satisfaction, and all sportsmen will be anxious to see what his form will be like against Aiken at Thurston's.
If he should prove to be quite his old self again, and I have heard reports which support this happy supposition, what a match for the Championship we may have this season! The bare idea of Stevenson, Diggle, Dawson, Inman, and Reece all competing for the honour, to say nothing of the chance of George Gray joining in the tussle, is enough to gladden the heart of every billiard enthusiast, and I can only hope that our best.expectations will be realised to the full in every respect.
At any rate, whether Dawson plays for the Championship or not so soon after a lengthy retirement, I know I voice the sentiments of all followers of our national indoor pastime when I say that Charles Dawson is welcome indeed in the arena. For years the stocky Yorkshireman played billiards of the highest class, and was deservedly a great public favourite. I sincerely hope that during the immediate future we shall see him well 011 the way towards regaining his old position.
Reports from our globe-trotting cueists are more than a little interesting. Reece is simply delighted with the time he had in Australia, and is already talking of going back next summer.
This means billiards all the year round and seems to suggest possibilities of an interesting team contest. There may be something in the idea of sending three of our best men out to meet the foremost trio in Australia. The usual conditions governing team contests would prevail, and victory rest with the side scoring the greatest aggregate of points.
Fred Lindrum has at last made up his mind to come to this country. He has sailed from Sydney on the P. & O. "Malwa," and I hope to be able to give some personal impressions of him in a future number.
From the tone of the Australian papers it seems that Lindrum is none too strong, and fears are expressed of the effect of an English winter on his play. But George Gray does not seem to find much the matter with our climate, judging from the way he has piled record on record since his arrival.
Inman has not left Harverson in possession of the South African record for long, as in Pretoria, when playing a match against J. Lloyd, the "Terrier" rattled up a break of 547.
This is not such an artistic breaking of record as the 499 with which Harverson beat Mitchell's 497, and if Inman had just made 500 he would have provided some excellent copy.
As it is, however, he has given the record a lift which will want a lot of catching up, and I should say that it will stand for a long time. Inman seems to have found things to his liking in South Africa, as, not content with smashing the record, he is credited with scoring a thousand points in 70 minutes when playing against an amateur.
Such a performance is scoring indeed, and compares very well with some of the speediest things ever done on the board of green cloth. The fastest thousand we have on record was made in 44 minutes by Peall against Mitchell in 1884, but this was an "all in" game.
As for George Gray, he is a law to himself, and must, I should say hold all speed records, unless the "anchor stroke" is allowed to count.
The latest mails have brought some interesting news of a keenly-contested match in Johannesburg, between Inman and the Transvaal champion, Ferraro, the latter receiving a substantial start. The match took place in a hall belonging to Thurston & Co., Ltd., which, by the way, is probably the largest hall in existence used exclusively for Billiards. It holds 500 people, and is almost as comfortable as Thurston's Grand Hall at Leicester Square, London.