STEVENSON has set the tongues of the amateurs agog with his name. His remarkable defeat of Diggle has been almost the sole theme of conversation for the past few days. It could not be otherwise, for such a surprising overcoming of difficulties has seldom, if ever, had to be chronicled in connection with billiards. To rise to the occasion as Stevenson did, after the game had virtually passed into Diggle's hands, betokens that assuredly he is gaining that self-confidence which, hitherto, has been his only bar. Certainly, he now assumes, by virtue of this victory, the right to be titled the second-best player. Also, the championship game receives a great lift, for it wants but the reproduction of this Manchester form to make the contest no one-sided one Seemingly, too, Stevenson's win places Diggle entirely out of the running for the title.
Reputations, however great, do not easily sustain rude shocks such as this; and, after all, the result was but a confirmation of the form of these players in the preliminary heat of the Championship last April. Stevenson is, indeed, close upon the topmost rung of the ladder. Even the great John Roberts, in his palmiest days, never accomplished a greater feat than that performed by Stevenson last Thursday. On that day, playing like one possessed, he forced Diggle to change his place from a leader by 1,166 points to that of the rearmost performer in a minority of 544. Such a display has not been seen in Manchester since Roberts made his 1,392 break under the old spot-barred— but not push-barred—rules. The instruments of Stevenson's remarkable achievement, his biggest breaks, will speak volumes in favour of the character of his display. They read— 586 (the highest break of the season so far), 299, 186, 171, 123 and 115—a merry list. The final scores were: Stevenson, 18,000; Diggle, 17,013.