One can imagine the man in the street asking what possible connection there is between the two pastimes!
More than greets the eye at first sight. It comes about thus: many a busy man has no opportunity whatever for outdoor exercise. The strenuous age in which we live precludes this, and cricket and football take up too much time. The City man has often to work late on a Saturday, he cannot spare three or four hours - half the day, in fact - to go to the Oval or Lord's in the summer, or to Tottenham, Fulham, and the Crystal Palace in the winter. It is wrong no doubt for people to work all these hours, a blot upon our so- called civilisation - but the fact remains - the man living in the big towns has few opportunities, and is a creature of circumstances and also competition. Then too in the great centres of population there are few open spaces, even if one did care for open-air sport - the green fields and parks are few and far between - and a long distance away. So if football cannot help billiards, the latter does afford most valuable help to footballers.
There has been of late years a growing desire to do something to entice the paid Association player, who has too much time on his hands, from the allurements of the "Pig and Whistle," where he drinks, from the trainer's point of view, far too much liquid, whether ginger beer or ale, probably the latter. And so social clubs have been established, and the chief feature about them has been the provision of billiard tables, which are an endless source of attraction. The paid player may only have one match a week; he trains daily, but the actual work certainly does not average one hour, and he is a law unto himself for the rest of the twenty-four. Now, on some grounds, the men are expected to be there from 9 to 12 and 2 to 5, and often with only a cattle shed to shelter in. They have no bar, and smoke and loaf the time away. What wonder they get discontented! Fancy what it must have been like during the recent spell of severe weather. There they must stick, or run the risk of fine or suspension.
It demoralises a man, and the result was that very early in their history the directors of clubs like Aston Villa, Sheffield United, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, and Chelsea saw that if they were going to preserve the morale of the teams they must do something, and so they established social clubs, which have capital billiard saloons. Just outside White Hart Lane station on the Great Eastern Railway is situated the first of the London Football Social Clubs. And here you find from 10.30 in the morning till the same hour at night the players congregated and the tables in full use. If it be a wet day and Captain Sandy Tait
feels the need of exercise, he will challenge his friend Walter Bull to a game or games, for they will play perhaps a couple of hours, and they tell you that the amount of walking involved makes them, at any rate, feel healthily tired. There are many days when this form of exercise is indulged in; it is better than cards, coddem, or other sedentary sports, which are not good for the man who wants regular out-of-door training.
There accrues the great essential advantage - the training of the eye, so necessary to the footballer, and especially to the goalkeeper and the forwards, whose duty it is to notch goals. And the same keen sight is very essential to the cueist. Both games train the eye to accuracy. How often in front of goal do men shoot in erratic style and lose the fruits of their hard-earned toil! The testimony of footballers who play billiards is that there is much to be learned from the game. But beyond any technical advantage there is another. It promotes the spirit of comradeship, and in this way. Too often the directors and management know too little of their men. But the table provides the opportunity. The "Major" - a fine old-fashioned veteran who served his Empire with the colours, but who is perennially young - will tell you of the friendly encounters between director and player.
Thus Mr. C. D. Roberts, M.C.C., the Chairman of the 'Spurs management, will often look in for an hour and enjoy a game, while Mr. George Cox, Mr. Montague F. Cadman, and Mr. T. A. Deaooek are all good exponents of the game. The great event of the year is the club handicap, all the players joining in and providing much excitement of an enjoyable character. John Cameron is very fond of the.game and shines in his way as he does at golf, cricket, whist, and every sport he plays. And the great benefit is that master and men meet as they do on the field of cricket, or used to in the good old days, and are equal and learn to understand and to mutually respect each other. Here is its great worth. But the South of England lags sadly behind the Midlands and the North. Almost from their very inception, Aston Villa, Everton, Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End, and Notts Forest have studied the pleasure of their men, and have recognised the value of the social club with the billiard table.
And it has proved a paying policy, for many a player watching the effect of certain strokes with the cue has thought just what might 'be done with the ball from a certain angle, and has tried shots at goal in different ways than heretofore. Among the players in London who follow the pastime is that greatest of all Southern goal-keepers and all-round sportsmen John S. Fryer, the Captain and custodian of the champions, Fulham.
And he plays it as he does everything else - in a keen and gentlemanly way. If you go to Chelsea, David Copeland, the Captain, and Jack Kirwan, the Irish International, are fond of the game, as is Charlie Williams, the Brentford goal-keeper, while W. Holmes, the Captain of Clapton Orient, is another good hand. Some of our amateurs, V. J. Woodward, England's Captain, Herbert Smith, who leads Reading, and the Welsh International goal-keeper L.
R. Roose all follow the game. Indeed it is a pity that some of the players do not enter for the amateur handicaps. They could devote hours,a day to practice, but the nature of their work precludes the possibility.
It would happen that at the very hour they had to play their heat, they would be returning home from a match, while those who have to play two or three matches a week would find a clashing of fixtures. But the football professional owes much to billiards; it has beguiled the monotony of many a weary hour and aided him to keep fit, by training eye, body, and mind, and taught him the importance of accuracy. Its intelligent pursuit has provided the best recreation, coupled with no little advantage to himself. Before long, the Football Association will refuse to sanction a professional team that has no social club for its players, and will insist also that there shall be in it a billiard table. A hint to the Billiard Association.