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The Usual Game of Billiards

The billiard table and its fittings are now so well known that it is not necessary to enter into a description of its length and breadth, or the means by which it is constructed. Every individual who is likely to read an article on billiards will be almost certain to know the difference between a cue and the rest, between a cannon and a hazard, and between a winning and a losing hazard. All such details, therefore, will be assumed as known to the reader, and some suggestions will now be given as regards judging of the merits or condition of a billiard table and of the balls.

The perfection to which the science of billiards has attained is due mainly to the fact that the bed of the present table is accurately level, the balls perfect spheres and of equal weight, and the cushions true.

With such materials to deal with, the enormous breaks now made by several professional players have been accomplished. Given a table which is not true, balls that are not perfect spheres nor equal in weight, and cushions that are not uniform, and Roberts himself would find a difficulty in making a break of more than 100.

There are so many billiard-table makers who turn out excellent work in the present day, that tables constructed by different makers differ but little from each other, except in the size of the pockets and in the height of the cushions, and these can be made to order to suit the taste of the purchaser.

There is a tendency in the present day to make the pockets smaller than formerly, a proceeding which results in fewer games being won by hard hitting and flukes.

Small pockets, however, are not popular with the owners of public tables, as a game occupies a longer time, and the daily U receipts from the table are consequently less than when the pockets are easy. a When the table and balls are perfectly true, the game may be played gently; stroke can not only be made to a certainty, but the balls can be placed with accuracy for the next stroke. When the balls and table are "foul," to attempt a slow stroke when the balls have to run some distance is a proceeding very likely to cause the intended stroke to be missed, and to leave the adversary an easy score. To insure even moderate success with foul balls it is therefore necessary to hit harder, because the slower a foul ball travels the more will it diverge from a straight line. Billiards with foul balls, then, partake somewhat of the character of cricket, where hard hitters make the largest scores. a The usual method of testing whether a table is horizontal is by means of long level, which should be placed on the table in various directions, reversed, &c.

If the air-bubble in this level remain in the centre under all conditions, the table may be considered true so far as the bed is concerned.

To test the accuracy of the cushions, they should be looked at from a point in the prolongation of the cushion. If the cushion, instead of appearing as straight as a line, appear slightly jagged like a saw, such cushions are not perfectly true. To test whether a table be fast or slow, a ball may be placed in the centre of the baulk, and struck as hard as the player can strike it, the spot at the top of the table being aimed at, the number of times that the ball runs up and down the table being counted.

Some players can, of course, make a ball travel faster than others, but each can test for himself, and compare the results on different tables. On a moderately fast table I can cause a ball to travel about four and a half times the length of the table. There are several other methods of testing the strength," one very good method being to place the red ball in such a position that when you play from any part of the baulk, an easy losing hazard can be made in the middle pocket. By repeated trials it can then be found what is the amount of strength requisite to cause the red ball to strike the top cushion and to return to such a position as to make another and similar hazard almost a certainty. This stroke cannot be practised too often, and by attending to a few details which are given later, a good score may be made from these strokes alone. 66 An amateur who can be tolerably certain of making even eight or ten consecutive [BILLIARDS losing hazards in the middle pockets, and who plays other portions of the game with the same knowledge of strength, is a hard man to beat.

Another excellent method of testing the strength of the table is to place the red ball on the spot in the centre of the table. Place your own ball on the baulk line about two inches from the spot on the right. Play to hole your own ball in the right-hand top pocket, and strike with sufficient strength to cause the red ball to stop near the right-hand middle pocket, so as to leave either a winning or losing hazard in the middle pocket. This also is a stroke which cannot be practised too often; because when the red ball by faulty strength is not brought back far enough for a middle pocket hazard, one of the top pockets must be played for.

Players whose execution is nothing remarkable may, by a knowledge of strength, make very considerable breaks, especially when this knowledge of strength is combined with judgment. When the cloth of a table is new, the table is slower than when the cloth becomes worn; also when the cushions are cold, they cause the ball to rebound with less velocity than when they are warm. Thus there is much to be done in gaining a knowledge of the strength of a table. Some players, after only a few strokes, will pick up with great accuracy the strength of a table, whereas many amateur players may play for a month on the same table, and then fail to have the slightest idea of the strength. One of the most marked differences between the professional and the amateur billiard player is in this knowledge of strength. A professional, or a first-class amateur, will make an easy cannon, and will either leave the balls for another easy cannon or for a hazard. The average amateur will make the cannon with as much ease as the professional, but he will play this with such want of judgment as regards strength that he will probably leave the balls widely separated, so that a second score is almost impossible. Players of this class I have always termed "one stroke players." They appear to think of nothing beyond the one stroke they may be playing. A long break with such players is almost impossible.

When John Roberts, jun., visited India, many of the natives who played a fairly good game remarked that there was really nothing wonderful in his play. Every stroke that he did they could do, but he had such extraordinary luck that he never had a difficult stroke to play for. The fact was that these men could not understand the real BILLIARDS] skill of the game, which consists not merely in making a stroke, but in playing this with such strength and judgment as to leave another easy stroke, and so on.