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Thus (If the player struck his own)

if the player struck his own ball "true," and caused it to strike the cushion at A after it had struck the ball 2, his ball would rebound in the direction A B, the angle CA B being equal to the angle C A 2.

If "right side" is given to the striker's ball, it will rebound from A in the direction A 3- If "reverse side" is given, it will rebound in the direction A D.

The striker, therefore, has the power of altering the angle at which a ball will rebound from the cushion by means of the "side" he gives to his own ball when he strikes it. “ دو The Screw. From the side stroke to the screw there is only one step. To cause your own ball to screw off the ball you play at, your own ball must be struck low, below the centre, whilst the ball played at must be hit nearly full. The screw may be played with or without side. It is better first to practise the screw without side, and to accomplish this the player should strike his ball just below the centre, and if the ball at which he plays be at no great distance, he may strike his own ball with moderate strength. To learn this stroke, there is no better method, as far as I know, than to follow the instruction that I received from Charles Hughes. This was to place the red ball about the centre of the table, place your own ball in baulk, so that a line from your own ball to the red is at right angles to a line from the red ball to the centre of the middle pocket. Aim BILLIARDS] nearly full at the red ball, and strike your own ball just below the centre. Keep repeating this stroke until you find you can make a losing hazard in the middle pocket to a certainty. At the commencement of these trials many failures will occur, but these will be due either to the striker not striking his own ball just below the centre (although he usually feels confident he has done so), or to hitting the red ball either too full or too fine.

To be able to make a right-angle screw to a certainty is a very useful accomplishment at billiards, as very few games are played where once or twice in the game this stroke does not offer itself. When the ball at which you are playing is within two or three feet of your own ball, the stroke is easier than when nearly the whole length of the table separates the two balls; but the stroke can be accomplished even under the last-named condition.

If in trying this last-named stroke it is found that a right angle cannot be screwed, try the stroke by striking your own ball lower and lower below its centre. Some billiard balls are more elastic than others; this may cause your own ball to come off at a greater angle; thus by this stroke you may test the elasticity of the balls, and thereby gain a knowledge of the strength requisite to successfully accomplish various strokes. When a right-angle screw into the middle pocket can be made to a certainty, a rightangled screw cannon is by comparison very easy, because, as has been previously remarked, a ball is twice the size of a pocket; or, in other words, it is more easy to cause your own ball to screw off the ball first struck, and then to strike the third ball, than it is to cause your own ball to enter a pocket, because the third ball offers twice the space that a pocket offers.

When a player is enabled to screw a right angle to a certainty, and with any required strength, he is on the right road to become a strong player, because he can, by a modification of the screw, make his own ball come off at slightly less than the right angle, by striking it a trifle higher than he would strike it to make a right-angled screw.

It is quite worth the trouble for any person who may be desirous of playing a strong game at billiards to practise this one stroke during half an hour or so every day for a week; he will find that being able to accomplish it will strengthen his game from ten to fifteen in one hundred.

When estimating how your own ball must be struck in order to make a cannon off one cushion, you must consider how far your own ball has to travel after it has struck the cushion before it can strike the third ball. If the third ball be near the cushion, the cannon is easier than if this third ball be far off. In either case, however, the same principle holds good, which may be popularly described as follows :- A B 2 S 7 FIG. 7. 3 C Suppose A B C the cushion, I the player's ball, 2 and 3 the other balls. Select by eye a point B on the cushion, at which your own ball would strike after it has struck 2.

Your own ball would then rebound in the direction BS, the angle CBS being equal to the angle A B 2. The cannon would thus be missed; consequently, to cause your own ball to shoot off the cushion from B in the required direction, a small amount of right side should be given to your ball, this right side will cause your own ball after striking the cushion at B to come off in the direction of the ball 3. By imagining a ball to be at B, and then playing for an imaginary cannon on to B, this stroke becomes easier than if we merely played at the cushion at random.

Every variety of this cannon off one cushion may occur during a game. One ball may be just below the middle pocket on the right of the table, the other ball above the middle pocket on the left of the table, the player's ball "in hand." The player can now place his ball at any part of the "D," and play for a cannon off the top cushion, adopting the plan suggested of imagining a ball to be placed close to the top cushion, and to play for that part of the cushion where this ball is supposed to be situated, and note whether side is required to make your own ball come off at the angle required to make a cannon.

Another cannon off one cushion is of frequent occurrence in a game, especially when the adversary, considering the red ball in a safe position, "pots" the white and places his own ball in baulk. The following diagram (Fig. 8) will serve to illustrate the position of the red ball (2) and the adversary's ball (3). The player selects to place his ball in that part of the "D" from which, playing at 2, he can cannon on to the top cushion at C (on an imaginary ball). His ball rebounds from C in the direction of 3, and makes a cannon. The danger of this stroke is that if it is not played sharply, the red ball (2) will kiss the player's ball, either before after the striker's ball hits the top cushion.

There is a probability when playing this stroke of caus- 7 FIG. 8.

C 3 2 or ing the red to cross over the table into the left top pocket; also, if the stroke is made too fine to make the cannon off the top cushion, this cannon may be obtained as the player's ball comes off the bottom cushion.

When playing a match of 500 up some years ago, my adversary, a very strong player, gave a miss in baulk, and left the balls in the position shown by 2 and 3 in the diagram; placing my own ball in the position shown by I, the cannon was made, and the red ball was holed in the left top pocket, and a break of fifty-seven was the result. Such a break off a safety miss seemed to demoralise my opponent, who broke down afterwards when attempting comparatively easy strokes.

When attempting such strokes as the preceding, a player ought to know his own powers, and avoid playing for a stroke which he succeeds in making only about once in a dozen times. If when practising he finds he succeeds twice out of three times, it is a stroke worth playing for.

All Round Cannons. - Many amateurs are very fond of playing for "all round cannons"; that is, to make their own ball after striking the ball they aim at travel all round the table, and, perhaps, after hitting three or four cushions, make a cannon. The harder they hit their own ball, and the more they drive the balls about the table, the better they seem pleased with their performance. As a rule all round cannons do not pay; they are more often missed than [BILLIARDS they are made. If missed, they may leave a long score for a skilful adversary; if made, it is a mere chance whether the balls are left so as to render a second score almost a certainty. a Sometimes, however, all round cannons must be played for when the game is is desperate condition; and they may be played for with advantage when the third ball is what is termed a large ball." 66 "A large ball" is when this ball is in a corner of the table, and is only three or four inches from the side and bottom, or side and top, cushions. If the striker's ball can be made to travel round the table after striking the second ball, a cannon may be made by this ball striking the third ball direct or off either cushion. This cannon may be attempted when a player, giving an injudicious miss in baulk, leaves his own ball near, we will say, the right-hand pocket, and only a few inches from the right-hand side and bottom cushions. Many amateurs will then place their own ball on the right D side of the baulk, and play at the red which is on the spot; striking the red on the left side, they cause their own ball to come off from the top and side cushion and to travel into the right-hand corner; but before their own ball has reached the adversary's ball, the red has run down the table and "kissed" the adversary's ball out of the way. If, therefore, this cannon is played for, and the adversary's ball is in the righthand bottom corner, the player should place his own ball on the left of the D, and should play on to the red with a slight amount of left-hand side; his own ball will come round the table equally as well, whilst the red ball, instead of kissing away the adversary's ball, will strike slightly below the right middle pocket, and will therefore leave the adversary's ball where it was, and a cannon will be the result.

A frequenter of a billiard room will hear day after day indifferent players complaining of their bad luck in having cannons "kissed away" from them, the real fact being that these complainers place their ball, or strike it, in such a way that it is ten to one that the cannon is kissed away, whereas a little more knowledge would prevent such a result.

One of the most common errors of the inexperienced player, when an easy cannon can be made, and there are perhaps two ways of making this cannon, is to select the one which will result in separating the balls, and, probably, in leaving no easy score for the next stroke. Such a case will be under- BILLIARDS] stood from the (Fig. 9). 03 following diagram The player's ball is in hand, and can therefore be placed on any part of the Din baulk; the other two balls are in the position shown by 2 and 3. If the player place his own ball on the extreme right of the D and play for the cannon, he will leave the ball 2 at the bottom of the table, whilst his own ball and 3 will, after the stroke, be at the top of the table. If, however, he place his own ball on the extreme left of the D, and play rather hard on to 2, he will cause 2 to rebound from the side cushion and to reach near the left top pocket, whilst his own ball and 3 will be up at the same corner of the table; and the three balls being near together, an easy score will be much more probable than when one ball is at the top, the other at the bottom of the table.

O₂ FIG. 9.

Nearly all the very large breaks now so frequently achieved by professionals in the spot-barred game are made when the three balls are at the top of the table. The reason for this is that when the red ball is 66 potted" it is spotted on the upper spot, and the three balls still remain close together. If the three balls were at the bottom of the table, and the red ball were "potted," it would be spotted at the opposite end of the table to that at which the other two balls were situated. When then the chance occurs, the three balls ought to be worked up to the top of the table, and then by gentle play kept together, and a long break may be the result.

A mistake which many amateurs or inexperienced players continually make is to endeavour to score five or more in one stroke; thus they will play to cannon and to put the red in a pocket by the same stroke.

They seem to imagine that by scoring five at a time they advance more rapidly in the game than if they scored a cannon, and by the next stroke put the red in the pocket.

It is, however, far better to make the cannon and leave the red ball over the pocket, because by the next stroke the red can be "potted," and the player can then leave his own ball in any position he chooses, either for a cannon or another winning hazard.

Again, it is very tempting, when the red ball is in front of one of the top pockets, to play for a six stroke, by following the red ball into the pocket. Before this six stroke is played for, the player should remember that he will have to place his ball in baulk for the next stroke, and a score may be very difficult; whereas if he had stopped his own ball, and not allowed it to follow the red into the pocket, he would have had a very easy score at his next stroke, and probably a long break afterwards.

As an example of such a case, suppose the adversary's ball about three inches from the upper spot, and nearly in a direct line between that spot and the centre of the baulk, the red ball close to one of the top pockets, and the player's ball just behind the red ball; a six stroke could be easily accomplished, after which the red ball would be placed on the spot and would be covered by the adversary's ball, no matter in what part of the Dhe placed his ball. Another score, therefore, would be uncertain. Had the player been content with merely holeing the red in the top pocket, and stopping his own ball, an easy cannon would have remained for the next stroke, and the red ball might be again placed close to one or other of the top pockets.

Many a promising break is thus marred by those who think only of the stroke that is being played, but fail to consider what will be left for the next stroke. دو 3 THE RUN-THROUGH CANNON. - When the red and the adversary's ball are both touching a cushion, or close to the cushion, and the striker's ball is slightly out of the production of a line joining these two balls, a cannon is very easy by means of what is termed " running through the first ball.