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Chapter 1. Concerning Playing Conditions

It is no use trying to play billiards-"on a cloth untrue, with a twisted cue, and elliptical billiard balls", as W. S. Gilbert has it. Billiards is essentially a game of precision, and to play it at all well you must have the right implements to play with. A cue of your own is not a luxury, it is as much a necessity as his own clubs are to a golfer.

Of late years, Willie Smith has set the fashion for a heavy cue tipped with a brass ferrule. His cue weighs 18 oz. John Roberts said: "As regards the weight of a cue, I think 15 oz. to 16 oz. is heavy enough for anyone.

The length of a cue should be from 4 feet 8| inches to 4 feet 9 inches. Tom Newman uses a 17-oz. cue measuring 4 feet 10 inches in length, and as Smith's is heavier still, it is evident that the best of modern billiardists favour distinctly heavier cues than were used by the old past master of the game.

Weight and Length of Cue

I advise my readers to be up to date as regards using a cue of useful weight. The reason is mainly this-as I shall tell you again later on, one of the principal things in billiard playing is to "let the weight of the cue do the work". Therefore, provided it does not feel clumsy and awkward in your hand, you should select a cue which is heavy rather than light. Then the "weight of the cue" will do all the "work" you want it to perform; there is a lot more in this than you may think.

Newman and Smith do not play with seventeen and eighteen-ounce cues for no particular reason. They know that the weight, properly placed in the cue and correctly applied by the player, equals cue-power, and I advise you to keep this in mind when you are selecting a cue for your own use. Another point in favour of a fairly heavy cue is that, if it is made as it should be, it will have enough wood in it to be stiff. And the stiffer a billiard cue is the better it is. A cue which shakes and quivers as it strikes a ball is good for but one thing-to lend to the man you want to beat.

Which reminds me that when you get a cue of your own, it is not clever to lend it. A bad player may spoil it, a good player may keep it if it is a first-class cue which suits his play-lending cues is about ten times more risky than lending books-don't do it! Pick a cue with a fair-sized tip, have it fitted with a brass ferrule, and polish it with a dry cloth, plain paper, or constant play, the latter preferred. If you are in the habit of sandpapering the woodwork of your cue, buy a cheap one, the cheaper the better, because it will only be fit for firewood before long, and it is a mistake to pay too much to keep the home fires burning. In any other case, pay enough for your cue to get one of the best from a firm of standing and reputation.

Balls, Ivory and Composition

As regards balls, there is no getting away from the fact that ivory balls are the only kind officially recognized for the championships, which makes them the standard ball for billiards. For this reason, all the strokes in my book have been played with ivory balls of equal size and weight. At the same time, I fully realize that composition balls are used to a much greater extent than the ivories are, and I think the day is not far distant when some make of composition ball will demand official recognition.

There is nothing else for it, as far as I can see. Ivory balls really worth playing with are an expensive luxury, and a set of ivories fit for first-class play is worth a fancy price. The fact of the matter is that ivory suitable for billiard ball manufacture must be getting more and more scarce every year, while the demand is at least as great as ever. A time must come, and I think it will arrive sooner than many people think, when the law of supply and demand will bring composition balls on the table for championship billiards. The question is one for the Billiards Association and Control Council, and I should like to hint that the makers of composition balls would assist their own interests if they conducted exhaustive experiments to produce a ball which comes off at as near the ivory angle as possible, and is less apt to pick up dirt than composition balls usually are.

Angle Differences with Ivory and Composition Balls

Meanwhile, I will do what I can to help those who play with composition balls. Fig. 1 is drawn for this purpose. It shows the usual half-ball loser played from hand off the red on the centre-spot. To make the top pocket with a normal set of ivories, you should place your ball 71/2 inches from the centre spot of the "D" in the direction of the pocket you wish to score. At least, this is the general way of teaching it, and as it will serve my present purpose, I do not propose to question it. Very well, if you place your ball 71/2 inches to the right of the centre-spot of the "D", a true half-ball will make the top pocket as shown in Fig. 1, if you are using ivory balls. But with composition balls, I think you want to place your ball an inch and a half further to the right to make the long loser into the top pocket. To show what this means even more clearly, Fig. 2 shows the difference in position, illustrated by balls drawn standard size, on the baulk line.

The plain ball represents the ivory, the black ball shows how much "further over" the composition ball has to be placed to obtain the same effect when playing for the top pocket.

To a varying extent, this difference applies in every stroke on the table. When playing forcers with composition balls, however, you must make the angle relatively "wider" still. In actual play there is no great difficulty in allowing for the difference between ivory and composition balls. With the help of the two diagrams I have given, any beginner can gauge the difference after a few trial shots.

The trouble is that you cannot readily change from ivory to composition when you begin to play real billiards. It takes a man some time to get used to the change, and this is the main reason why composition balls are so much out of favour in big billiards at the present time. All the British professionals use ivories, make good breaks with them, and are content to leave it at that-there being no apparent reason why they should trouble to get used to the composition ball; it is different over-seas, where climatic conditions give the composition ball decided preference.

Cloths, Woollen and "Napless"

Quite recently a new factor in playing conditions has been introduced by the advent of the "napless" cloth. This cloth is the next thing to indestructible, you cannot cut it with an ordinary penknife, and its durability is incontestably superior to that of the woolen cloth. Thousands of tables are now covered with it, and there is every indication that in a few years woollen cloths and ivory balls will be things of the past, still clung to, perhaps, by the few who like them and who may be prepared to pay for them, though the bulk of billiards will be played with composition balls on napless cloths.

Be this as it may, my business at the moment is to prepare my readers for what playing difference there may be between the napless cloth and the woollen article. I have scored very many thousands of points on each kind of cloth, and my experience is that every shot can be made on the "napless" cloth exactly as on the other kind, with this important exception: When playing against the nap of a woollen cloth, a ball moving slowly and carrying strong side will turn in the contrary direction to the side imparted to it, whereas it will drift in the direction of the side when playing with the nap. On the "napless" cloth, however, this complication is eliminated, a ball intended to be deflected by the use of side will always move in the direction of the side employed.

For all practical purposes, you can play your ordinary game on the "napless" cloth, the most marked difference in the case of the average amateur being that he can make his "jennies" with equal facility whether playing up or down the table.

Cushions

As regards cushions, if a ball "jumps", that is, rebounds more or less off the surface of the table when a ball strikes the cushion while travelling at a good pace, those cushions are not fit to play billiards on. Of course, by employing smashing strength at short range you can make a ball "jump" from the best cushion ever made ; you can even make it leap clean off the table if you strike it hard enough and high enough. But this is not what I mean; I am talking about the cueball "jumping" when you play to make a cannon all round the table, or the object-ball "jumping" when you play a forcer off it.

When this sort of thing happens, the cushions are no good; all the correct angles are spoiled, and it is not the least use trying to play real billiards on a table with such cushions. I hope you have something vastly better to play upon, that you have a good cue, a true set of balls, and a cloth in fair condition. Given these, you can follow my instructions with advantage, but I fear I cannot help you if they are lacking. That is why I have commenced my book with a reference to playing conditions. The point is vital; no book, no teacher, can make a cueman of you if the playing conditions do not permit it.

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