Billiards

Let the iron be too cold rather than too hot. It is easy to go over the table a second time, and after a little experience the proper temperature will become known. If the cloth be once scorched it will never be satisfactory. Therefore:

Rule 1.—Never put an iron on the cloth until you have practically satisfied yourself that it is not too hot.

Rule 2.—Never iron an unbrushed cloth.

UNDERSIZED TABLES

Tables can be bought 10 ft. by 5 ft., 9 ft. by 4½ ft., and so on down to 6 ft. by 3 ft. There are also combination tables which serve as dining-tables as well, and they seem to answer very well in small houses.

For the earnest student a so-called ‘spot stroke’ table 6 ft. by 3 ft., which is really a section of the top of a full-sized table, made after the fashion of the sketch (fig. 24), will afford an immense amount of amusement and practice; for, in addition to the ‘spot,’ the top of the table game, ‘rail’ cannons, &c., can be practised. The pattern of the spot stroke table is a matter of fancy and cost; the side A, B, C need have neither cushion nor pocket.

If the small tables do not satisfy the ambition of the player, he has yet another course open—viz. to get a French table, and seriously study the cannon game in all its phases; and signs are not wanting that this beautiful game, as it is becoming better known, is finding favour with advanced players.

It may not be generally known by the vast army of people who rent furnished houses for a few months at a time that billiard-tables can be hired from the leading makers by the week or the month, the rate being from, say, 2l. 2s. to 3l. 3s. a month, with a small payment in addition to cover erecting and dismantling. Lighting and all fittings are, of course, included in the above charges, and thus, without the expense of purchase, a billiard-table can be brought within anyone’s reach.

Before leaving the subject of tables, an ingenious modification of an old arrangement whereby the balls are automatically returned from the pockets to the baulk end of the table may be mentioned. It has been patented by Messrs. Orme & Sons, and will be found a convenience where no marker is kept, specially in practising losing hazards from baulk. For spot, or top of the table play, it is inconvenient; but the drawback of having to return to baulk for the ball after each hazard may be remedied by placing a plug or false bottom into each top pocket (failing anything better, a pocket handkerchief will do), so that the ball may be removed in the usual way. Mr. Rimington-Wilson has devised a mode of meeting this difficulty, and Messrs. Orme have acquired the right to use his patent.

BALLS

Balls are made of various substances, generally of ivory, the standard diameter for the English game being 2¹⁄₁₆ inches.

Every practical billiard-player is painfully aware of the difficulty that exists in procuring a really satisfactory set of ivory balls. I propose, therefore, first to touch on their manufacture, then on their treatment, and finally to offer a suggestion or two as to their purchase and preservation.

It is said that only one kind of tusk, that of the female elephant, is suitable for ball-making; and the size of the tusk, again, is closely regulated by the size of the ball required; for it is important that as little as possible of the outside of the ivory should be pared away.

As the tusk comes into the workshop, the upper part (which is hollow) and the hard point are sawn off, leaving the piece from A to B (fig. 25). This is generally sawn into five blocks, each of which will eventually become a ball; these blocks are roughed out and turned into approximately spherical shape and left for about a year to season, before they are touched again, in order that the inevitable shrinking of the grain may proceed naturally and slowly.

Now, the ball from end B is closer in the grain than the ball from end B, and therefore they will differ in weight; and as it is most important that the three balls should be of equal weight, no small trouble is experienced, after finishing, in finding three that will pass the test of the balance.^[9] If five sets can be got out of a hundred balls, the makers are satisfied, and even then perhaps only one set will be up to match standard.

When one considers the cost of ivory, the time and delicate work involved, and the scarcity of sufficiently skilled workmen, it is small wonder that a good set of balls is an expensive luxury.

If balls are to last well, much care must be taken of them; but unhappily their ordinary treatment at a club is too severe for their delicate constitution. In many cases they are put upon the table as soon as they arrive from the makers, before they have had time to get acclimatised to the change of temperature, and, as full-sized balls are sure to seem heavy after balls that have been once or twice adjusted, the heaviest cues in the room are brought to bear upon them with literally crushing effect.

Now, as the turners have removed a little of the hard outer surface, the newly exposed surface ought to have time to harden; and, further, ivory is very susceptible to changes of temperature, sensitive to damp, and needs acclimatisation in its new home, to enable it to withstand the shock of collision without cracking. The leading players, when they get a really good set of balls, never think of playing a hard shot with them until many days, or even weeks, are gone by. Every day they take them out and gently tap them along with nursery cannons and quiet little strokes, until they are sufficiently seasoned to stand the shock of a long game; hence their balls last much longer than club balls.

Anyone who has served on the billiard committee of a London club may remember how his life has been made a burden to him by the never-ending complaints of members on the subject of balls. He might reasonably reply: ‘Gentlemen, the matter rests mainly with you; if you are determined to have good balls, you must make up your minds that they are to receive good treatment.’ But how that much-to-be-desired arrangement is to be ensured I confess I cannot say. The balls are common property, and must be as much at the service of those who know nothing and care less about the game (save as a means of whiling away an hour or two) as of the limited few to whom the difference between good and bad balls means a great deal.

Some clubs adopt the principle of paying a leading firm so much per annum (like a subscription to a lending library), upon the understanding that the firm is to change the balls as often as the club likes. This system is a bad one for makers and clubs alike. There is no inducement to the makers to send their best balls to be subjected to the severe ordeal of everyday club play. Rather do they prefer to keep such balls for customers who are able to take the greatest care of them; and it follows that makers, having from the nature of things only a few of the very best sets, cannot be blamed if they send more moderate articles to take their turn in the ‘lending library’ arrangement.

The following is, I think, a better system. Several sets of balls are bought in the rough to start with, with the date of their purchase marked on a label attached to each set. These balls are then hung in a net under the table and left undisturbed for one, two, or three years—the longer the better; they are then adjusted and hung up again; after another interval a set is again adjusted, made ready for play, and, finally, having been kept for, say, another fortnight or three weeks, is put upon the table. At the same time another set to take its place is bought in the rough, and, as every set in turn is brought into use, another rough set is purchased. By this means there are always eight or ten sets seasoning in the particular temperature for which they are required.

Every good system has its weak point, and the weak point of this one is, that it is essential to its success that the set which comes back from adjustment is the identical one which was sent. I do not suggest that the leading makers would knowingly make a mistake of this kind; on the contrary, I know as a fact that great care is taken in the turning shop to prevent any such accident; but one set of balls is very like another, and it is quite possible that an unintentional change might take place. However, with a view to render such an accident impossible, one firm, at any rate, willingly allows the man in charge of the balls to stay in the shops while they are being adjusted, so that he can take them away with him as soon as they are finished.

If neither of these systems is adopted, the best plan is to buy the balls for the ensuing billiard season in the early summer, when little or no play is going on, and keep them in the room seasoning until they are wanted in the autumn. Any time and trouble expended on their careful selection will be amply repaid before the year is out, because the balls so selected will have hardened up, and will be less liable to crack than others bought a few days before they are required for regular use.

Balls purchased from, or adjusted by, a first-class firm should not require to be tested for size and weight, because they have been accurately gauged (fig. 26) and weighed before they are sent out; but a rough-and-ready test may be useful if one finds oneself about to play in an out-of-the-way corner of the country, and one half suspects the presence of the inevitable pool ball. Place the three balls in a line touching one another and one of the cushions, and then lower the eye till the line of sight becomes a tangent to the top of the balls and the top of the woodwork of the cushion; by this means irregularity in size is easily detected. If you suspect the balls to be foul, set up balls 2 and 3 touching; note the exact spot on cushion where 3 should hit—viz. that indicated by the prolongation of a line through the centres and point of contact.

Then play the plant with ball 1 and note deviation. If in doubt whether balls or table be in fault, reverse the stroke; go to the opposite end of the table and play back over the same line. Good lines to select are the diagonals which are the longest on the table.

‘How can you tell a good ball?’ is a question that is often asked, and the late Mr. Frank Buckland answered it as follows. ‘The test is this: the ball is rolled gently along a billiard-table till it stops of its own accord. If at that moment it falls either to one side or the other, it is useless to the player; if, on the contrary, it remains motionless on the same line on which it was originally projected, it is allowed to pass muster.’ Such a test, however, would be too much for 99 balls out of 100. First, ivory is not like Whitworth steel; it is a substance of varying density, and even if by the skill of man it could be turned into an absolutely perfect sphere, it is hardly likely that the centre of gravity of each piece would coincide with the centre of the sphere; secondly, in order to make the experiment at all satisfactory, the table should be absolutely level, the cloth perfectly new, free from dirt, of the finest quality, and most carefully stretched; and, lastly, the ball must be struck exactly on its vertical centre line. Each of these conditions presents some difficulty in attainment; to combine them all is well-nigh impossible.

Every ball, to speak generally, will fall over a little, and it may be due to the failure of any one of the above conditions. Therefore, it is safer to say that the less a truly struck ball changes its horizontal axis the better ball it is. For the owner of a private table, I should say the safest way to get a good set is to ask a first-class professional player, whom he can trust, to make the selection; of course he would have to pay a good price, but he will no doubt thus get a better set than he himself could choose. If he should in this way become the fortunate possessor of a good set, he ought to lock them jealously away, only to be produced when he finds an adversary that he can trust with them; and he will find it good policy to keep another set for ordinary use.

Ivory is getting increasingly scarce, and everything seems to point to the fact that as time goes on good balls will become still more costly, and more difficult to procure; and one is led to the conclusion that the next generation will have to find some substitute, or leave billiards to millionaires. Many attempts have been made in the last few years to get over the difficulty, and composition balls of various substances have from time to time been placed upon the market; but the earlier kinds have not found much favour—first, because they were believed to be explosive; secondly, because they did not possess sufficient elasticity; and, lastly, because they showed a tendency to soil, and pick up any dirt they might happen to pass over.

About the year 1893 or 1894, however, a new composition called Bonzoline made its appearance. The makers claim for it that it is heavier (specifically) and more elastic than ivory, and, as far as observation at present goes, their claim seems to be well founded. Whether bonzoline will stand the wear and tear of everyday work as well as or better than ivory it would be premature to offer an opinion, but these balls have at least the merit of cheapness: 31s. 6d. compares very favourably with 3½, 4, or 5 guineas for a set of balls; so that, even if they do not last so long as ivory (and I do not say they do not), a purchaser would not be very much out of pocket thereby. One thing is certain, that they run very truly at first, and time will soon show whether they can be depended upon for endurance. They certainly do not appear to be explosive; they seem less affected by changes of temperature and damp than ivory; but they have the same facility for picking up dirt that the older kinds had. I cannot, however, find that washing them in tepid water injures them in the slightest degree. For pool and pyramids they represent an enormous saving in money.

They ‘come off’ at a slightly different angle to ivory—that is to say, a shade ‘squarer.’ With No. 1 strength the difference is inappreciable, but as forcing strength is reached it becomes more apparent; but in the most extreme cases it is not much, and easily provided for—indeed, with some sets it hardly exists. I am aware that there is a very general impression amongst amateurs that the difference is very great, ‘enough to ruin one’s game;’ but, for all that, it is largely a matter of imagination, and the very objectors forget that ivory sets vary considerably in the same sort of way, so that each new set wants a little knowing.

As I write I hear that somebody in Sweden has brought out at Stockholm some billiard balls of hollow cast steel. According to ‘Chambers’s Journal’ for March 1895, they are said to be of the same weight as ivory, and about a quarter of the price; they are also said to be turned, and the thickness of the skin is given as about ¹⁄₁₆ in.

Nothing apparently is mentioned as to their elasticity, and I cannot find that anyone here has seen or tried them.

Cues should be made of old and carefully-seasoned wood; ash being generally used. There are three kinds—(1) plain cues; (2) French butted; (3) English butted.

The first kind are of course the cheapest, but, being made of ‘self’ wood throughout, they have more tendency to warp, and their balance is not so finely adjusted; hence one seldom sees an advanced player using a plain cue. Of the second and third kinds, the French butt is solid, the English butt is veneered on, and, therefore, if a light cue is required, a French butt cannot be selected.

In making the French butt the ebony is sawn in two Ｖ-shaped cuts, and the ash is cleared out, so that when the cue and the butt are driven together, with hot glue run in, an exceedingly tight joint is made, which never comes adrift.

In making the English butt, two broad and two narrow tapering pieces of ebony, mahogany, or other hard wood, are glued to the sides of the ash cue which have been squared off to receive them, and when the glue has thoroughly set the whole butt is planed down into shape, sand-papered, and polished. The above sketch may give a clearer idea of the process (fig. 27).

At first sight the preparation of what one may call the shaft of the cue seems simple, and a little ordinary planing all that can be required; but this is very far from being the case; indeed, the whole secret of successful cue-making lies in the careful manipulation of the ash shaft. Every piece of ash, generally speaking, will have a soft spot or two in it; and if the wood were planed carelessly all round without reference to these weak spots, the shaft would warp to a certainty, for every piece of wood has a tendency to cast towards the centre of the tree from which it was cut; therefore, the maker humours the wood and planes more from the hard grain and less from the soft, so that they may be made to balance one another; and then, if there be still a slight tendency to warp in any direction, the piece of butt on the opposite side will be made a trifle longer, so that it may have a little more leverage in counteracting the warping tendency. No doubt there are perfectly true, straight-grained pieces of ash, but they are very rare, and a leading cue-maker has told me that he doesn’t come across more than two or three in a year. All the rest require special treatment, and about three out of every dozen that come in from the seasoning shop have to be rejected as hopeless as far as cues are concerned, though they may serve for rest-handles or for dowels.

When the cues are finally turned out as finished articles, a purchaser will find a considerable range in weight, balance, size, shape of butt, and size of top to select from, showing that individual fancy is an important factor in the case. There is no magic in any particular weight, or in any particular shape or kind of grip. What a player fancies, he will play best with, and he will soon get accustomed to a particular pattern, which he ought to adhere to steadily.

Cues vary from 14 oz. in weight to 18 oz. and even 20 oz., and I have seen a few of over 20 oz.; but, speaking generally, 16 oz. to 16½ oz. is a very usual weight. Peall plays with a very light cue, about 14 oz. Roberts uses one weighing about 16 oz. Good results can, therefore, be produced with widely varying weights, and a player can suit himself. With a very heavy cue the ‘touch’ is likely to be coarse; but I have seen an amateur make over twenty spots with a cue of over 20 oz.

With regard to the top, its diameter varies from ³⁄₁₀ in. to ⁶⁄₁₀ in. for English cues, and within fair limits a medium-sized top is more easily and certainly used by ordinary players than a very fine one.

TIPS

Tips are now always made abroad, and are supplied in boxes of assorted sizes, so that a purchaser is sure of finding some the size he requires.

It is essential to good play that the cue should be well tipped; and the process of tipping has been so often described in existing works on billiards, that everyone ought to be able to tip a cue for himself. The golden rule to be observed is that the top of the cue must be absolutely flat, and the tip should fit the top as closely as possible. If the tip is a well-fitting one, it should be warmed (and the top of the cue also), and stuck firmly on with cue cement. There is an ingenious little clamp to be bought, which holds the tip tightly until the cement has set. After the cement is fixed, the tip should be gently hammered until it is flat, and any overhanging leather or cement must be carefully removed, first with a knife and then with sand-paper. Avoid touching the cue itself with the sand-paper, if possible; and you will find it a good plan to wrap a piece of paper round the cue while you are rubbing the tip. If the cue be much scratched, the wood will begin to ‘stare’ and feel rough in the fingers. Nothing is so bad for the cue as the common amateur trick, at the commencement of play, of rubbing the cue from the tip, say two feet down, with coarse sand-paper. Players say they do it to clean the cue; but the best way to do that is to get a damp cloth and wipe the cue well, and then rub it hard with a dry one. By this means your cue will be very clean, slip well through the bridge, and acquire a fine, hard polish, so that it will feel much the same in damp as in dry weather.

Some players do not feel neat-handed enough to undertake the tipping of a cue; for them I would recommend a little brass plate with three spikes in it, which screws into the top of a cue shaped as in fig. 28. If the cues in a country house are so fitted, anyone can put a tip on in a couple of minutes. You have merely to put the tip on the spikes and gently hammer it home.

Another device is to fit the cue-top with a brass screw socket, into which a screw with a flat top is screwed, and the tip is fixed on the movable screw (fig. 29). The advantage of this plan is, that a player may have three or four screws all duly tipped, and as one tip wears out he simply takes out the screw and screws in another. For country-house visiting this, combined with a screw-jointed cue (fig. 30), makes a player quite independent of local cues and local tips, especially as with a jointed cue he can have a spare top joint.^[10]

Another simple arrangement is the ivory top fitted with a screw, as shown in fig. 29.

After long service a cue will wear away at the top. It is worth remembering that such a cue need not be discarded, as it can easily be restored to its original condition. The usual remedy is an ivory top, but a better one is to get the cue spliced or fitted with a screw, according to the illustration (fig. 31). Whichever plan may be adopted, the great thing is to pick an old seasoned bit of ash, nothing being better than a piece of an old cue with a good straight grain. By adopting this plan, the top can be made as large as may be desired, and a good bit of wood in the most delicate part of the cue is ensured.

The writer has a cue with a single splice, which has been in work for years, and is so well put together that even at this time it is difficult to find the joint; but, on the whole, he ventures to think that the double splice is stronger and neater.

HALF-BUTTS

Half-butts and long-butts, on account of their length, have to be made of pine for lightness’ sake, and little need be said about them. They are cumbrous things, and a disagreeable necessity.

It is a good plan to wipe the upper end of the butt every day with a damp cloth, and then with a dry one, because they always collect a quantity of dirt, and are apt to run stickily through the rest. If these butts were not varnished, but well polished with boiled oil, they would be much pleasanter to play with.

Rests are now usually made in the shape of a diagonal cross, the upper drawing of fig. 32, the old-fashioned pattern being very seldom seen.

The chief objection to the cross pattern is that it is troublesome to manipulate in the neighbourhood of the cushions, and some years ago Messrs. Burroughes & Watts brought out a rest which gets over the cushion difficulty very cleverly. As will be seen in the annexed drawing (fig. 33), the height can be regulated at will, and a firm rest on the cushion can be made. For some reason or other this rest has never become popular, and the cross-shaped rest still holds the field.^[11]

That a perfect rest is still to be invented I firmly believe. A point that has never yet been met is, that the friction over the bridge of the human hand is of a quite different character to that over a brass or an ebony cross-piece, and so a cue on a rest seems to run away from a player.

CHALK

Chalk is worth attending to carefully. The most familiar kinds are the square blocks done up in green paper and the cylindrical pieces in cardboard cases. These last are turned straight out of a solid block, and are, therefore, not free from grit and other impurities; the more gritty they are the more destructive are they to the cue-tips. The square blocks are sawn from more carefully selected chalk, and are for that reason to be preferred to the cylindrical pieces. They should be dry and powdery, for a greasy chalk is not to be depended on, and it will soon make the cue-tip shiny. In fact, the great secret of chalk is to have it dry.

Attempts have been made from time to time to grind down the chalk to powder and again consolidate it; but, as foreign substances must be introduced in order to make the powder stick together and become hard enough to withstand the friction of cue-tips, the result has usually been rather a greasy mixture.

There can be little doubt that if our chemists were to go into the matter seriously they would soon give us a smooth and yet biting ‘chalk.’

Within the last few months a French firm have brought out some greenish-blue ‘chalk,’ called St. Martin chalk, which reminds one of the old green Thurston chalk one used to see thirty years ago. This new preparation seems to hold the ball very well, and does not make such a mess of the table as the old white; it is not poisonous; but—there is always a but—it is very expensive.

MARKING BOARD

A good marking-board is essential to the comfort of the players, and the ordinary pattern, as shown in fig. 34, leaves little to be desired. Long games, however, of 400 and 500 up are not uncommon in private rooms in these days, and it would be a slight improvement if some means of scoring hundreds were introduced. I should think two slides similar to the pool slides, with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 underneath, placed above or below each scoring-roller, would meet the case (fig. 35).

There is another pattern still fairly common which is always a nuisance, for sooner or later a mistake is sure to be made as to the twenties (fig. 36). One or other of the players will forget to move on the twenty marker when he takes the other back to zero; more advanced arithmetic is involved and another objection is that a separate board is required for pool.

Another kind of marker is a nickel-plated one let into the woodwork of the cushions, and worked by pressing a button (fig. 37). Two are placed side by side, one for each player. A further variety of the same kind is a hand marker, which is useful in a country house.

If you should happen to possess a good set of pool balls, you should get a set of dummy balls, made in box-wood or inferior ivory, to shake up in the basket, for the violent shocks that real balls receive in the basket at the hands of an energetic marker are a fruitful source of cracking and faulty running.

THE HALF-BALL ANGLE

A piece of wood of about the thickness of half a ball (say 1¹⁄₃₂ in.), as shown in fig. 38, is to be bought, and will be found exceedingly useful to beginners. The idea of this invention is that by its means the angle by which a ball (fairly struck in the middle without side, No. 1 strength) is deflected from its course by colliding a half-ball with another is accurately shown (fig. 39).

Let A be the striker’s ball, and let it be required to hit the ball B exactly half-ball. Clearly the line of progression of ball A will be along the line A D. At D it is deflected in the direction of the arrow F; and the angle between F D and E D, the original course of the ball, is the amount of deflection due to collision. This will be found to amount to 33°.

Suppose, then, it is required to find the proper place to spot a ball, so as to go into a pocket half-ball off another (fig. 40).

Let O be the object ball, P a pocket. It is required to spot a player’s ball somewhere near the line A B to go into the pocket off O. Place the angle A of the instrument against the ball O in such fashion that the side A D points for the centre of the pocket. Then a ball with its centre upon the line A E produced will, if it strikes the ball O half-ball, proceed towards the centre of the pocket.

The course of the player’s ball will not be along A D, but converging upon it from a point half a diameter distant from the ball O. Hence the angle of deviation as shown by the instrument is made slightly greater than that described by the ball; that of the instrument being about 35°, the real angle being about 33°.

Of course it cannot be mathematically correct at all distances, but it is near enough for practical purposes, and will help to train the eye to estimate half-ball angles.

The two lines marked upon the upper surface of the instrument, if produced through the angle A, will give the direction taken by the object ball after collision, according as the shot is played from B or C.