Benjamin Garno

“ Losing Averages.—Properly, the loser’s average can never be higher than the winner’s. To concede that it can is to premiumize its maker’s inefficiency. Setting out to win the opening shot, he had failed, which is the only way, with fewer points, to make the seemingly higher average. It is equally unfair, in a continuous game of several sessions, to concede an average for a fraction of the game. By getting far behind, one player is without limit on any night, while the other is stopped every night by reaching the number of points assigned to every leader. ”

“ Requiring much patience and much ivory, matching balls is an art in itself. The lower end of a tusk is too small for carom balls, and the upper and larger too hollow. Perhaps six balls, on an average, can be shaped out of the central section. The ball toward the smaller end is closer-grained than any of its companions, all of which, while of the one size, may differ in other respects from one another. Possibly out of twenty tusks not fifty balls will be found approximately equal, in sets of three, with respect to weight and centralized gravity. ”

“ The beginner should not be discouraged by the result of a stroke which he may have reasoned to himself was perfect. Whatever the intentions may have been before making it, the course of the ball will show beyond doubt the stroke that was actually made, and the player will then understand, if that course be different than he anticipated, that the point of contact upon the cue-ball was not such as he intended; he must remember, in fact, that the laws of motion are unalterable, while human vision is easily deceived. ”

“ The experienced one has learned that usually, when all is not well with him at billiards, the fault is with himself or in his stroke. A less skillful performer will blame the balls when a sagging floor has thrown the table out of level, the table when a ball needs either truing or a holiday, the chalk or the leather when he is wildly throwing his whole body at the ball, and the cushion when diminished speed is really due to the influence of a protracted spell of damp weather upon cloth or ivory. ”

“ Opening Game.—Never let it be between the supposed best two players. For some special reason, one such may be utilized, but not two without inviting the almost certain penalty of a loss of public interest as the games draw near their close.
Rush the Losers.—As far as practicable, play losers first in preference to winners. If they are good losers, they will not object. In no other way can the anti-climax be prevented of having one or more games to play after the main prize has been won, or of requiring the leader to play when there is nothing for him to win. ”

“ This is a stroke that occurs often in the course of a game, the position being changed to the other side of the table, possibly. Most players are content with making the carom simply, and, with that only in view, merely “cut fine” the object-ball, whilst, if they would play full upon it with twist the stroke would be as surely effected, and a fine set-up is left. The secret of the stroke is to throw the object-ball at the point d on side cushion at corner, or as near that as possible; excessive twist being given the cue-ball, the carom is assured. ”

“ A cue, if too heavy, will paralyze the nerves of the arm and render them unable to estimate correctly the amount of force employed; if too light, on the other hand, it will call for an amount of force so great as to be incompatible with a steady and deliberate aim. Without some sensation communicated to the hand through the cue, when it contacts with the ball, it would be impossible for experts to accomplish the great runs so often made.
The heavier the cue the less is the influence of the stroke on the ball felt, and it is carried beyond or falls short of the point desired. ”

“ Under these circumstances, the best that can be done is to give a general direction, which each student must apply for himself to his own particular case. Let him stand with his left foot slightly advanced, his left arm extended and resting on the table to form a bridge, and his body, not facing the table squarely, but forming an acute angle with the side at which he stands; let him relax all the muscles of his limbs into their usual and most natural posture—for rigidity of body is at all times awkward and ungraceful, and seriously interferes with play. ”

“ DIVISION OF ANGLES. Diagram 1.—The angle from c, a, to ball 2 represents the angles of incidence and reflection, and it is drawn mentally before considering the ball 1. If a ball is banked from c at the centre diamond at b on the end cushion, it will take its angle of reflection directly on ball 2. Therefore, with ball 1 placed as per diagram, with its edge surface at the line running from c to a, and the centre stroke on cue-ball on 1⁄2 right of ball 1, with strength of stroke “slow,” the cue-ball will follow same angle found in the bank and will carom on ball 2. ”

“ It is first necessary to master the centre-stroke, which is accomplished by delivering the cue at the point g, the line g, e, a, being the centre diameter of the ball.
The centre stroke imparts to the ball a natural impelling force where the strength of stroke is not in excess of “ordinary” (see Plate I) . This stroke should always be used unless the player has a reason for a different delivery. Any divergence from the centre produces an effect on the ball in excess of the natural, and when applied in the smallest degree the result should be fully understood. ”

“ Drawing a ball without hopping it has been made surer. Cloths were once so much heavier in nap that ironing new ones again and again, until the iron burned them out, was the method here, as it is in certain other countries yet. Although longer than the present ones by several inches, yet still choice cues of old rarely went beyond eighteen ounces. For special needs there are cues now whose butts alone are heavier than an old-fashioned cue in its entirety. The lighter ashen sticks of the past were meant for a greater variety of shots than the experts’ carom game of to-day has use for. ”

“ There are players who talk of perfect balls, but a well-turned ball is the limit, and neither its truing-up nor its recoloring should ever be intrusted to other than an artisan of conceded skill and experience. Earth has never known an absolutely round sphere or a perfectly smooth plane. ”

“ There are peculiarities of height and figure which render the rules that would be excellent in one case totally inapplicable in the other; thus it is impossible to define by inches the distance at which a player should stand from the table, when about to strike; for not only will the different statures of men cause a difference of position—but, even with the same player, different positions of the ball will call for corresponding changes of attitude. ”

“ In compound angles the twist is so consumed after leaving the second cushion that the response from a third cushion approximates a natural angle. Many players are deluded with the idea that it is necessary to turn, jerk, or twist the arm when making an “English” stroke, and some suppose the ball should be rubbed by the cue in delivery; in reality no such thing is required. After the aim is secured, and the point for striking is determined upon, let the player make the stroke naturally and easily, and leave everything else to take care of itself. ”

“ In all deliveries imparting twist up to and including “ordinary” strength of stroke, the wrist only is to be used. Every blow delivered with the cue converges to the centre of motion at e in the cue-ball (as shown in arrow c, c,) , and every grain of weight in the ball is imparted through the 35cue to the hand; therefore with the expert the weight and density of the ball is calculated to a nicety at each delivery, whether it be at centre or at 5⁄8 right or left, else all strengths could not be so cleverly estimated in gathering and holding the balls for a long run. ”

“ Now, without requiring so long an apprenticeship—without, in fact, requiring any at all—if the student will only allow himself to stand in his natural position, the first essential feature of the game will have been accomplished.
The left foot should be pushed slightly forward, pointing straight ahead, while the right is withdrawn, and turned outward, at whatever angle is habitual and most convenient to the player. The body should be fairly balanced, for, without this equilibrium, we can neither have grace nor ease. ”

“ Fixed rules are impossible. That one man has a chance to sit long and think while the other plays, and perhaps not always plays with as much ability as effect, makes billiards pre-eminently the temperamental game. ”

“ Under-leathers sometimes need sandpapering to overcome expansion. Neglected, they will wear away the nap of the cloth in low-ball “draw-shots,” if not make it picturesque with L-shaped rents, although the usual start of these rents is that the cloth has been minutely punctured either by a hammered cue-ball (massé) or by one made acrobatic by an unskillful, thoughtless stroke as it leaves either the cue or the cushion. For slightly roughening the surface of the upper leather, solidifying it, smoothing its edges, and generally “rounding it off” as a finishing touch, a fine rasp is of service ”

“ Styles of play as a matter of contest are also different. If the present generation know better how to count, their elders knew better when not to try and count.
There has been progress in more directions than one. A light-weight cue never before handled by its wielder played the last 1900 points of a memorable contest. Our “Record” has no other one-night match so impressive for headwork, handicraft, and hazard. ”

“ When the reverse or left English is imparted the revolution of the ball is exactly opposite to that already shown, and its tendency is to leave the cushion toward an acute angle, the direction of the spin on the side contacting being that in which the ball is moving; so, when it meets the cushion, in place of gliding along it strikes it in such a manner as to receive a check to further onward progress and describes a line inclined toward a right angle from the point of contact. ”

“ Struck with force, a much larger ball would jump over the cushion, while a much smaller, jamming itself between table’s bed and cushion’s edge, would jump inwardly.
Cushions must be tuned to balls. Unless the former have a given height and pitch, there cannot be accurate reflection, and there may be inaccurate stroke. Height has already been discussed. Pitch is the inward slant of the cushion’s top surface as a guide to the cue in certain situations.
THE MAGIC BALLS. With balkline the vogue, as much depends upon balls, cloth and cushions as upon the player himself. ”

“ As the strength of stroke is increased the ball necessarily imbeds itself more firmly in the cushion, and the sudden rebound, together with the resistance from the rubber through indentation, throws it off with greater velocity and produces a more acute angle. ”

“ The challenge of a player who has been defeated while contending for the Emblem shall not go into effect until fifteen days after the contest in which he was defeated.
8. There shall be no umpires, and no one will be allowed on the platform after the game is called, except the contending players, the referee and the marker. Should there be no platform erected in the hall to set the billiard table on, and for the players to walk on, then no person except the above mentioned shall be allowed within ten feet of the table. ”

“ No matter how well-seasoned ivory is in point of age, it is practically nowhere riper than in its greenest part. Consequently a ball pared in spots in returning is virtually a new ball throughout in proffering the atmosphere new access to its interior. Were new balls put upon the table every day for two or three weeks, after the chill is off the room, and 18merely toyed with, without ever being struck with anything like force, they would probably give better and longer service.
A private table should have two sets of balls, and public rooms not fewer than three sets to every two carom tables. ”