Modern Billiards / A Complete Text-Book of the Game, Containing Plain and Practical Instructions How to Play and Acquire Skill at This Scientific Amusement

by Benjamin Garno

BEST PERFORMANCES.

There are few unquestionable records. Most of the professional games, whether short or long, have of late years been played in “academies” by “academy” employees. To admit one such to record, on the plea that there was a public admission-fee, as well as more or less of a staking, would be to admit all. Then, again, this is a game that has never had a standard as to length. It is unlikely that since 1878 there has been a better average for 50 points in a match than Wayman C. McCreery’s .94; but there may have been before that year, and without attracting any attention whatever. In a tournament game of 50 points at Mussey’s, Chicago, Avery surpassed it by making .98 during season of 1901–2. The best verified run is 14. Two amateurs made it—Peterson in St. Louis, and Avery years afterward in Chicago, both in Mussey’s rooms. Also in Mussey’s, in 1905, James Shea, another amateur, reached 1.03 in a game of 50, while Charles P. Day, in the St. Louis tournament of November and December, 1907, attained to 1.32 in 50 points.