TABLES
It would, no doubt, be very satisfactory if all the tables throughout the kingdom were of one uniform pattern, and more than one attempt has been made to bring about this desirable state of things. But such efforts have not been successful because the owners of the many thousand tables already in existence are naturally unwilling to spend money in alterations. And, again, individual tastes will constantly tend to develop typical differences.
The question of the size of the pockets first reached an acute form at the time when the championship was being frequently played for between Messrs. J. Roberts, jun., W. Cook, and Joseph Bennett.
The deadly effect of the spot stroke on a large pocket table was clearly recognised, and fears were already entertained that unless some radical alteration were made, all-round play would become neglected, and that the public would soon weary of watching a single stroke indefinitely repeated.[[6]]
A committee of the leading players thereupon decided that in future all matches for the championship should be played upon a table with pockets three inches at the fall of the slate, with the billiard spot a little nearer to the top cushion, and with a smaller Ｄ. This last alteration, looking to the fact that the deliberate intention of the committee was to discourage, if not kill, the spot stroke, seems curiously illogical. If the spot is to go, something must be encouraged in its stead; obviously, all-round play must be developed. Why, then, cramp in any way the latitude up till then given to a player when playing from hand?
Fig. 11
The subsequent history of the pockets is an interesting commentary on the labours of the committee. As they had expected, the spot stroke soon failed to draw, and for exhibition purposes it is, in 1895, as dead as Julius Cæsar. But the tight pocket failed to gain popularity. Here and there a more than usually gifted amateur erected one for his own amusement; in one or two instances an enterprising billiard-room proprietor, who had other tables to fall back upon, tried one for an experiment. But these tables are and must be, for all time, caviare to the general. The reduced Ｄ has never found a place on ordinary tables, so that the result of the committee’s work is that the spot has gone, and the championship match, if there ever be one, must be played with the three-inch pocket.
Fig. 12
Quite recently another attempt to secure uniformity has been made by the Billiard Association. Their committee, recognising the fact that the public would have nothing to say to a tight pocket, and taking a 3⅝-inch pocket as a fair average size, caused templates to be made of those dimensions, and decided that tables made with pockets accurately fitted to the aforesaid templates should be called ‘Standard Association Tables.’ In two minor respects these pockets differ slightly from what, for want of a better word, we may call ‘ordinary’ pockets—first, the shoulders of the cushions are struck with a rounder curve; second, the outer edge of the fall of the slate at the middle pocket falls slightly within the inner line of the cushion, as shown in fig. 11, where A A is the line of the cushion, C the cloth, and P the middle pocket. From this sketch it will be seen that the difficulty of middle-pocket jennies is sensibly increased.
Fig. 13
Drawings of the Championship pockets (figs. 12, 13) and the Standard Association pockets (figs. 14, 15) are here inserted in order that the reader may compare them for himself. The drawings of the Championship pockets are taken direct from the templates in the possession of Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, and those of the Standard pockets from templates the property of Messrs. Wright & Co.
An intending purchaser has, then, to decide for himself whether he will have a Standard pocket table; an ordinary 3⅝-pocket table (and in this case the pockets of different makers will vary slightly in size and shape); or, lastly, a 3–inch pocket Championship table.
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Whichever may be the pattern selected, the purchaser, if he is really fond of the game, ought to get a good table well up to ‘club’ quality. If money is no object, elaborately carved tables can be bought up to 300l. or so; but for the purposes of billiards all the carving is unnecessary. Let the bed be a thoroughly strong one, the slates of the best quality, the cushions according to the maker’s best pattern, the cloth the best of its kind, and the woodwork plain.
A plan of a billiard-table is given on p. [75], in order that the terms used in connexion with the table may be fully set forth; it is drawn on the scale shown below-⁹⁄₂₀ in. = 1 ft.
Fig. 16