Abbreviations.—This succession—Player, 250—10.—54; Player, 212—69—stands for winner’s total, average, and high run, and loser’s total and high run.
1862.
First Public Match. Louis Fox, of Rochester vs. John Deery, of N. Y. City, $250 a side, 250 points up, 6 × 12 four-pocket table, was the first match made at this game with any idea of playing it in public. It was set for Buffalo, N. Y., but the Deery side forfeited on November 7th.
1864.
First Technically Public Contest. Irving Hall, N. Y. City, afternoon of April 8th.—$250 a side, 6 × 12 four-pocket table, in aid of the Workingwomen’s Protective Union. Peter D. Braisted, Jr., 100; Wm. H. Freeman, 79. Players were not of the first class, and hence runs and averages were not tallied for publication.
There had, of course, been many earlier match-contests, both amateur and professional; but those and scores of others before them were of the nature of billiard-room contests, with the exception that Michael Phelan and Ralph Benjamin’s in Philadelphia, in 1857, was a formal match, although not public, each principal being limited to a certain number of friends as spectators.
1865.
First Formal Public Contest. Gallaher’s Hall, N. Y. City, October 5th.—First of the three-game match (see, Four-ball for others), $1,000 a side, 5½ × 11 carom, 25
16 balls. Pierre Carme, from France: Total, 250—winning average, 2.48—high run, 19; Dudley Kavanagh, 224—15. [Note.—This is the order of all matches, the loser’s average being omitted as not a technical record.]
The table was a compromise in height between the French and the American.