BILLIARD CUE PUZZLE
Aberdeen Press and Journal, Tuesday 15 November 1938
Brown produces a MIDGET
BUT REFEREE SAYS “PENALTY”
WHAT is a billiard cue?
That is the poser which confronted Charles Chambers, the referee in an extraordinary incident during the snooker match at Thurston’s, London, yesterday between Alec Brown and Tom Newman.
Chambers was just as astounded as the onlookers when Brown, in the fourth frame, brought out of his pocket a fountain pen fitted with a cue-tip to play a shot. Chambers ruled that Brown had fouled and he was penalised.
AFTER LONG THOUGHT
The incident arose out of a snooker which Brown had left himself amid a cluster of reds at the top of the table. Brown had to go for a colour, and ne pondered over the position for a long time before he drew out his pen.
Newman, Chambers, and everyone else in the hall became the more curious as, deliberately, Brown chalked the butt end of the pen. Leaning over the top cushion, he propelled the white up table to the black and made contact.
“Here, what’s all this?” queried Newman, going towards Brown from the lower end of the table.
“That’s a cue all right,” replied Brown.
At once there was a hub-bub while Chambers made a sign as though giving a penalty.
“Is that a foul, referee?” called a spectator, and Chambers answered. “Yes. sir.”
Meanwhile Brown handed the pen-cue to Newman. Then Chambers, in response to the request of another spectator, took a rules book from his pocket and quoted: “The stroke must be made with the tip of the cue.”
“There is a tip on that,” said Brown, showing the pen, “and there is no definition of a cue in the rules.”
PENALISED
Chambers ended the discussion by announcing firmly, “That stroke means a penalty of seven against Mr Brown,” and play was resumed.
Mr John Bisset, chairman of the Billiards Association, arrived a few minutes after the incident and said: “The rules are the rules and provide for most contingencies. When a matter arises which is not provided for, it is a question of reasonable interpretation by the referee. I say that a fountain pen is not a cue.”
Brown, explaining the position afterwards, said “Usually in such circumstances, a player balances his cue as best he can by holding it a few inches from the tip. There is a risk of mis-cueing because of the bend which must take place in the cue. I have had this pen in my pocket for eighteen months To-day I felt called upon to use it, and, in my opinion, I was legally entitled to do so.”
Newman laughingly said: “I have seen some funny things during my time, but I could not stand for that. It would have been very nice for Brown if he could have got away with it, but I felt that I had some cause for protest.”
Chambers, after the session, said: “A pen is not a cue. It is something alien to the game, and the fact that this one had a cue-tip on the end did not convert it into a cue.”
SUPPORTERS for Brown
Interviewed at Leicester where they are playing a match Joe Davis, the champion, and Horace Lindrum, of Australia, both supported the views of Brown
Davis said: “It is a very interesting point. We have been playing with the usual cues for so long that it seems natural to regard them as the only ones permitted. There is nothing in the rules which lays down what is a cue and I support Brown.”
Lindrum said: “I agree with Brown. He has drawn attention to a laxity in the rules regarding cues. The only similar incident in my memory is that of a man who invented a cue for “steeplechase” shots. He fitted a tip on the broad end. Where do the rules state at which end of a cue the tip should be fitted?”
The rules of billiards and snooker contain no definition of a cue, the only stipulation being that the ball must be struck with the point of the cue.