Amusing true incident which occurred during a game of snooker

Birmingham Daily Gazette, Thursday 20 March 1924

A friend of mine relates an amusing true incident which occurred during a game of snooker at the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, some time ago. It happened during the time when a form of practical joking took the shape of substituting a soft red rubber ball, exact in size, colour and shape, in place of one of the snooker reds. Of course, the innocent opponent wondered whether he had watered his whiskey sufficiently when he saw the ball bounding from the table. On this occasion the victim actually potted the rubber ball without noticing anything out of the ordinary, the shot being a perfect specimen of a fluke.

The perpetrator of the joke appeared to be so annoyed at the fluke that he picked the ball out of the pocket and heaved it at his opponent’s head. This unfortunate individual, thinking that his friend had suddenly gone mad with homicidal tendencies received such a shock that he collapsed and bad to be revived.