CLARK McCONACHY, and his CUEMANSHIP
By W. G. CLIFFORD.
Clark McConachy, the New Zealand billiard champion, is a very fine player who has never quite come into his own. My feeling is that the Championship will give him his chance next season. He was unlucky to be out of the premier event this year, as he is essentially one of those battling cuemen who rise to the big occasion. So, for that matter, does Joe Davis, and I am not hinting that Walter Lindrum lacks the “first wicket for Australia” temperament.
Incidentally, I have a suspicion that Walter would sooner be at the top of the batting list for Australia than what he is—the greatest billiard player of all time. He is intensely fond of cricket, and as a boy showed form which might have taken him to the top with bat and ball. But this is digressing me away from McConachy so I will return with the remark that he has altogether played himself above the class he was in when he first visited us a few seasons back.
Then everything was against him. His game had not matured, and he had to “mix things” by playing matches in turn with ivory and Crystalite balls, a thing no man can attempt with any prospect of doing himself justice. The consequence was that he came to be regarded as a player who needed points from our top men, and I cannot help thinking that this impression, as hard to obliterate as first impressions proverbially are, still clings to his professional reputation.
But it is altogether wrong and very unjust. To-day, McConachy is entitled to enter the championship lists with a big hope of battling through to survive to meet Lindrum in the final, and to feel that he has at least a fighting chance against the great Walter himself. That is where I place McConachy in championship billiards, which I grade as a game apart, in comparably in advance of exhibition play in a competitive sense.
McConachy is a most instructive cueman to watch. He is shedding his mannerisms. I am glad to say, and is scoring more quickly in consequence, a sure proof of his improvement. In break-building, he gets his effects by allowing himself plenty of room at the spot-end. and when it come to “getting there,” his control of the elusive “drop-cannon” has never been surpassed. As a hazard striker, he is exceptionally good at that extra “long one ” presented from hand into a top pocket when no middle pocket loser is offered.
There is no need for a diagram to illustrate this “teaser.” You can set it up in a tick by placing red on that tantalising spot where a mere “turn of the ball” would offer a half-ball in-off into the middle pocket. But the easy one is “not there”; the actual position calls for that long raking loser into the top-pocket which even the best are likely to miss at times, striking his ball well above its centre, and letting his cue go right through the shot, McConachy plays this awkward one in a style it is an education to behold. I have never seen him miss one of them, and it is an even bet that he leaves middle-pocket position every time, a big thing to be sure about, as this difficult shot has a knack of leaving another of the same kind to follow it with annoying frequency.
Diagram 1, displays a typical illustration of McConachy’s mastery of the “drop-cannon,” a shot amateurs as a class seem to handle badly in a positional sense more often than the) make any other shot in the game. Generally, they fail to grasp the importance of hitting the first object ball thickly enough to steer it away to favourable position at the head of the table, using check side when necessary to assist. I fancy that the true cause of the trouble is “all in the state of mind,” as the saying goes.
An amateur plays in-off after in-off to the best of his ability, realising that each has to be handled carefully or his ball will keep out of the pocket, to say nothing of the cue-ball running out of position for losing hazards- Eventually, having lost command of the hazards, he has a “drop-cannon” leave, and welcomes it as “a bit of a change” from the trying succession of pocket shots. As a score, the shot is easier than the pockets, and he plays it rather casually at the normal half’ ball angle, which is often a positional error, and completes his bloomer b) using wrong strength, usually playing too hard. The consequence is that he is left in any amount of trouble instead of the ideal position we see McConachy gained by his “drop-cannon” played to perfection.
Having gained position “at the top” McConachy keeps it very cleverly. I should say that, if runs of close cannons are left out of the argument. McConachy will score as many at the spot-end as anybody in the game. Not that he is unable to collect a break when the balls offer his a sequence of nursery cannons, but he does not specialise towards this delicate phase of play. Diagram 2, shows more the sort of shot I like to see McConachy play.
The balls are trickily placed. White is conveniently near spot and top cushion for spot-end play, but red and cue-ball are more or less “in the country.” It is easy enough to put red down in the facing middle pocket, but if you do it slowly a “cover” is sure to result. A smart run-through will not help a lot, as you cannot plot it to leave your ball near enough to the spot to give you the desired opening. The only solution is the dashing screw back winning – hazard played as indicated in diagram, and supremely well handled by McConachy when I saw him tackle it.
He sent the red down with a sharp crack like a pistol-shot, and brought his ball back with enough “twist” on it to get the positional rebound off the side cushion. That is the part of the shot which calls for all the cue-power you know anything about. Plenty of useful amateurs would reckon to pot that red and screw-back to the cushion, but “getting enough on” to leave your ball as in diagram is another matter. Mainly, it is a question of not playing too hard, the besetting fault with amateurs when faced by a screw-back out of the ordinary run. It is a good shot to practice, having its value in snooker as well as billiards, where the power to screw-back and bring your ball well clear of a cushion on the rebound is often a big asset. Joe Davis is a marvel at this sort of thing, and you cannot go very far wrong if you model your snooker shots on his style of play.
Diagram 3, presents McConachy in a fresh phase. I am inclined to think he is about the best all-round cannon exponent we have seen since the days of Fred Weiss, the old Australian champion who was so fond of these shots that he almost “made breaks of them.” Nowadays, ball control has been brought to such a pitch of perfection that first-class professional play shows fewer all-round cannons in a month than Weiss often made in a session. It must be so, of course, if mammoth breaks are to be scored, but I look back at Fred’s billiards with very fond recollections. What a good chap he was, and how he used to beam behind that enormous calabash pipe he puffed away at so genially.
Our diagram shot shows how McConachy dashed in and scored in great style when the balls were badly out of position. His ball lay between the other two. with nothing very inviting offered. He played the two- cushion cannon off white as in diagram, using a bit of left side, not too much, to help his ball round. It would not have mattered if he had made a three-cushion cannon of it owing to his ball hitting the side cushion immediately in front of red. But he happened to drop full on red and send that ball nicely towards the top pocket.
This is another good one to practise. It is the sort of leave amateurs frequently have to contend with owing to faulty ball control. Contact with the second-ball will show whether your luck is in or out, but the first-ball should be left in improved position and the average result will be a distinctly usable leave. As a “recovery shot.” to borrow a term from golf, this cannon is worth knowing. It changes useless position into something better, and is by no means difficult when once you get a correct idea of the angle for it.
McConachy hates playing for safety, but I saw him do so very astutely against Tom Newman during their last match. He had to force a cannon from a poor opening left him, and lost white unluckily when scoring. This left the balls as shown at the spot-end of diagram 4. Both are tight up. and with only two balls on the table there is no chance of a score worth taking. McConachy just tapped his ball to the point marked with a cross on the top cushion, thus giving a miss which left him commanding the red, and gave Newman something to think about as he faced the leave from baulk.
At the bottom of the table in diagram 4. there is room for a shot more after the style of McConachy than that clever miss. It is a magnificent forcing loser into the baulk pocket, played sharp with so much side on the cue-ball that it spins into the pocket like a humming-top. Strong right-hand side, free cueing, and any amount of confidence will make this plucky shot. You can do nothing with it if you funk it in the slightest. McConachy scored it as if he rather relished the leave, thus showing that fearless enterprise which is always the strong point of his billiards. Away from the game. McConachy is quiet and reserved, liked by all with that unobtrusive personality we British folk like to see in a sporting celebrity.
Motor Owner – Tuesday 01 April 1930