mr3cushion
Verified Member
Excellent post Tom!!!!!!!!
Dare I post about the time Grady and I had a, "Systems, strokes and technique" JAM session!
Science Schmience - Different Strokes?
- Thread starter Patrick Johnson
- Start date
Excellent post Tom!!!!!!!!
Dare I post about the time Grady and I had a, "Systems, strokes and technique" JAM session!
Patrick Johnson
Verified Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,447
Yep, I've been a member here for years, but only started posting much in the past few weeks - still not sure my "fact checking" style fits in here...
I'll be "welcome" back at AzB sometime next year, I think, but not sure if I'll do anything about it. Not too much up my alley over there these days...
Thanks for sayin' hi!
pj
chgo
onepocket926
Verified Member
.....:lol...I think He was just....testing You......actually it's...Daniel Day-Lewis.....made up to look like Mark Twain.......impersonating Albert Einstein..:lol...
Last edited:
gulfportdoc
Verified Member
I could almost swear I've seen this picture of Twain, only it was a billiard table. I'm wondering if this picture had been photo-shopped to be a pool table?
If so, this was Twain's personal billiard table at his home in NY.Twain of course was a huge billiard fan who attended many tournaments around the turn of the 20th Century and later. Here's a humorous diary account of his contrast between good equipment and poor; and which is more fun. He mentions several champions of the day, which in this case was in 1906:
from Chapters from my Autobiography
By Mark Twain
... I acquired some of this learning in Jackass Gulch, California, more than forty years ago. Jackass Gulch had once been a rich and thriving surface-mining camp. By and by its gold deposits were exhausted; then the people began to go away, and the town began to decay, and rapidly; in my time it had disappeared. Where the bank, and the city hall, and the church, and the gambling-dens, and the newspaper office, and the streets of brick blocks had been, was nothing now but a wide and beautiful expanse of green grass, a peaceful and charming solitude. Half a dozen scattered dwellings were still inhabited, and there was still one saloon of a ruined and rickety character struggling for life, but doomed. In its bar was a billiard outfit that was the counterpart of the one in my father-in-law`s garret. The balls were chipped, the cloth was darned and patched, the table`s surface was undulating, and the cues were headless and had the curve of a parenthesis -- but the forlorn remnant of marooned miners played games there, and those games were more entertaining to look at than a circus and a grand opera combined. Nothing but a quite extraordinary skill could score a carom on that table -- a skill that required the nicest estimate of force, distance, and how much to allow for the various slants of the table and the other formidable peculiarities and idiosyncrasies furnished by the contradictions of the outfit. Last winter, here in New York, I saw Hoppe and Schaefer and Sutton and the three or four other billiard champions of world-wide fame contend against each other, and certainly the art and science displayed were a wonder to see; yet I saw nothing there in the way of science and art that was more wonderful than shots which I had seen Texas Tom make on the wavy surface of that poor old wreck in the perishing saloon at Jackass Gulch forty years before. Once I saw Texas Tom make a string of seven points on a single inning! -- all calculated shots, and not a fluke or a scratch among them. I often saw him make runs of four, but when he made his great string of seven, the boys went wild with enthusiasm and admiration. The joy and the noise exceeded that which the great gathering at Madison Square produced when Sutton scored five hundred points at the eighteen-inch game, on a world-famous night last winter. With practice, that champion could score nineteen or twenty on the Jackass Gulch table; but to start with, Texas Tom would show him miracles that would astonish him; also it might have another handsome result: it might persuade the great experts to discard their own trifling game and bring the Jackass Gulch outfit here and exhibit their skill in a game worth a hundred of the discarded one, for profound and breathless interest, and for displays of almost superhuman skill. ...
Bill S., have you seen the above picture posed by a billiard table?
~Doc
onepocket926
Verified Member
I could almost swear I've seen this picture of Twain, only it was a billiard table. I'm wondering if this picture had been photo-shopped to be a pool table?
Twain of course was a huge billiard fan who attended many tournaments around the turn of the 20th Century and later. Here's a humorous diary account of his contrast between good equipment and poor; and which is more fun. He mentions several champions of the day, which in this case was in 1906:
from Chapters from my Autobiography
By Mark Twain
... I acquired some of this learning in Jackass Gulch, California, more than forty years ago. Jackass Gulch had once been a rich and thriving surface-mining camp. By and by its gold deposits were exhausted; then the people began to go away, and the town began to decay, and rapidly; in my time it had disappeared. Where the bank, and the city hall, and the church, and the gambling-dens, and the newspaper office, and the streets of brick blocks had been, was nothing now but a wide and beautiful expanse of green grass, a peaceful and charming solitude. Half a dozen scattered dwellings were still inhabited, and there was still one saloon of a ruined and rickety character struggling for life, but doomed. In its bar was a billiard outfit that was the counterpart of the one in my father-in-law`s garret. The balls were chipped, the cloth was darned and patched, the table`s surface was undulating, and the cues were headless and had the curve of a parenthesis -- but the forlorn remnant of marooned miners played games there, and those games were more entertaining to look at than a circus and a grand opera combined. Nothing but a quite extraordinary skill could score a carom on that table -- a skill that required the nicest estimate of force, distance, and how much to allow for the various slants of the table and the other formidable peculiarities and idiosyncrasies furnished by the contradictions of the outfit. Last winter, here in New York, I saw Hoppe and Schaefer and Sutton and the three or four other billiard champions of world-wide fame contend against each other, and certainly the art and science displayed were a wonder to see; yet I saw nothing there in the way of science and art that was more wonderful than shots which I had seen Texas Tom make on the wavy surface of that poor old wreck in the perishing saloon at Jackass Gulch forty years before. Once I saw Texas Tom make a string of seven points on a single inning! -- all calculated shots, and not a fluke or a scratch among them. I often saw him make runs of four, but when he made his great string of seven, the boys went wild with enthusiasm and admiration. The joy and the noise exceeded that which the great gathering at Madison Square produced when Sutton scored five hundred points at the eighteen-inch game, on a world-famous night last winter. With practice, that champion could score nineteen or twenty on the Jackass Gulch table; but to start with, Texas Tom would show him miracles that would astonish him; also it might have another handsome result: it might persuade the great experts to discard their own trifling game and bring the Jackass Gulch outfit here and exhibit their skill in a game worth a hundred of the discarded one, for profound and breathless interest, and for displays of almost superhuman skill. ...
Bill S., have you seen the above picture posed by a billiard table?
~Doc
...I believe You're 100% correct...Doc...the back rail looks a tad bit lower than the side rails...and there are only 3 balls on the table.......or maybe it's that infamous table from...Jackass Gulch....
mr3cushion
Verified Member
I could almost swear I've seen this picture of Twain, only it was a billiard table. I'm wondering if this picture had been photo-shopped to be a pool table?
Twain of course was a huge billiard fan who attended many tournaments around the turn of the 20th Century and later. Here's a humorous diary account of his contrast between good equipment and poor; and which is more fun. He mentions several champions of the day, which in this case was in 1906:
from Chapters from my Autobiography
By Mark Twain
... I acquired some of this learning in Jackass Gulch, California, more than forty years ago. Jackass Gulch had once been a rich and thriving surface-mining camp. By and by its gold deposits were exhausted; then the people began to go away, and the town began to decay, and rapidly; in my time it had disappeared. Where the bank, and the city hall, and the church, and the gambling-dens, and the newspaper office, and the streets of brick blocks had been, was nothing now but a wide and beautiful expanse of green grass, a peaceful and charming solitude. Half a dozen scattered dwellings were still inhabited, and there was still one saloon of a ruined and rickety character struggling for life, but doomed. In its bar was a billiard outfit that was the counterpart of the one in my father-in-law`s garret. The balls were chipped, the cloth was darned and patched, the table`s surface was undulating, and the cues were headless and had the curve of a parenthesis -- but the forlorn remnant of marooned miners played games there, and those games were more entertaining to look at than a circus and a grand opera combined. Nothing but a quite extraordinary skill could score a carom on that table -- a skill that required the nicest estimate of force, distance, and how much to allow for the various slants of the table and the other formidable peculiarities and idiosyncrasies furnished by the contradictions of the outfit. Last winter, here in New York, I saw Hoppe and Schaefer and Sutton and the three or four other billiard champions of world-wide fame contend against each other, and certainly the art and science displayed were a wonder to see; yet I saw nothing there in the way of science and art that was more wonderful than shots which I had seen Texas Tom make on the wavy surface of that poor old wreck in the perishing saloon at Jackass Gulch forty years before. Once I saw Texas Tom make a string of seven points on a single inning! -- all calculated shots, and not a fluke or a scratch among them. I often saw him make runs of four, but when he made his great string of seven, the boys went wild with enthusiasm and admiration. The joy and the noise exceeded that which the great gathering at Madison Square produced when Sutton scored five hundred points at the eighteen-inch game, on a world-famous night last winter. With practice, that champion could score nineteen or twenty on the Jackass Gulch table; but to start with, Texas Tom would show him miracles that would astonish him; also it might have another handsome result: it might persuade the great experts to discard their own trifling game and bring the Jackass Gulch outfit here and exhibit their skill in a game worth a hundred of the discarded one, for profound and breathless interest, and for displays of almost superhuman skill. ...
Bill S., have you seen the above picture posed by a billiard table?
~Doc
Doc; It's funny that you brought this up, I've been watching bits & pieces of a PBS special on "Mark Twain" for the last few nights, but the damn thing is on at 1 or 2 AM EST. So, I've never watched it in it's entirety. But, I will tell you this, the video from inside of his home does show a, "Pocket" billiard table, with 3 Billiard balls on it. He may have played, "English Billiards," which is normally played on a, 6'x12' snooker table, with smaller size balls.
This is a photo of Twain's billiard room.
View attachment 10577
The narrator describes Twain's displeasure with the mechanic, for when he had finished, he noticed he had left the balls in NYC! :lol:lol:lol
So, maybe the photo is an original!
Last edited:
lll
Verified Member
I could almost swear I've seen this picture of Twain, only it was a billiard table. I'm wondering if this picture had been photo-shopped to be a pool table?
Twain of course was a huge billiard fan who attended many tournaments around the turn of the 20th Century and later. Here's a humorous diary account of his contrast between good equipment and poor; and which is more fun. He mentions several champions of the day, which in this case was in 1906:
from Chapters from my Autobiography
By Mark Twain
... I acquired some of this learning in Jackass Gulch, California, more than forty years ago. Jackass Gulch had once been a rich and thriving surface-mining camp. By and by its gold deposits were exhausted; then the people began to go away, and the town began to decay, and rapidly; in my time it had disappeared. Where the bank, and the city hall, and the church, and the gambling-dens, and the newspaper office, and the streets of brick blocks had been, was nothing now but a wide and beautiful expanse of green grass, a peaceful and charming solitude. Half a dozen scattered dwellings were still inhabited, and there was still one saloon of a ruined and rickety character struggling for life, but doomed. In its bar was a billiard outfit that was the counterpart of the one in my father-in-law`s garret. The balls were chipped, the cloth was darned and patched, the table`s surface was undulating, and the cues were headless and had the curve of a parenthesis -- but the forlorn remnant of marooned miners played games there, and those games were more entertaining to look at than a circus and a grand opera combined. Nothing but a quite extraordinary skill could score a carom on that table -- a skill that required the nicest estimate of force, distance, and how much to allow for the various slants of the table and the other formidable peculiarities and idiosyncrasies furnished by the contradictions of the outfit. Last winter, here in New York, I saw Hoppe and Schaefer and Sutton and the three or four other billiard champions of world-wide fame contend against each other, and certainly the art and science displayed were a wonder to see; yet I saw nothing there in the way of science and art that was more wonderful than shots which I had seen Texas Tom make on the wavy surface of that poor old wreck in the perishing saloon at Jackass Gulch forty years before. Once I saw Texas Tom make a string of seven points on a single inning! -- all calculated shots, and not a fluke or a scratch among them. I often saw him make runs of four, but when he made his great string of seven, the boys went wild with enthusiasm and admiration. The joy and the noise exceeded that which the great gathering at Madison Square produced when Sutton scored five hundred points at the eighteen-inch game, on a world-famous night last winter. With practice, that champion could score nineteen or twenty on the Jackass Gulch table; but to start with, Texas Tom would show him miracles that would astonish him; also it might have another handsome result: it might persuade the great experts to discard their own trifling game and bring the Jackass Gulch outfit here and exhibit their skill in a game worth a hundred of the discarded one, for profound and breathless interest, and for displays of almost superhuman skill. ...
Bill S., have you seen the above picture posed by a billiard table?
~Doc
first of all let me admit i recalled the pic and when i googled ,,,,"einstein pool" i found that pic.....
so YES i thought t was einstein....
,,,doc thanks for posting that history of mark twain and his relationship to pool and billiards.....
onepocket926
Verified Member
While attending a billiard tourney on the evening of April 24, 1906, Mr. Twain was called on to speak. He told this story:
Patrick Johnson
Verified Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,447
Here's another of the same table in the same room (colorized?) with Twain's writing spread on it.
Googling "Mark Twain Pool Billiards" brings up endless copies of the picture in the previous post, all with pocket tables. Maybe the billiards table was photoshopped, Doc?
pj
chgo
View attachment 95125
Attachments
-
Twain's Pool Room.jpg
Patrick Johnson
Verified Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,447
Here's one showing his "office". Nice work if you can get it.
pj
chgo
Is that an abstract pool table painted on the ceiling?
View attachment 95934
Attachments
-
Twain's Pool Room Office2.jpg
Patrick Johnson
Verified Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,447
Yep. Here's a short thread from a couple years ago about it (Doc, you might have seen the table without pockets):
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=263891
pj
chgo
View attachment 97130
Attachments
-
Twain's Ceiling.jpg
gulfportdoc
Verified Member
Thanks, guys. This post --referenced by PJ-- by 18.2Balkline on AZBilliards may explain the carom/pool mystery:
02-13-2012, 02:42 AM
Mark Twain played both carom and pocket billiards. His table, which is now in Hartford, Connecticut, was a gift from a friend in 1906 when he was living in New York. Twain was about to go on a long trip to Egypt when he heard about his friend's intentions. He cancelled the trip and helped the friend select a Brunswick-Balke-Collender table, which is described by Twain's biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine (and again by Willie Hoppe in Hoppe's autobiography) as a "combination table," which meant that it either had removable rails to convert from a carom table to a pocket table or had pocket inserts. Both were common at that time. Eventually the table was moved to Connecticut. There are photos of the table in New York with carom rails. Most of the photos from Connecticut show pockets.
Twain's main game was English billiards, which is a combination carom-pocket game played on a pocket billiard table. There are many ways to score points: pocketing object ball, pocketing cue ball, making caroms. Twain probably grew up playing American four ball, which was a carom-pocket game played on a pocket billiard table that was popular until the 1870s and was replaced by the three ball game. Willie Hoppe says that Twain was always inventing new games or new rules for old games.
This would explain why there are photos of S. Clemens with a carom table as well as a pool table. BTW, the game "English billiards" sounds similar to the game "Cowboy", played on a pool table with the 1, 3, and 5 balls.
~Doc
02-13-2012, 02:42 AM
Mark Twain played both carom and pocket billiards. His table, which is now in Hartford, Connecticut, was a gift from a friend in 1906 when he was living in New York. Twain was about to go on a long trip to Egypt when he heard about his friend's intentions. He cancelled the trip and helped the friend select a Brunswick-Balke-Collender table, which is described by Twain's biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine (and again by Willie Hoppe in Hoppe's autobiography) as a "combination table," which meant that it either had removable rails to convert from a carom table to a pocket table or had pocket inserts. Both were common at that time. Eventually the table was moved to Connecticut. There are photos of the table in New York with carom rails. Most of the photos from Connecticut show pockets.
Twain's main game was English billiards, which is a combination carom-pocket game played on a pocket billiard table. There are many ways to score points: pocketing object ball, pocketing cue ball, making caroms. Twain probably grew up playing American four ball, which was a carom-pocket game played on a pocket billiard table that was popular until the 1870s and was replaced by the three ball game. Willie Hoppe says that Twain was always inventing new games or new rules for old games.
This would explain why there are photos of S. Clemens with a carom table as well as a pool table.
BTW, the game "English billiards" sounds similar to the game "Cowboy", played on a pool table with the 1, 3, and 5 balls.~Doc
Tom Wirth
Verified Member
Doc, good research! Though most of the photos we see of Twain are around pool tables and not carom tables, from the inlay work on his ceiling you can see he liked the three ball carom games.
Tom
Tom
mr3cushion
Verified Member
Thanks, guys. This post --referenced by PJ-- by 18.2Balkline on AZBilliards may explain the carom/pool mystery:
02-13-2012, 02:42 AM
Mark Twain played both carom and pocket billiards. His table, which is now in Hartford, Connecticut, was a gift from a friend in 1906 when he was living in New York. Twain was about to go on a long trip to Egypt when he heard about his friend's intentions. He cancelled the trip and helped the friend select a Brunswick-Balke-Collender table, which is described by Twain's biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine (and again by Willie Hoppe in Hoppe's autobiography) as a "combination table," which meant that it either had removable rails to convert from a carom table to a pocket table or had pocket inserts. Both were common at that time. Eventually the table was moved to Connecticut. There are photos of the table in New York with carom rails. Most of the photos from Connecticut show pockets.
Twain's main game was English billiards, which is a combination carom-pocket game played on a pocket billiard table. There are many ways to score points: pocketing object ball, pocketing cue ball, making caroms. Twain probably grew up playing American four ball, which was a carom-pocket game played on a pocket billiard table that was popular until the 1870s and was replaced by the three ball game. Willie Hoppe says that Twain was always inventing new games or new rules for old games.
This would explain why there are photos of S. Clemens with a carom table as well as a pool table.
~Doc
Doc; This was the GREATEST "English" Billiard player of ALL time!
Walter Albert Lindrum, OBE (29 August 1898 – 30 July 1960),[1] often known as Wally Lindrum, was an Australian professional player of English billiards who held the World Professional Billiards Championship from 1933 until his retirement in 1950. He was named Walter Albert to have the initials of the state where he was born - W.A. (Western Australia).[citation needed] He was one of the most successful players ever seen in billiards,[2] with 57 world records to his credit,[3] some of which still stand
Early life
Lindrum's grandfather, Frederick William Lindrum I, was Australia's first World Professional Billiards Champion having defeated the English master, John Roberts, Sr., in 1869. Walter's father, Frederick William Lindrum II, was an Australian Billiards Champion at the age of 20. According to Walter, from 1909 to 1912 his father was the greatest billiard player in the world but "only...my brother Fred and myself knew it. He passed over public matches to coach the two of us."[this quote needs a citation] Walter's older brother, Frederick William Lindrum III, became professional Australian Billiards Champion in 1909. Frederick II closely tutored his sons[3] and their nephew Horace Lindrum (who also went on to become a famed billiards and snooker pro). The family can be considered the greatest billiard playing family the world has ever known. His mother Laura (née Williams) was locally renowned at both sewing and baking, winning numerous Kalgoorlie baking competitions. Walter often cited her as an influence on him, saying in 1933 after winning the world championship: "She gave me my desire to win. She helped further my passion for both winning and the sport, and she's truly an inspiration to me."[this quote needs a citation]
Walter himself was born on 29 August 1898 in the Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie. He lost the tip of his index finger on his right hand in an accident in 1901,[3] and his father taught him to play billiards left-handed. Much of his childhood was spent practising billiards for up to twelve hours per day, under his father's tutelage on his two billiard tables in the Palace Hotel in Kalgoorlie, and also guided by William (Billy) Weston, another Australian Billiard Champion, who owned a billiard saloon at the corner of Brookman and Wilson Streets in Kalgoorlie. Standing on a crate to reach the table, Lindrum was "polished" by Weston, who taught him the technique of playing top of the table, a method to increase breaks. The family were itinerant, and often moved from town to town. Lindrum's first professional game was played at the age of only 13 years.
By the age of 16, Walter was regularly making breaks of over 1,000 points during practice at the London Tavern, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, where Fred Lindrum II was running a three-table billiard parlour. By 1921 Walter Lindrum was defeating his older brother, Frederick III, then the Australian Billiards Champion. Walter refused to play his brother for the title.
Family
Walter married Rose Coates in 1929 in Sydney. She was dying at this time and died soon after. His second marriage was to Alicia Hoskin on 9 April 1933 in London. Know as Sue, Walter and his wife toured the world for many years. Trophies and presents from this period were in part passed to his only Godson Jonathan Ingram. Alicia and Walter were divorced in 1955. Walter married a third time in July 1956, to Beryl Elaine, née Carr, who survived him.
Billiards champion
During the mid-1920s Walter Lindrum's standard of play was without effective competition in Australia, with many players refusing to play against him. As a result, exhibition matches were often organised, especially with New Zealand Billiard Champion Clark McConachy. Lindrum published his instructional book, Billiards, in 1924. It was revised and reprinted in 1938 as Billiards and Snooker, "proceeds from the sale going to the Lindrum War Drive", his World War II fundraising effort, in later printings.[5]
It was not until 1929 that Willie Smith, World Champion in 1920 and 1923, and one of the best English billiards players of the time, visited Australia and played three fairly even matches against Lindrum. With both players being one match up, Lindrum was forced to abandon the third game midway through, upon the death of his wife due to heart failure.[6] While technically the match was a forfeit, Smith refused to accept the trophy and insisted it be awarded to Lindrum.
Smith, McConarchy and Lindrum departed Australia in September 1929 for a tour of England.[1] Between 1929 and 1933 Lindrum dominated the English billiards scene. Often he would start conceding up to 7000 points to his opponents. Lindrum and his main rivals, McConarchy, Smith, Joe Davis (World Champion 1928–1932) and Tom Newman (World Champion 1921–1922, 1924–1927), were called in the press "the big five"[7]
On Lindrum's second tour of England, in late 1930, Donald Bradman and other members of the touring Australian cricket team, would sometimes attend Lindrum's matches at Thurston Hall, London. As an indication of the esteem in which Lindrum was held, the critic Neville Cardus referred to Bradman as "the Lindrum of cricket".[this quote needs a citation][8]
On 19 February 1931, Lindrum gave a billiards exhibition for the King and other members of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. King George V presented Lindrum with a pair of gold and enamel cuff links bearing the royal monogram. These formed part of Lindrum's essential attire for the remainder of his playing career, and he wore them daily for the rest of his life.[4]
His record break of 4,137 was made in a match he lost against Joe Davis at Thurston Hall on 19 January 1932. However, this precipitated a change in the rules of the game. As this break mostly consisted of long runs of close cannons (a total of 902 cannons were scored), the Billiards Control Council established the first version of the baulk-line-rule, in which the cue ball had to cross the baulk line every 200 points during a break. A 1932 tour of the United States and Canada by several players, including Lindrum, proved a disaster, with disappointing attendances and financial losses by the players.
Lindrum won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1933 and 1934, and held it until his retirement in 1950.
After the debacle of the 1932 North American tour and his winning of the 1933 World Championship, Lindrum argued that he should be allowed to defend his title in Australia. The 1934 match was organised to coincide with the Melbourne centenary celebrations in September 1934. His challengers were the New Zealand Champion, Clark McConachy, and United Kingdom Champion, Joe Davis, with Davis finishing runner-up. Lindrum won this title, but in subsequent years the title became dormant for lack of challengers, until Lindrum relinquished it upon retirement. The title of World Professional Billiards Champion next passed to McConarchy in 1951 who held it until 1968, when he was defeated by Rex Williams.
While some, including his nephew Horace, made the criticism that Lindrum's play was somewhat mechanical and lacked style, rival and six-time World Champion Tom Newman wrote: "It is the greatest injustice you can do to Walter to call him a scoring machine. Nothing could be more unlike him. He is showing you everything the beautiful game can show."[4]
During the Second World War, Lindrum performed about 4,000 exhibition games, raising over £500,000 for the war effort (including revenues from sales of his book). Over his lifetime he raised more than £2 million for charity.[4][clarification needed] He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1951,[3] and an Officer of the order (OBE) in the 1958 honours list.[9]
Records
In June 1927 in Melbourne he claimed a world speed record when he scored 816 points in 23 minutes in an unfinished break.[2]
During 1930 in Manchester, Lindrum set a record aggregate of 30,817 during the fortnight match against Willie Smith. In this match he made 10 breaks over 1,000 with a highest of 2,419. In his final match of the tour against Smith in London, Lindrum's performance set numerous records: the highest individual aggregate (36,256), the largest winning margin (21,285), a record match average (262), and a record number of four-figure breaks (11). Smith, although beaten, had played excellently with an average of 109 per innings for the match.
His record break of 4,137 was made in a match he lost against Joe Davis at Thurston Hall, London on 19 January 1932.[10] Lindrum occupied the table for 2 hours 55 minutes, for about 1,900 consecutive scoring shots.[3] He also holds the record break for each country that he played in, the fastest century break (46 seconds) and 1011 points in 30 minutes.
In 1933 on a tour to South Africa Lindrum claimed a new world record for fast scoring when he completed 1,000 points in 28 minutes in Johannesburg.[2]
Death
View attachment 10583
Walter Lindrum's Monument and grave.
Walter Lindrum's distinctive grave in Melbourne General Cemetery
On 30 July 1960, at the age of 61, Walter Lindrum suddenly became ill and died while on holiday in Surfers Paradise, Queensland.[4] The cause of death was officially listed as heart failure, but it has alternatively been suggested that he died as a result of food poisoning from a steak and kidney pie.[4]
Following his death, cricketing legend Sir Donald Bradman wrote to Lindrum's niece, Dolly Lindrum: "In my opinion he was not only the greatest billiards player who ever lived, but he was also the most modest of great champions."[4]
His body was returned to Melbourne, and he was given a state funeral attended by 1,500 people.[4] He was buried at Melbourne General Cemetery, with champion cyclist Sir Hubert Opperman raising the funds for a distinctive monument consisting of a billiards table, complete with balls and cue; more than fifty years after his death the site reportedly remains the most visited grave in this substantial cemetery.[4]
Recognition
In 1981 Lindrum was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post, which featured a caricature of him by famed artist Tony Rafty. Lindrum was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and the Western Australia Sporting Hall of Champions in 1985. His house in Melbourne at 158 Kerferd Road, Albert Park, is noted for its historical association with him by the Port Phillip Council. Lindrum is generally regarded as one of the all-time great Australian sporting heroes, along with the likes of Donald Bradman, Heather McKay, Margaret Court, Haydn Bunton, Sr. and Hubert Opperman.[11][12]
In Melbourne, the Hotel Lindrum on Flinders Street has incorporated much memorabilia associated with Walter Lindrum. The building formerly housed the Lindrum's Billiard Centre run by Walter's niece, Dolly. One of the original tables from the Billiard Centre has been fully restored there by the original manufacturing company.[13] In April 2009, the Hotel Lindrum hosted the Capital Cup, a billiards tournament that, on its 10th Anniversary, honoured the life and history of Walter Lindrum.
The mathematician John Littlewood nominated a shot of Lindrum's as "the best stroke ever made in a game of billiards". As Littlewood reported it, Lindrum "deliberately played to make a cannon in which the white balls were left touching, and succeeded. (The balls were spotted in accordance with the laws, and the break could continue.)"[14]
It has been proposed[clarification needed] to have a large collection of Lindrum memorabilia including personal and professional effects, newspaper clippings, diagrams of his shots, letters, and photographs moved[clarification needed] to a special display in Australia's National Sports Museum.[4
Last edited:
Patrick Johnson
Verified Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,447
Just wanted to give this zombie equine one more thwack...
Coincidentally (I think), there's a new thread on AzB about the subject of this thread:
AzB Thread "Strokes and touch" - by The Renfro
"IF the game could be played with a level pendulum thats what guys would look like at the highest level but they don't well at least for the most part..."
My response: Any shot (except those that need some masse) can be executed with a level pendulum stroke by a robot. There's no "mystery ingredient" in any stroke.
"...by altering your stroke with small nuances as they do you can create different cueball paths because the spin/speed ratios change... With a traditional stroke you would need to alter the speed and tip placement on the cueball..."
My response: Altering the speed and/or tip placement is exactly what the "small nuances" do - nothing more or less. There's no "mystery ingredient" in any stroke.
Spot-angle-speed. That's the whole enchilada (according to me, the foremost authority in my mind).
pj
chgo
Coincidentally (I think), there's a new thread on AzB about the subject of this thread:
AzB Thread "Strokes and touch" - by The Renfro
"IF the game could be played with a level pendulum thats what guys would look like at the highest level but they don't well at least for the most part..."
My response: Any shot (except those that need some masse) can be executed with a level pendulum stroke by a robot. There's no "mystery ingredient" in any stroke.
"...by altering your stroke with small nuances as they do you can create different cueball paths because the spin/speed ratios change... With a traditional stroke you would need to alter the speed and tip placement on the cueball..."
My response: Altering the speed and/or tip placement is exactly what the "small nuances" do - nothing more or less. There's no "mystery ingredient" in any stroke.
Spot-angle-speed. That's the whole enchilada (according to me, the foremost authority in my mind).
pj
chgo
mr3cushion
Verified Member
If YOUR happy with YOUR performance on a pool table with the knowledge that YOU believe to be TRUE, than I'm happy for you!
Patrick Johnson
Verified Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 1,447
Thanks, Bill. Same to ya!If YOUR happy with YOUR performance on a pool table with the knowledge that YOU believe to be TRUE, than I'm happy for you!
pj
chgo
onepocket926
Verified Member
...sounds a lot like RA....trying to match-up.....:lol
gulfportdoc
Verified Member
I've heard of Lindrum, and he was obviously a great champion.
I can see why "straight rail" billiards fell by the wayside as a professional competition. As you know, as soon as a good player is able to gather the 3 balls in an optimum position, he can simply make carom by carom, inch by inch all the way up the rail, around the corner, and on and on. It's really quite boring.
I was friends with a South American straight rail champion out in L.A. when I lived there in the late 1960's. I can't think of his name. Manny something. Anyway he graced us with exhibitions of the straight rail game whenever someone asked. And he was phenomenal. At the time he was learning 3C, and did seem to have a great aptitude for it.
18.1 or 18.2 balkline must have been much more enjoyable to watch. But even at that, a spectator had to suffer through 18 straight-rail caroms to see what the player did then. Granted he had to get the balls gathered to begin with, but the game has no where near the grace, beauty, and complexity as does 3C.
~Doc
mr3cushion
Verified Member
Doc; the 18, in the "Balkline" games DOES NOT mean you can make 18 "straight rail" points, then move to a different spot on the table! What the 18 stands for is the, 18" the lines are drawn from the corners to form a "box", from the short cushion and to the long.
The game 18.1 means, the player can ONLY make one "carom" with ALL 3 balls in the "box". He has to knocking out at least one of the object balls!
The game od 18.2 means, the players can make two consecutive "caroms" before knocking out one of the object balls!