The fate of the World Amateur Billiards Championship was decided on Wednesday night when Leslie Driffield of England beat Robert Marshall of Australia also the reigning champion for three consecutive years by a surprisingly big margin of 1628 points to 983 . It may incidentally be mentioned here that Driffield’s victory helped England to regain this Amateur Billiards honours after a long period of sixteen years .
It may be recalled that H. F. F. Coles had won for England the championship in 1935 . There after the championships were held only three times in 1936 , 1938 and 1951 . On each of these occasions Robert Marshall of Australia had the championship honours . Driffield emerged triumphant like the past championships since he won the title with an unbeaten record .
The Palm court of the Great Eastern Hotel had never staged in greater match. the venue was parked to suffocation even the standing accommodations having been sold out. The Billiards enthusiasts had the good fortune of seeing the two World’s best players in action. It was however, unfortunate that they could not see Marshall in his true colours.
Driffield proved to be more consistent about scoring throughout the match. He resorted to safe tactics from the very start and was very steady and cautions about his maneuvers. The Englishman had a clear lead of 300 points at the close of the first session which also be spoke of his consistency in scoring. But while praising Leslie Driffield for his victory and good show it must also be said that he had the luck of the match which the other player had not. On a number of occasions the red ball lingering as it was while in rolling motion invariably obliged Driffield by dropping into the pocket. But in the case of Marshall it was evident more than once that the red ball refused to move rested even at the threshold of the pocket much to the chagrin of Marshall’s admires. It appears as though everything went wrong with Marshall which would be evident from his 12 blank visits against 7 of Driffield in the first session. There were whispers all round regarding Marshall’s bad luck and many thought that Marshall’s first defeat against Hirjee had taken away all luck from him. But although Marshall’s was badly beaten his real form came in a flash forty minutes before the close when he chalked up the highest break of the match – 273 in 16 and half minutes.
Driffield was the master tactician and playing with confidence his favorite department of the game losing hazards he succeeded in leaving Marshall nothing on the table. This can be judged that he double baulked him five times and out of 26 Visits to the table Marshall was forced to have 12 blank visits.
In the first session Driffield led by 757 points to 454.
The English champion’s machine like consistency took him into a handsome lead. With three consecutive breaks of 125, 72 and 96 Driffield was completely in command with the break of 663 to 58 points after 4 visits.
How They Stand
P W L F A H.B. C.B.
L. Driffield 5 5 0 8529 278 23
C. Hirjee 4 3 1 6545 5175 230 12
R. Marshall 4 2 2 6978 5144 351 23
W. Ramage 4 2 2 4993 5592 211 11
W. Jones 4 1 3 5367 5825 253 9
A. Yunoos 4 0 4 3808 10230 79 -
N.B. : P- Played, W – Won, L – Lost, F – For, A – Against , H.B. – Highest break, C.B. – Number of Century breaks.