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Show WILLIE HOPPE STILL BALK LINE CHAMPION George Moore Wins Three-cushion Three-cushion Title; Taberski Pocket Star. CUE CHAMPIONS OF 1916. Balk line, professionals, all styles William F. Hoppe. New York City. Three cushion, professional George Moore, New York City. Pocket, professional Frank Taberski. Taber-ski. Schenectady. N. Y. Interstate Three Cushion League Charles McCourt, Cleveland, Ohio. Balk line, amateur Edward W. Gardner, Montclair, N. J. Pocket, amateur J. Howard Shoemaker. Shoe-maker. New York City. The old year marked an eventful era in billiards, its close finding the game in a healthier condition than ever before be-fore in history. Perhaps the quotation "variety is the spice of life happily fits the 'pastime, but whether it is variety, va-riety, competition, orsnnization or just plainly the game itself that has caused its .boom the fact remains that billiards is at the height of its popularity. William F. Hoppe enters upon another year champion of the professional balk liners, as usual holding the titles at all three stvles 1S:1 and 1S:2 and 14:1. His old foe, George B. Sutton of Chicago was the only player who dared challenge him, and Sutton met his customary defeat de-feat at St. Louis in their match on October Oc-tober 29 and 30 and November 1, the score ending 1500 to 503 after a onesided one-sided contest. In sharp contrast to the inactivity of the balk line experts, the three-cushion and pocket champions and challengers were busy as bees, the titles in both classes changing hands with such frequency fre-quency that the average fan could hardly hard-ly keep track of them. Moore and Taberski. The performances of George Moore of New York and Frank Taberski of Schenectady, Sche-nectady, respectfully three-cushion and pocket world 's champions, stand out brilliantly and mark the title holders as champions of the highest degree. Moore regained the coveted Brunswick emblem -he lost to William B. Huey of Chicago a little more than a vear ago from Hugh Heal of Toledo, who had won it from Charles McCourt, now of Cleveland, after aft-er the latter had captured it from Charles Ellis, now of Milwaukee, Ellis having taken it from De Oro, who tried to come back recently and lift the title from Moore, but George beat him soundly, sound-ly, forcing the famous Cuban into temporary tem-porary retirement. Taberski, after winning the pocket championship from Jack Lay ton. Em-mett Em-mett Blankenship 's conqueror,"at Sedalia in sensational fashion, overcoming Lay-ton Lay-ton 's lead of 117 points at the opening of the last nieht of play, and later trouncing two other challengers, Ralph GreenleaTf and E. I. Ralph, in much the same manner, has stamped the "Silent Pole ' ' a plaver possessed of rare grit and generalship, destined to bold his high place in the profession a long time. Charles McCourt made a name for himself when he beat Ellis and Maupome out in a driving finish for the Interstate Three-Cushion league championship. All three were practically tied when McCourt Mc-Court went on the road for his final and: most important swing around the circuit. cir-cuit. He had four games left to play and he won all of them in clean-cut style, which gave him the league title. Later he made his triumph complete by defeating Ellis for the world's championship, cham-pionship, which he lost to the first challenger, chal-lenger, Hugh Heal of Toledo. Kieckhefer Sets Record. August Kieckhefer of Rockford, 111., is leading the leagme, which opened tho new season on October 30, by a comfortable comfort-able margin, with Ellis of Milwaukee, Jackson of Detroit, Maupome of Cleveland, Cleve-land, Cannefax of St. Louis and Heal ot Toledo closest up of the others. A new Interstate league record for high run was established by Kieckhefer at Pittsburg on November 14, when the left-hander against Otto Reiselt ran 14. The previous mark of 13 was held by Ellis, made last winter. Ellis still hold's the league record of 37 innings, made against Frank Jones at Philadelphia on March 23, and he also holds this season's mark, having run his game out with William Cullen at Buffalo on December 16 in 40 innings. Singularly Singu-larly his scores against Jones and Cullen Cul-len were identical 50 to IS. There were no other billiard records broken during the year aside from various va-rious claims by experts who made "wonderful" runs and averages at straight rail, regardless of the size of the tables and the rules and regulations that must govern record performances. These alleged records have not been recorded in black and white as official. of-ficial. Edward W. Gardner, the famous Jer-seyman, Jer-seyman, proved that a billiardist improves im-proves with age by coming bark at 56 and annexing the national amateur balk line championship for the fifth time. The pocket amateur title fell ti the lot of J. Howard Shoemaker of New York, while another Xew York amateur, William Viertel. captured the first national tournament held for novice or straight rail players. |
