...Appleton’s 200 still stands as high run....
..which is amazing considering some of the old matches were to 1,000.
I found that surprising as well, but I looked at Charlie Ursitti's records for the challenge matches and it looks like only a few of them had a possibility of runs longer than 150. It seems that to run over 150 you had to be behind at the start of the day's play and run a lot but you would have to stop if you got to the current multiple of 150.
For example, if Willie was ahead of you 750 to 411 at the start of the sixth day's play in a match to 1200 in 150-point blocks, you would stop play when someone got to 900. Willie could not run more than 150 that day but you would have a chance to run 900-411 or whatever you might start your run at. If you started your run (after a very long evening already) at 600, you could run only 300 before the day's play would be stopped at 900.
So far as I can tell, most of the time each day started with a lag and an opening break shot, which would be a lot more understandable to the audience than continuing from a marked break shot position which is what I thought usually happened until I looked at the daily score lines from Ursitti's records.
I think this explains why Procita had the high run from that era. He was probably behind (against Willie, as it happened) and had a chance to run past Willie. Guessing, I would say that Procita missed before getting to the daily limit and Willie then ran to the limit. Procita did not win that match.