Clem Trainer's history of US balkline

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Clem Trainer was a carom billiard fanatic who may have been one of the last American-born people to play balkline. In 1971 he published a small booklet that extended the list of matches/championships that had been published in 1923 by Thomas Gallagher. The booklet is in two sections: the first part appears to be a photocopy of Gallagher's work and part 2 is Trainer's update through 1934. I have never seen Gallagher's original.

Trainer's booklet seems to have originally been published in a limited run of 100 numbered copies. Unnumbered copies also exist. Many of the numbered copies were inscribed to various people Trainer considered helpful or friends of billiards. Here are a couple of scans of the copy Trainer gave to Charlie Ursitti:

Scan20201112_0001.jpg


Scan20201112_0003.jpg


I have several copies of the booklet available for sale, including the above. My email is: bob@billiardbooks.com
 
In one of the booklets I have there was this sheet which appears to be a photocopy of the original typed page. That booklet was not inscribed, so the owner of the sheet is unknown.

Scan20201112_0002.jpg
 
Back
Top