Walter Lindrum

pdcue

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I can't believe I never picked up on this, I was just so pleased to see Lindrums name but the statement is abject nonsense.

They never beat him. He retired as undefeated world champion and hel the title 17 years.

I assumed, and we all know what that can lead to, it was a journalistic
ploy alluding to a match he once played.

Disclaimer: I read an article about this match MANY years ago, so the
details are vague at best. If you should happen to be familiar with
the event, please add any info you may have

Walter's opponent was given a 'start'(handicap) of a few thousand points.
No one thought ANYBODY had a chance of beating Lundrum even up.
So, the other player started the match with a score that was a goodly
fraction of the total requiered to win. Just for fun, they also outlawed
his favorite shot "The Anchor".

IIUC - this was conceptually like the Carom strategy of trapping all 3 balls in
a corner. Top players have been known to score touusands of points by
this method.

As Walter was nearing the match total, he was so far ahead, the decision
was made to give the opponent an additional gift of even more points than
he received at the begining.

Walter won anyway.

Dale
 
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dkleather

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I assumed, and we all know what that can lead to, it was a journalistic
ploy alluding to a match he once played.

Disclaimer: I read an article about this match MANY years ago, so the
details are vague at best. If you should happen to be familiar with
the event, please add any info you may have

Walter's opponent was given a 'start'(handicap) of a few thousand points.
No one thought ANYBODY had a chance of beating Lundrum even up.
So, the other player started the match with a score that was a goodly
fraction of the total requiered to win. Just for fun, they also outlawed
his favorite shot "The Anchor".

IIUC - this was conceptually like the Carom strategy of trapping all 3 balls in
a corner. Top players have been known to score touusands of points by
this method.

As Walter was nearing the match total, he was so far ahead, the decision
was made to give the opponent an additional gift of even more points than
he received at the begining.

Walter won anyway.

Dale

I have never heard this story before, of course it may have happened but certainly not in championship play.

My knowledge of the anchor cannon is limited but it is believed it was introduced into England by an American called Jack Ives whom I know nothing about.

It became part of a "race" to see who could make the biggest breaks and eventually a man called Reece made a break of over 499,000! This took around three weeks to compile and was so tedious that the paying public walked out.

The governing body had to do something and they limited the number of consecutive ball to ball cannons (I think to 25).

Am sorry I can't add more.
 

DA\/E

Member
Just out of interest, here is a quick photo of the Walter Lindrum Stamp I have in my collection that was mentioned earlier in the thread.

 
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sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
NBA.com, in its section on the great Wilt Chamberlain, notes the following:

"During his career, his dominance precipitated many rules changes. These rules changed included widening the lane, instituting offensive goaltending and revising rules governing inbounding the ball and shooting free throws (Chamberlain would leap with the ball from behind the foul line to deposit the ball in the basket)."

The way they tried to slow down Lindrum made me think of what was done to slow down Wilt.
 
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Siz

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
...

As for the rule change, here is an account of it:-

---------

The Baulk-line Rule

By this time all the leading players, including Lindrum, recognised that some further restrictions were required to the cannon game in order to revive public interest. To this end an approach was made to the governing body and on 31st August 1932 the BA&CC introduced an "experimental" rule requiring the cue ball to cross the baulk line at least once in every 100 points. This was developed in an effort to counter the growing domination of nursery cannon play by all the top professionals, not only Walter Lindrum.

Since his first appearance in England, Lindrum had invented and perfected the greatest and most classic example of break-building ever seen. He set out to make thousand-break billiards the rule instead of the exception, and achieved this by an incomparable exhibition of billiards genius both in conception and execution.

1932 News of the World Tournament

The News of the World offered to promote a tournament under the new baulk-line rule and invitations were accepted by Lindrum, McConachy, Newman, Davis and Smith.

Lindrum arrived in England on 22nd September 1932 promising to give the new rule "a fair trial". This trial lasted just two weeks during which he played a match against Newman. Unable to make a thousand break, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the rule, and in this he was supported by his opponent. The promoters of the News of the World tournament promptly dropped the baulk-line rule from their conditions for their event, substituting a limit of 75 cannons. Willie Smith withdrew from the tournament in protest.

Shortly afterwards the BA&CC responding to pressure from the professionals, modified the baulk-line rule to enable a crossing every 200 points, and under this restriction Lindrum made his first four- figure break in a two week match against McConachy.

---------

Now from this, it can be seen that the rule was NOT instituted to hamper Lindrum but to reduce the scoring power of all the top professionals. In fact in the next two world championships the only player to record a four figure break was Lindrum himself, so the rule change actually favoured him.

He won both these finals by narrow margins against Joe Davis so who knows?

This was about as sucessful as Tiger proofing Augusta.
.

Worth a bump (an excellent post which I think some of the contributors to this thread might have missed).
 

dkleather

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Here is a pic of my one piece maple pool cue.
 

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JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Lol. Sorry its so big, can anyone tell me how to make it smaller?

Very cool photo.:cool:

You can "reduce" the pixels by going into your PAINT software on your computer.

If you right-click the icon of the photo, you may get a selection to pull it up in PAINT.

Once you have the photo in PAINT, then you left-click IMAGE up at the top.

Then left-click STRETCH/SKEW.

Then change the HORIZONTAL and the VERTICAL from 100 to, say, 50. Experiment with it and see what number reduces it for you best.

HTH.
 

book collector

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have never heard this story before, of course it may have happened but certainly not in championship play.

My knowledge of the anchor cannon is limited but it is believed it was introduced into England by an American called Jack Ives whom I know nothing about.

It became part of a "race" to see who could make the biggest breaks and eventually a man called Reece made a break of over 499,000! This took around three weeks to compile and was so tedious that the paying public walked out.

The governing body had to do something and they limited the number of consecutive ball to ball cannons (I think to 25).

Am sorry I can't add more.

The players name was actually Frank Ives "The Young Napolean"
http://www.eaba.co.uk/mags/bm/1913/08/howFrankIvesOutwittedJohnRobertsTheEnglishChampion.html
 
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