• U.S.

Sport: Pool on a Roof

1 minute read
TIME

Since Louis XIV added it to the less innocent pleasures of his court, the pastime of billiards has had many offspring. Most impolite child is pool, which well-meaning persons have tried to dignify by calling it pocket billiards, publicizing it as a family game, rigging up modernistic equipment. Fortnight ago, when the world’s championship opened on the Roof Garden of Manhattan’s Hotel Pennsylvania, the players maneuvered stiffly in dinner jackets before a sparkling audience on tiers of blue & gold seats, longed vainly for spittoons and overhead counters. A preopening shot was more reminiscent of the squalling & brawling of the corner pool parlor. Titleholder Ponzi refused to play unless paid a $1,000 bonus, sought an injunction against the tournament’s sponsors. When this was denied, he sulked in his own emporium.

Three onetime champions and a group of able youngsters, however, supplied enough upsets and excitement. Chipper Jimmy Caras, always best on birthdays, celebrated his 25th by blanking Joe Procita, 125-to-0. Bland, bald-headed Bennie Allen, three-time champion, dropped one ball after another into the pockets, gave the boisterous onlookers their greatest thrill by making a straight run of 125. Finally, after two weeks of round-robin, the winner: Caras. 125-to-53.

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