John Carr was an
English player of
English billiards
English billiards, called simply billiards in the UK and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team uses a diffe ...
. He was known as an early exponent of the use of in billiards, and for playing billiards matches for money in the 19th century.
Biography
In about 1815, Carr took a job as a billiard marker at the Upper Rooms in
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
, a role that involved keeping the score of
billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...
matches. In this role, his employer John Bartley taught Carr how to play billiards with the use of , which was at that time was a rare skill. Carr would conceal his method by seemingly aiming at the centre of the and only changing to strike to the side of the cue ball when actually playing the shot. Carr would claim that these shots were possible due to the use of a special "twisting ," which he would sell for
half a crown a box. The boxes actually contained normal
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
.
Carr successfully played challenge matches for money, but lost most of his winnings through
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...
. He had a successful playing tour in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
playing the Spanish version of billiards, but, as he had in England, soon lost most of the proceeds.
Carr success in challenge matches for money led to him having backers for him to play for 100
guineas
The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...
a side against any challenger by 1825.
In 1825 Kentfield challenged Carr, but Carr was too ill to play, and Kentfield assumed the title of Champion, for which he was unchallenged for 24 years.
References
External links
"Kentfield & Carr" at the Billiard and Snooker Heritage Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Jack
English players of English billiards