A Few Cue Tips

• Decide angle, point of aim, and strength before settling
  to the stroke.
• Make run-throughs fuller than they look and fine shots
  finer than they look.
• Play very fine shots fast when the object ball is almost
  touching a cushion. The kiss can frequently be” dodged ”
  in this way.
• Good forcing stroke practice may be got from the baulk
  line with the red on the pyramid spot. Swing the cue freely
  and easily. Don’t flog or “press.”
• Don’t try for too exact position when the immediate
  stroke is at all difficult. Leave a shot of some kind on,
  if possible, and trust to your treatment of stroke No. 2 to
  regain more ideal position.
• A good position hint, taken generally, is to play the red
  over a pocket and the white somewhere towards the middle
  of the table, but make sure of the score in the former case,
  otherwise the red is left for your opponent.
• In playing all round the table to strike a ball or balls in
  baulk plain or running side strokes amount to much the
  same thing, but when a ball is played off first, instead of a
  side cushion, the fine running side stroke is the equivalent
  of the half ball plain stroke, the subsequent cushion divergences
  making up for the finer angle.
• Practise in-off from centre-spot to the top pockets morning,
  noon, and night. Keep the butt end of the cue well
  down, drive clean through with a light hold, and do not
  regard the stroke as made until the object ball can be
  brought at will either back to the centre spot or in position
  for middle pocket play. To get middle table position spot
  and aim slightly finer and increase strength proportionately.
• Place a ball up the table in the line of one of the baulk
  end spots a long cue’s distance (4ft. joins.) from the top
  cushion. This is a slow running side half-ball shot (aimed
  full) for the top pocket farthest from the spot and leaves
  the ball in good position for another in-off into the same
  pocket. The plain half-ball shot is” three ball diameters
  lower and also leaves good position, if played with easy
  strength.
• The two most treacherous half-ball positions are long
  range in-offs from the centre spot in baulk and the long
  in-off from hand when the object ball is a little above the
  centre spot on the table. The first, at medium pace, leaves
  the object ball in baulk and should, therefore, be played
  with plenty of drag or freely. The second loses the object
  ball and the spotting for this should be a little finer than
  half-ball with a proportionately fuller (preferable) or finer
  contact.
• The advice is sometimes given to refer all angles to the natural angle. A better plan still is to know the other
  three angles—the three-eighths ball, the quarter-ball, and
  the eighth ball—at sight, and go for them, whether a cushion
  intervenes, or not, without hesitation, always remembering
  that the counterpart run-throughs are the seven-eighths,
  the three-quarter, and the five-eighths, the cue ball taking
  the same direction in each pair, if freely revolving and centrally struck.