Australia’s first billiard ball marathon took place on 25 July 1936 as the result of a wager between Jack Hayward, a community singing conductor, and Arthur Davies, “the champion axeman”. The competitors undertook to strike a billiard ball from Penshurst to Lakemba, a distance of four miles (6.4 kilometres), using standard billiard strokes. The winner would be the one who took fewest strokes. Boys would be stationed at storm-water drains, to prevent the ball from being lost.
The Propeller of 16 July 1936 reported that at the last minute the road marathon had to be cancelled (probably on advice from the police) and the contest was held instead on a tennis court in Dumbleton. The weather was dreadful, and the ground was wet. In one hour Mr Hayward completed four miles (32 circuits of the court) in 468 strokes, while Mr Davies took 482 strokes. Both men were covered in mud from head to foot, and “stiff and sore in every limb.” They agreed that it was the hardest work they had ever attempted. Hayward’s prize for winning the bet was a conductor’s baton. The billiard ball must have been the size of a gobstopper by the end.
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