AMERICAN BILLIARD LAWS.
1. The game is begun by stringing for the lead; the player who brings his ball nearest to the cushion at the head of the table winning the choice of balls and the right to play first or to compel his opponent to play. Should the striker fail to count, his opponent makes the next play, aiming at will at either ball on the table.
2. A carrom consists in hitting both object-balls with the cue-ball in a fair and unobjectionable way; each carrom will count one for the player. A penalty of one shall also be counted against the player for every miss occurring during the game.
3. A ball forced off the table is put back on its proper spot. Should the player’s ball jump off the table after counting, the count is good, the ball is spotted, and the player plays from the spot.
4. If in playing a shot the cue is not withdrawn from the cue-ball before the cue-ball comes in contact with the object-ball, the shot is foul, the player loses his count, and his hand is out.
5. If the balls are disturbed accidentally through the medium of any agency other than the player himself, they must be replaced and the player allowed to proceed.
6. If in the act of playing the player disturbs any ball other than his own, he cannot make a counting stroke, but he may play for safety. Should he disturb a ball after having played successfully, he loses his count on that shot; his hand is out, and the ball so disturbed is placed back as nearly as possible in the position which it formerly occupied on the table, the other balls remaining where they stop.
7. Should a player touch his own ball with the cue or otherwise previous to playing, it is foul, the player loses one, and cannot play for safety. It sometimes happens that the player after having touched his ball gives a second stroke, then the balls remain where they stop, or are replaced as nearly as possible in their former position at the option of his opponent.
8. When the cue-ball is very near another, the player shall not play without warning his adversary that they do not touch, and giving him sufficient time to satisfy himself on that point.
9. When the cue-ball is in contact with another, the balls are spotted and the player plays with his ball in hand.
10. Playing with the wrong ball is foul. However, should the player using the wrong ball play more than one shot with it, he shall be entitled to his score just the same as if he had played with his own; as soon as his hand is out, the white balls must change places, and the game proceed as usual.
On Foul Strokes.—It is a foul, and no count can be made:
1. If a stroke is made except with the point of the cue.
2. If the cue is not withdrawn from the cue-ball before the latter comes in contact with an object-ball.
3. If the striker, when in hand, plays from any position not within the six-inch radius.
4. If, in the act of striking, he has not at least one foot touching the floor.
5. If he strikes while a ball is in motion, unless it has come to a rest, as provided in Sec. 10 on Foul Strokes.
6. If he plays with the wrong ball, except as provided in foregoing Law 10.
7. If the player touches the cue-ball more than once in any way, or hinders or accelerates it in any other way than by a legitimate stroke of the cue; or if, during a stroke or after it, he in any way touches, hinders, or accelerates an object-ball, except by the one stroke of the cue-ball to which he is entitled.
8. As touching any ball in any way is a stroke, a second touch is a foul.
9. It is a foul against the striker if any ball be disturbed, hastened, or hindered by an opponent or any one but himself, whether the ball or balls are at rest while he is aiming or striking, in motion after he has struck, or at rest again after he has struck, and pending his again taking aim.
10. Should a ball that has once come to a standstill move without apparent cause, while the player is preparing to strike, it shall be replaced. Should it move before he can check his stroke, it, and all other balls set in motion by that stroke, shall be replaced, and the player shall repeat his shot, inasmuch as but for the moving of the ball, he might have counted where he missed, or missed where he counted.
11. It is a foul if the striker plays directly at any ball with which his own is in fixed contact, and the striker must in this instance play from balls spotted, as in the opening stroke of the game.
12. It is a foul to place marks of any kind upon the cloth or cushions as a guide to play; also foul to practise the banking shot for the lead-off upon the plea of testing the balls.
13. It is a foul against the non-striker, and the striker cannot make a count on the ensuing shot, if a ball in play is lifted from the table, except it be unavoidable in those cases in which it is provided that, because of foul or irregular strokes, the balls shall be transposed or replaced.
14. In order to restrict deliberate playing for safety, it shall be optional with the non-striker, if his opponent makes a miss in each one of three successive innings, to accept the third miss or to reject it and force his antagonist to hit at least one object-ball; and for this purpose that antagonist’s ball shall be replaced by the referee. Should two balls be hit by this stroke, there shall be no count.