29. All disputes are to be decided by the marker; but if he be interested in the game, they shall then be settled by a majority of the players.
BLACK POOL.
This is a variation of English Colour-Ball Pool. A black ball is placed on the centre spot. The colours follow one another just as in English pool, until all the balls have come upon the table. After that, any ball on the table may be played at, and if it is pocketed, the player has the option of playing at the black ball. If he pockets it, each player pays him the amount of a life, so that the player whose ball was first pocketed would have to pay two, one for his own ball and one for the black. If a ball is pocketed before the balls are all on the table, the player may play on the black; but the following players must play on their colours until the first round is complete. No one is ever dead, and the game may be continued indefinitely, although half an hour is the usual limit. The players share the expense of the table, as at Shell-out.
ENGLISH BILLIARDS.
This game is played with three balls, one red and two white. Every winning hazard off the red counts 3; hazards off the white count 2, and all carroms count 2. If a player makes a carrom and a losing hazard on the same stroke, it counts 5 if the red was the object ball; 4 if the white was the object ball. A player may make 10 on one stroke by playing on the red, making a carrom, and pocketing all three balls. A miss counts one for the adversary; but if the player who makes a miss runs into a pocket or jumps off the table, his adversary counts 3.
The secret of success in the English game is not in gathering shots or rail nursing, but in repeated position; that is, playing shots so that the object ball returns to its position, the cue ball falling into a pocket and being played again from an advantageous position in the D. If the red ball is left in a good position for a losing hazard in either of the side pockets, the player should place his own ball in such a position in the D that he can drive the red to the bottom cushion and back again, leaving himself another easy hazard in the side pockets.
If the red is near a bottom pocket, and the player’s ball is in hands, the beginner will invariably leave the red ball in baulk, even if he makes the hazard. The reason is that he strikes with just force enough to reach the red and go into the pocket, and this force is just enough to drive the red about the same distance in the opposite direction, leaving it where the cue ball came from—in baulk.
The English do not understand gathering shots, nursing, and cushion carroms so well as the Americans, and play chiefly for the winning and losing hazards. The objective point of the expert is the spot stroke, which consists in getting exactly behind the red ball when it is on its spot, and then driving it into the corner pocket, returning the cue ball to its position with a light draw shot. If the cue ball fails to come back exactly behind the red the position may be recovered in several ways, some of which are shown in the diagrams.
