Hazard.—When a player with his ball pockets another ball he is said to make a winning hazard; when he pockets his own ball after contact with another ball he makes a losing hazard.
Kiss.—Ball 2 is said to kiss when it comes a second time in contact with ball 1. The kiss is generally made off a cushion.
This term is used with much laxity in the language of billiards, and includes what the French call coups durs, when ball 2 is touching a cushion, and rencontres, when balls 1 and 3 meet, the former having been set in motion by the cue and the latter by the impact of ball 2. When ball 2 has an unforeseen collision with ball 3, and thereby prevents a cannon, the failure is attributed to robbery by a kiss.
Miss-cue.—Failure in the delivery of the cue on player’s ball; usually a slip from want of chalk or from defective striking.
Plant.—When two balls touch and an imaginary line through their centres if prolonged terminates in the centre of a pocket, a dead plant is said to be on. If the ball further from the pocket be played on and struck almost anywhere, the ball nearer the pocket will inevitably be planted or go into the pocket. The plant is still possible when the line through the centres falls slightly to the right or left of the pocket.
Strength is the measure of force used to make a stroke, which is said to be soft or hard according to the strength.
Stringing
To string is to play from baulk to the top cushion so as to leave player’s ball near the baulk-line or bottom cushion as may be selected. Before a match the players string simultaneously for choice of balls, and for the option of commencing the game.
After these preliminaries, the first matter of importance is that players should try to acquire an easy attitude. For its attainment precise rules like those for military drill cannot be given, because what are suitable for a tall spare man are wholly impossible to one who is short and stout. Therefore, advice must be general. The learner should go to a proficient of about his own make, whose style is admitted to be good, and be shown the best attitudes to reach a ball placed in various parts of the table, first from baulk, and afterwards from other and more cramped positions. If this be neglected, he is apt to contract faulty habits, which become more difficult to abandon the longer they have been entertained.