Ball 2, touching the left side cushion and 4½ in. from left top pocket. Play a very soft stroke so that ball 1 may be left at 1′; a losing hazard from the spot is then open. This stroke is best made if the player stand close to the balls and lean over the table, making his bridge for the cue bouclée—i.e. the forefinger bent round the cue. If played in the usual way the stroke could not be reached without the long rest, and the eye is then so far from the ball that error and failure are probable. Any ordinary player can show the stroke, which is quite easy and very useful.
D. Ball 1, 5 in. from cushion 5 and 17 in. below the left middle pocket.
Ball 2, 6 in. from cushion 5 and 7 in. below the left middle pocket.
This is an example of a hazard to a blind pocket. Ball 1 should be struck gently, and its position after the stroke will be in the direction of the right top pocket. It is, in fact, a fine cut, and if played with sufficient strength ball 1 may probably go into the right top pocket. If ball 1 be placed 6 in. from cushion 5, the stroke is slightly fuller and may be played slower; after impact the ball will travel in the direction D E.
Diagram II. shows positions for doubles, with which it is well to accustom the eye. Though such strokes are not very much used in billiards, they are occasionally of great value, and their principle is based on the equality of the angles of incidence and reflexion. It is clear that a double may be set up at almost any part of the table, and it is well that several positions should be selected and played from till some certainty is obtained; those shown in the diagram are merely types. In these cases ball 1 is played full or nearly so on 2, and position for a further score may with attention to strength be attained. Doubles are used more in pool and pyramids than in billiards, and will be treated in detail when the two former games are described.
Diagram II.
It may be as well to make a few remarks explanatory of the diagram. A is an example of a double in baulk where the balls are easily reached. The point A on the cushion where impact with ball 2 should take place is half-way between the baulk-line and the bottom cushion. A ball played from B to A should, if truly struck in the centre, fall into the left bottom pocket. Place balls 1 and 2 as shown in the diagram on the line B A, keeping 2 sufficiently far from the cushion to avoid a kiss; play full, and 2 should be doubled. Again, let C be the middle point of cushion 6, and imagine lines joining it with the right middle and right top pockets. On these lines place the balls. A full stroke from ball 1 to 2 should double the latter in the one case into the right top pocket, in the other into the right middle pocket.
Next, D is an instance of a simple double, from which in more ways than one a losing hazard from spot may be left. Ball 1 is 24 in. from cushion 6 and 26½ in. above the middle pocket; ball 2 is 5 in. from the same cushion and 20½ in. above the pocket. A full stroke will double ball 2 into the right middle pocket, and ball 1 may be left near the line from the left middle pocket to the spot.
In the case marked E, ball 2 is just beyond the shoulder of the right middle pocket, ball 1 being so placed nearly in a line from 2 to the left bottom pocket that a full stroke about No. 1 strength will carry 2 to the left top pocket. Ball 1 may be so played as to leave a losing hazard into the left top pocket from a ball on spot.