First ever publication of American Snooker Rules

Published:
14 October 2024
Original:
1 July 1925

Rules for playing the various Games of Carom and Pocket Billiards. Compliments of the Brunswick-Balke Collender Co. 1925

1. Definition of Game

The game of American “Snooker” is played on a 5 x 10 or 6 x 12 Snooker table, and may be played by two or more persons, either as sides, or independently. It is a Pocket Billiard game exclusively; caroms are ignored. The winner is the player or side making the highest score, or to whom the game, under Rule 19, is awarded.

2. The Balls

The balls should be 2⅛” in diameter, of equal weight and twenty-two in number.

3. Technical Terms

(a) The white ball is referred to as the “cue ball”; the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black, as the “colored balls”; the red (or pyramid) balls, as “reds.”

(b) The cue ball is “in hand” when it is off the table.

(d) A ball is “forced off the table,” which comes to rest otherwise than on the bed of the table, or in a pocket.

(e) The person about to play is termed the “striker”; his opponent is the “non-striker.”

(f) The cue ball is “in play” when it has been finally placed on the table and struck with the tip of the cue, and remains so until it has been pocketed. The red and colored balls are “in play” when placed on the table (as herein prescribed) and remain so until pocketed; any ball which is forced off the table becomes out of play.

(g) A “stroke” is made by a player aiming at and touching, or striking, the cue ball, when it is in play, with the tip of his cue. No stroke is completed until all the balls have come to rest.

(h) A “run” is a series of consecutive scoring strokes made in any one turn.

(i) A “count” is made when a ball, other than the cue ball, is pocketed after contact with another ball.

(j) A “scratch” is made when the cue ball is pocketed after contact with another ball or forced off the table.

(k) A “miss” is a stroke where the cue ball fails to touch any other ball, or where the cue ball is struck more than once before contact with another ball.

(l) A spot is said to be “occupied” if a ball cannot be placed thereon, without touching or disturbing another ball

(m) A player is said to be “on” a ball when such ball may be lawfully struck by the cue ball under these Rules. He is exclusively “on” a colored ball nominated under Rules 5 and 16.

(n) A player is said to be “snookered” with regard to any ball when a direct stroke in a straight line of the cue ball (if in hand from the centre of the balk line) to any point of such ball is obstructed by any ball which is not on.

(o) The cue ball is said to be “angled” when the corner of the cushion prevents a stroke being made, in a straight line, directly on any ball that may be lawfully struck.

(p) A “foul stroke” is one violating any of these Rules. (Examples of foul strokes are given in Rule 18.)

4. Rules of Play

All strokes must be made with the tip of the cue. The ball must be struck, and not pushed. The ball must not be struck more than once in the same stroke, either before or after contact with another ball. At the moment of striking, one of the player’s feet must touch the floor. No ball shall be forced off the table. The striker shall always play with the cue ball. The first impact of the cue ball shall govern all strokes.

5. Mode of Play

Players must first determine by lot, or other convenient method, the order of their turn, which must remain unaltered throughout the game. The first player shall play from hand. The cue ball must strike a red as the initial stroke of each turn, until all the reds are off the table. The value of each red, lawfully pocketed by the same stroke, is scored. For the next stroke of the turn (if a score is made) the cue ball must strike a colored ball, the value of which (if lawfully pocketed) is scored. The game is continued by pocketing reds, and colored balls, alternately, in the same turn. If the striker fails to score, the player next in torn plays from where the cue ball came to rest. If the cue ball is pocketed or forced off the table, the next player plays from hand.

Each colored ball pocketed or forced off the table must be re-spotted before the next stroke, until finally pocketed under these Rules. If the player who lawfully pockets the last red, pocket any colored ball with his next stroke, this ball is re-spotted. Otherwise (reds being off the table) the colored balls must be struck by the cue ball in the progressive order of their values, and (if lawfully pocketed) are not re-spotted.

When the striker is on a colored ball, he must nominate which particular colored ball he is on if requested by an opponent, and may so nominate for his own protection.

6. Placing the Balls

Balls are placed on the table as follows:

Fifteen reds, in the form of a triangle, the ball at the apex standing on the pyramid spot, the base being parallel with and nearest to the top cushion; black, on the billiard spot; pink, touching the apex ball of the pyramid, on the centre line of the table (and, after, on the pyramid spot); blue, on the centre spot; brown, on the middle of the balk line; green on the left, and yellow on the right-hand corners of the D.

7. Scoring

The values of the balls are: red- 1, Yellow-2, green- 8, brown- 4, blue- 5, pink- 6, black- 7.

8. Balk

Balk is no protection.

This means that if the cue ball is in hand the striker is permitted to play at any ball to which he is lawfully entitled and which may be inside the balk space (below the string line) provided he shoots from within the D, as prescribed in rule 3 (c).

9. Re-spotting Balls

The striker must see that eve ball required to be re-spotted is properly placed, before he plays his stroke. Reds are never re-spotted. If the spot, named in Rule 6, for each colored ball, is occupied when such ball should be placed thereon, the ball shall be placed on the spot first named in Rule 6, that is then unoccupied. If all the spots are occupied, the ball shall be placed as near its own spot as possible, between that spot and the nearest part of the top cushion.

10. Two Balls Pocketed by Same Stroke or Struck Simultaneously

Two balls (other than two reds) must not be pocketed by the same stroke, nor two balls (other than two reds) be struck simultaneously.

11. Cue Ball Touching

If the cue ball is touching another ball, the striker must play the cue ball away from the touching ball without moving it, or he must be held to have pushed it. If the cue ball, when played away from a touching ball without moving it, strike (the same or) another ball which is on, such ball, if lawfully pocketed, shall be scored. The striker thus playing away from a ball that is on (whether a red, or a colored ball which he has nominated) shall incur no penalty for a miss, or striking another ball.

12. A Ball on the Edge of a Pocket

A ball which has stopped on the edge of a pocket shall, if it falls in from vibration, be replaced; if it balances momentarily on the edge and falls in, it must not be replaced. If it drops in while the striker is playing, the ball shall be replaced, and the stroke played again.

13. Ball Moved by Other Agency than Player

I f a ball is disturbed otherwise than by the player, it shall, if moved, be placed on the table by the Referee on the spot which, in his judgment, the ball had, or, if moving would have occupied. This rule covers the case in which a non-striker or non-player causes the striker to touch or move a ball.

14. Interference by Non-striker

The non-striker shall, when the striker is playing, avoid standing or moving in the line of sight; he should sit or stand at a fair distance from the table. He may, in case of his enforced absence from the room, appoint a substitute to watch his interests and claim a foul if necessary.

15. End of Game and Tie

When only the black ball is left, the first score or forfeit ends the game, unless the scores are then equal, in which case the black is spotted, and the players draw lots for choice of playing at the black from hand. The next score or forfeit ends the game.

16. Snookering After a Foul

After a foul stroke, if the next player is found to be snookered with regard to all reds or the colored ball “on,” he is then on any ball he may nominate. If such ball is lawfully pocketed, it shall be scored (or forfeit incurred) as if it were the ball the striker would be on but for his being snookered, and he continues his turn (a red being still on the table) on a colored ball; otherwise (reds being off the table) on the colored ball with regard to which he had been snookered.

17. Cue Ball Angled

If the cue ball is angled it must be played from where it lies, but if angled after a foul, it must be played from hand.

18. Foul Strokes

The player violates these Rules by the following acts (among others):—

(a) By touching his ball more than once in one stroke (Rule 4).

(b) By making a scratch (Rule 3-j).

(d) By playing when both feet are off the floor (Rule 4).

(e) By playing before the balls have come to rest (Rule 3-g) before they have been spotted, or when wrongly spotted (Rules 6, 9 and 15).

(f) By striking or touching his ball while in play, otherwise than with the tip of his cue (Rule 4).

(If a player desires to clean a ball, he may, with his adversary’s permission, remove it for that purpose; should permission be refused, he may request the Referee to clean and replace the ball.)

(g) By touching or striking a ball in play otherwise than is allowed under these Rules (Rule 4).

(This covers touching a ball with the bridge, and not getting the cue out of the way of a ball in motion.)

(h) By playing improperly from hand (Rules 3 (c) and Rule 6).

(i) By playing with the wrong ball (Rule 4).

(j) By playing out of turn (Rule 5).

(k) By causing the cue ball to strike a ball he is not “on” (Rule 5).

(l) By making a miss (Rule 3-k).

(m) Generally by any stroke violating any of these Rules. A foul stroke must be awarded by the Referee, or claimed by the non-striker, before the next stroke is made, otherwise it shall not be considered a foul stroke.

(Example:—If the striker play with the balls improperly spotted, he scores all points made until the foul is awarded by the Referee, or claimed by the non-striker.)

19. Penalties

If, during a stroke, any rule of this game is violated, the striker (a) cannot score; (b) loses his turn; (c) under Rule 16 loses the right of snookering his opponent, and (d) forfeits such points as are exacted under these Rules.

All points forfeited must be added to the opponent’s score; not deducted from the striker’s score.

The highest numerical forfeit must be exacted, but only one such forfeit for any one stroke.

The striker shall forfeit:—

For striking a red with the cue ball when on a colored ball. For playing with other than the cue ball.	Seven points.
For a miss (whether the cue ball goes into a pocket, or is forced off the table).	Four points, or The value of the ball the striker was on.
For striking with the cue ball a colored ball when he is on a red. For thus striking a colored ball other than that which he is on. For forcing a colored ball (or the cue ball after impact) off the table. For pocketing any ball which is not on.	The value of the ball struck, or The value of the ball he was on or The value of any ball pocketed or forced off the table.
For pocketing more than one ball, other than reds, by the same stroke. For striking more than one ball other than reds simultaneously.	The value of any ball so pocketed or struck.
For other fools.	Four points, or The value of the ball fouled, or pocketed, or The value of the ball the striker was on.

For refusing to continue the game, or for conduct which, in the opinion of the Referee, is wilfully or persistently unfair, a player shall lose the game, and forfeit all points he may have scored, or the value of the balls on the table (reds=8 each) which ever is higher.

20. The Marker’s Duties

The marker shall keep and call the score, and in the absence of a Referee act as such. He shall not give advice nor express opinion on points affecting play. If requested to do so by the striker, the marker may move and hold in position, any lightshade which interferes with the action of the striker.

Spectators should not interfere with the game, the players or the marker.

21. The Referee’s Duties

The Referee shall be the sole judge of play, and shall be responsible for the proper conduct of the game under these Rules, and shall, of his own initiative, interfere if he observes any violation. He shall (at any time) on appeal by a player, decide any question of fact connected with the play.

He shall decide all questions arising between players on the interpretation of these Rules, and on any point arising thereunder for which he considers there is no direct provision. He shall be careful to see that a player is not better situated by reason of a violation of these Rules than he would be by their strict observance.

The Referee shall not give advice nor express opinion on points affecting play.