THE RULES OF SNOOKER POOL
Hoyle’s Games Modernized. Edited by Professor Hoffman. 1898. P. 420
SNOOKER POOL.
This is a recent and increasingly popular version of the game of Pool. It is in fact a combination of Pool and Pyramids. The fifteen coloured Pyramid balls are placed on the table by means of the “triangle,” in the same way as for Pyramids, whilst the white ball is used by each player as the cue-ball throughout the game. Five Pool balls are used. viz., the pink, blue, brown, green and yellow balls, The pink ball is placed on the billiard spot, the blue on the middle spot, the brown on the right-hand spot in baulk, the green on the centre spot in baulk, and the yellow on the left-hand spot in baulk. The values of the balls are as follows:—
The pink ball counts 6 points.
The blue ball counts 5 points.
The brown ball counts 4 points.
The green ball counts 3 points.
The yellow ball counts 2 points.
Each red ball counts 1 point.
Each player is bound to play at a red ball first, and, having taken it (or another red ball or balls), then at a Pool ball, which he must nominate where there is the slightest doubt, and again, if successful, at a red ball, and so on. Whilst any red balls remain on the table the Pool balls, after having been holed, are replaced on their respective spots, but after all the red balls have been taken, the players play at each Pool ball in rotation in their order as coloured on the marking board, viz., yellow, green, brown, blue, and pink, until each ball is pocketed, when the game is ended.
One great source of amusement is caused by a player being “snookered”—in other words, by his ball being so obstructed by other balls that he cannot hit a Pool or Pyramid ball direct, but has to play it off a cushion, when, in the event of a miss, the value of the ball played at is counted to each of the other players’ scores.
At “Snooker” safety- play is of little or no use. A player must try to get on the Pool balls, particularly on those of the highest value, as often as he can. Still, safety- play can be indulged in to some extent at the end of the game, when only the Pool balls are left on the table, and a player should remember to play for hazards with a fair amount of strength, and thus avoid leaving a ball over a pocket for an opponent to profit by.
Bad hazard strikers should think twice before joining in Snooker Pool, even for small stakes, with better players than themselves, as , with the high values of the Pool balls, large scores can be run up by an expert, and those players who own the lowest scores at the end of the game have to make heavy disbursements, as they have to pay every one whose score is higher than their own. The scores are best kept on a slate.
The rules which we append are an abridged version of those compiled by Mr. John Dowland (published by Messrs. Cox and Yeman, 184, Brompton Road, S.W.), and will give all further information needful.
THE RULES OF SNOOKER POOL.
1. The game of Snooker may be played by two or more persons. The sixteen Pyramid balls and five of the Pool balls, viz., the yellow, green, brown, blue, and pink balls are used. Any rest may be used.
2. To commence with, the fifteen red Pyramid balls are placed on the table as at Pyramids; the yellow ball is placed on the left-hand spot in baulk, the green ball on the centre spot in baulk, and the brown ball on the right- hand spot in baulk; the blue ball is placed on the middle spot, and the pink ball on the billiard spot, each player using the white ball.
3. The following are the scores: Each red ball holed counts one to the striker, the yellow two, the green three, the brown four, the blue five, and the pink six.
4. The order of play is determined by the marker’s giving out the pool balls, as in ordinary Pool, and the first player begins the game from the baulk-circle.
5. Each player in the first instance must play at a red ball, and should he succeed in taking one or more red balls, he is then bound to play at some one of the pool balls; should he succeed in taking the pool ball he plays at, he must then play at another red ball; if again successful in pocketing it, or another red ball or balls, he must then play at another pool ball, and so on until all the red balls have been holed; after which the pool balls must be taken in rotation in the following order, viz., yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, when the game is finished.
6. Whenever any pool ball is taken, it is immediately re-spotted on the spot which it occupied at the commencement of the game, so long as any red ball remains on the table.
7. The baulk forms no protection at Snooker Pool.
8. All strokes not played with the point of the cue are foul.
9. Any score made by a foul stroke does not count.
10. Foul strokes are made by touching any ball before or after a stroke; by playing with both feet off the ground; by playing before a ball has ceased rolling; by playing before a ball has been properly spotted.
11. Should a player score and touch a ball after the balls have ceased rolling, the next stroke is foul.
12. If a player, when in hand, touches his ball, it is not a foul stroke.
13. No red ball is ever replaced on the table after being holed or forced off the table, but should a pool ball be improperly holed or forced off the table, it must be re-spotted on the spot which it occupied at the commencement of the game.
14. The player who takes the last red ball may play at any pool ball he chooses, before proceeding to take the other pool balls in rotation in the order provided in Rule 5.
15. If a ball, after being stationary, drops into a pocket, it must be replaced, and any stroke played at it whilst so dropping may be replayed.
16. Under no circumstances whatever can a player have a ball up, nor, in the event of his being “angled,” can he have his ball out.
17. Should the white ball, after a red one has been holed, touch a pool ball, the striker must nominate the pool ball at which he intends to play.
18. Should a player in playing at a red ball pocket a pool ball without taking a red one, or vice versa, he forfeits the value of the ball so pocketed to each of the players.
19. If a player in the same stroke takes a red ball and a pool ball, the value of his pool ball counts in his score, but he is counted as having taken a red ball, and must next play at a pool ball.
20. If a player, in taking one or more red balls, succeed in the same stroke in pocketing one or more pool balls, the value of the pool balls so taken, as well as of the red ball or balls, shall be counted in his score.
21. When a pool ball is pocketed and its own proper spot is occupied by any other ball, the pool ball so pocketed remains in hand until the spot be unoccupied, or until it is the turn in rotation (as provided in Rule 5) of that pool ball to be played at, when the obstructing ball shall be spotted on its own proper spot and the ball in hand replaced.
22. Should the white ball occupy the spot of the next pool ball to be played at in rotation (as per Rule 5), the pool ball must be spotted, and the striker must play from the baulk-circle.
23. If, in playing at the pool balls in rotation (as per Rule 5), another one be holed as well as the one played at, the value of both balls is scored to the striker, and the other ball re-spotted. Should, however, the striker fail to hole the ball he plays at, the value of the other ball, viz., the one holed, counts against him.
24. Whenever there is any doubt the player must nominate the pool ball at which he intends to play.
25. Should a player hole his own ball, the value of the ball he played at is counted to the scores of each of the other players, and the next player plays from hand.
26. When a player plays at a stipulated pool ball (except as per Rule 23) and holes another, the value of the ball played at, not the value of the ball holed, is counted to the other players’ scores.
27. Should the striker make a miss, the value of the ball played at is counted to the other players’ scores.
28. The value of the points played for shall be agreed upon by the players at the commencement of the game. At the end of the game, the player whose score is the highest receives the value of the difference in the number of points scored by him and by each of those beneath him respectively, the second highest scorer doing likewise, and so on in order.
29. Any spectator who sees the game wrongly marked may state the fact, whether appealed to or not.
30. Should any person other than a player move, or interfere with, a ball, it must be replaced by the marker.
31. The marker shall not give any information on the game except at the request of any of the players.
32. A player requiring any of the rests may take them himself or have them handed to him by the marker, but, if a foul be made, the player shall be held responsible.
33. The marker must not tell a player how far he is “off” a ball; or whether he is, or is not, in a position for striking.
34. All disputes must be decided by the marker, whose decision is final; if he is ignorant of the matter in dispute, the majority of the spectators must decide the case.