INDIAN POOL
Modern Man, Saturday 15 October 1910
INDIAN POOL.
A PLEASING CHANGE FROM ORDINARY POOL AND SNOOKER.
The game is played on an ordinary billiard table by two or more players, and the usual length of a game is 200 points.
Five balls are used, spotted as follows:
Yellow on the right-hand baulk spot.
Green on the left-hand baulk spot.
Brown on the middle spot of the table.
Blue on the billiard spot or top spot of the table.
Yellow counts 3, green 5, brown 7, and blue 9 points. The fifth ball, the white, is the cue ball.
The order of play having been determined by stringing or tossing, the first player plays at blue from baulk. Afterwards white is played with from wherever it lies, unless it has been forced off the table or pocketed, when the player plays from baulk.
Save for the opening shot at blue, a player may play at any ball he likes, except when he is in hand, in which case he can only play at balls out of baulk.
As regards winning hazards, the coloured balls must be potted in certain pockets. Yellow and green may be put into either of the baulk pockets, brown into either of the middle pockets, and blue into either of the top pockets.
Provided a ball is put into one of its proper pockets, the player scores its value, but if it goes into any other pocket he loses as many points as it is worth. These points are not deducted from his score, but added to his opponent’s total.
Similarly with losing hazards. A losing hazard can only be scored off yellow or green into the bottom pockets, off brown into the middle, and off blue into the top.
If a loser be made into a wrong pocket, the value of the ball played on is lost.
A cannon is made by the white ball hitting two or more coloured balls, and counts 2 points.
A player may pot a ball by cannoning on to ft or by knocking it in by means of another coloured ball, and the score is good provided the ball goes into one of its proper pockets. If it goes into a wrong pocket he loses its value.
Thus the player may play on blue, cannon on to brown, and pot it in a middle pocket, scoring 9 points—7 for potting brown, 2 for the cannon.
Suppose, however, that brown goes into a wrong pocket, then the player loses 7 points to his opponent, or each of his opponents, and he does not count the cannon, for no score can be made from a stroke on which a penalty is incurred.
Suppose he first hits yellow, then brown, and finally runs in off blue. What happens?
If the player’s ball goes into either of the bottom pockets, he is all right, and may score a losing hazard—3 points—off yellow, plus 2 for the cannon.
But if his ball goes into any other pocket he scores nothing and loses 3 points.
It is the ball first struck that counts in such cases. If two coloured balls are simultaneously struck, then the player counts as having struck the one of lowest value first.
Only three consecutive winning hazards are allowed from the middle or billiard spots. If three are made, the ball is spotted on the pyramid spot.
The penalty for a miss or forcing the white off the table is 3 points. If a coloured ball is forced off, its value is forfeited.
If a player goes into a pocket without hitting a ball, he loses the value of that pocket—i.e., top pockets 9, middle 7, left-hand baulk pocket 5, right-hand baulk pocket 3 points.
Gerald Weston.