The New Game of Snooker-Billiards.
The Billiard Player, September 1925
As mentioned in our “West Country Billiard Notes,” Mr. Harold Williams, of Plymouth, has devised, and Messrs. Thurstons, Ltd., have revised and are publishing, a combined game of snooker pool and billiards, to which the self-explanatory title of snooker-billiards has been given. The Billiard Player has had the opportunity of reading the proof-page of the rules of this new game*, and of testing their range and application in actual play, and there seems to be little doubt that an excellent and alluring combination of the two great classes of billiard play has been invented.
The coloured snooker balls are spotted in the usual way, and possess the usual values, but only one red ball is used and that is placed below and touching the pink. The opening shot is made from hand upon the black, with the one white ball provided, and thenceforth not only winning hazards, but also cannons and losing hazards, or combined strokes may be. made in regulated sequence as to the cannons and into given pockets as to the hazards. The pocket rule, however, does not apply to the red, which is a free-ball for all pockets, and there is also an alternate free hazard stroke, after a regulation stroke, has been made. Both winning and losing hazards count the value, of the ball struck.
The pockets into which the different coloured balls may (apart from the free strokes) be driven or played off, are as follow: Yellow, left-hand bottom; green, right-hand bottom; brown, left-hand centre; blue, righthand centre; pink, left-hand top; black, right-hand top. These pockets can be instantly memorized on the left-right principle, as applied, looking up the table, in value order, to yellow-green, brown-blue, and pink-black.
Cannons can only be made thus: From red to yellow, yellow to green, green to brown, brown to blue, blue to pink, and pink to black. (A cannon cannot be made off the black.) Here, again, there is little, if anything to be remembered, as the second object ball is simply the next higher in value to the first object ball. Combined cannon and pots, or combined cannons and in-offs, or combined pots and in-offs may be made, provided that the rules as to pockets or cannon sequence are not thereby infringed. For example, a combined winning and losing hazard cannot be made into different pockets. No losing hazard or cannon can be made off a ball in baulk when the player is in hand, although winning hazards may be.
All object balls are replaced in their proper positions after being pocketed as soon as such position is vacant, and the same applies to an object ball touching a cue ball, except that the. striker now returns to hand. Not more than three successive winning hazards may be made with any) ball off its allotted spot.
In addition to the things that the striker may do there are, of course, numerous things that he may not do. There are foul strokes, and for their definition and the penalties attaching to them the rules must be consulted. Briefly, a foul is committed when the object ball is missed, or when a wrong ball is struck, or a wrong pocket entered. Usually the penalty is the value of the ball missed, or wrongly struck or pocketed, the higher value always ruling. This also applies to the forcing of a coloured ball off the table, but if the white be forced off, or an illegal cannon made, the penalty is two points only. Nothing can be. scored from a foul.
* “Snooker-Billiards” (2s.). Messrs. Thurston and Co., Ltd., Leicester Square, W.C.2.