New game of billiards

The Sportsman, Thursday 29 November 1923

George Clarke, the versatile head marker at the Spurts Club, St James’s-sq., is very busy just now distributing the results of his inventive brain. Clarke is a very good billiards player, and has always studied the points of the game with great keenness. He has drafted a scheme for a new game of billiards, in which two red balls are used instead of one, as at present. It is an ingenious scheme, as will be gathered from a perusal of the mode of play:

The red balls are placed on the table, one ball on the centre spot, the other one on the pyramid spot. The striker may cannon only on these two balls; if one or both red balls should be pocketed they remain off the table until it is the next player’s turn; then they are replaced on their spots, the centre spot to be the first used in all cases concerning the red balls. The two white balls are for winning and losing hazards only. When the striker pockets his opponent’s white ball, it shall be placed on the top spot, known as the billiard spot.

To pocket the white ball or go in off. the striker advances his score two points; if he does both, four points are scored. When the player’s ball strikes both red balls be scores two points; if a cannon and hazard are both made in the same strike, the accumulative score counts.

Failing to hit an object ball, the striker loses two points. Going into a pocket without first striking the white ball is a foul, and the player loses four points, and his ball is spotted on the top spot.