Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

676
B I L L I
cording to agreement.] 12. No points are reckoned for a ball or
balls forced off the table after contact with the object-ball, and
the adversary goes on without breaking the balls. 13. If the balls
be changed in the course of play, no cannon or hazard made with
such changed ball can be scored ; the balls must be broken, and all
points made with the wrong ball deducted from the striker’s score.
[In such case, however, the adversary has the privilege of playing
with the changed ball, of re-changing the balls and playing on
from their respective positions, or of having the balls broken.] 14.
The player whose ball is in hand cannot score, unless he play his
ball out of baulk before striking the object-ball. [In such case the
stroke must ca re-made.] 15. If in drawing back his cue from a
ball on the brink of a pocket the striker hole his ball, he loses three
points, as for a coup. 16. A ball accidentally moved by the marker
or a looker-on must be replaced. 17. A ball wilfully removed or
obstructed in its course causes the loss of the offender’s game. 18.
If the striker’s ball lie touching his opponent’s ball, or the red ball,
no score on that side can follow. [After the stroke the next player
proceeds with his game, either by breaking the balls, or playing
from the spot where his ball stopped. When balls touch, the
player may either run into a pocket, or play on to a third ball; then
the red is spotted and the adversary plays on from baulk ; or if
the first player fail to do either, the balls remain as they fall, and
the other goes on.]
These, with the exception of some remarks about the
conduct of strangers, the payment of wagers, and so on,
are the rules by which the English game of billiards is
universally governed. The principal modifications of this
game are the four-handed game, which is ordinary
billiards by four players in sides of two, each player being
allowed to instruct his partner; a la royale, or the game
of three; the white winning game, consisting entirely of
winning hazards ; the white losing game ; the red winning
game; the red losing game; the cannon game ; and the
American game. This last is played with four balls, two
white and two coloured, and consists entirely of winning
hazards and cannons. There is also a Russian game, called
carline or Caroline, not unlike American billiards; a
German game, Wurst-partie, in which a certain number of
balls are placed in a row across the table; the Spanish, or
skittle game, which the Germans call Kugd-partie ; and
French billiards or the cannon game formerly universal on
the Continent, and now very popular in the United States,
where the best players are Frenchmen or men of French ex¬
traction. Of these games, however, it is unnecessary to speak,
as they are all much inferior to billiards, and can be easily
played by any one familiar with the established English
game. The lesser varieties of billiards—choice of balls, in
which each player selects the ball he plays with ; bricole,
in which the player strikes his ball against a cushion and
endeavours to reach his opponent’s ball from the rebound;
bar-hole, so called from a pocket or pockets being barred
or stopped for one of the players; one pocket to five;
winning against losing ; the nomination game, which is
ordinary billiards, in which the player is obliged to name
his stroke before attempting it, and failing to make it
gains nothing, or gives unnamed cannons and hazards to his
opponent; the commanding game; the go-back game, which
is played by an adept against a tyro, the latter scoring all
he makes and the former going back to nothing every
time his adversary makes a winning or losing hazard;—all
these are so barren of interest and so seldom played as
barely to deserve mention.
As to the science of the game, there is really little to be
taught in books; practice and instruction from an adept
will better enlighten a tyro as to the mysteries of the side-
stroke, the drag, the screw, the following ball, the spot-
stroke, &c., than any amount of verbal explanation. It
may, however, be as well to refer briefly to these several
points, in order to render this notice as complete as the
space at command will admit.
The, side-strolce is made by striking the object-ball on the side
wi ,h the point of the cne. The effect of such a mode of striking the
ball is to make it travel to the right or to the left, according as it
is struck with a winding or slightly circular motion; and its pur-
A R D S
pose is to cause the ball to proceed in a direction more or less slant¬
ing than is usual, or ordinary, when the ball is struck in or about
the centre of its circumference. Many hazards and cannons, quite
impossible to be made with the central stroke, are accomplished
with ease and certainty by the side-stroke. In the hands of a dex¬
terous player this stroke is both elegant and effective. The screw,
or twist, is made by striking the ball low down, with a sharp, sud¬
den blow. According as the ball is struck nearer and nearer to the
cushion, it stops dead at the point of concussion with the object-
ball, or recoils by a series of reverse revolutions, in the manner
familiar to the schoolboy in throwing forward a hoop, and causing it
to return to his hand by the twist given to its first impetus. The
following-ball is made by striking the ball high, with a flowing or
following motion of the cue. Just as the low-stroke impedes the
motion of the ball, the follow expedites it.. In the drag the ball is
struck low without the sudden jerk of the screw, and with less than
the onward push of the follow. The spot-stroke is a winning hazard
made by pocketing the red ball in one of the corners from the spot.
The great art is, first, to make sure of the hazard, and next, to
leave the striking ball in such a position as to enable the player to
make a similar stroke in one or other of the corner pockets. To
such perfection has the spot-stroke been brought, that the winning
hazard has been repeated more than two hundred and fifty times
consecutively. W. Cook, the finest of English players, on November
29, 1873, in a game with the ex-champion, Joseph Bennett, made a
break of 936, the longest on record. In this great performance
Cook made, in all, no fewer than 292 spot-hazards, 260 of which
were made consecutively. John Boberts, jun., of Manchester, has
also made an extraordinary break, 800, the majority by the spot-
stroke. Without the spot-hazard, the longest break hitherto made
is probably less than 200.
The perfection of billiards is to be found in the nice combination
of the various strokes, in such fashion as to leave the balls in a
favourable position after each individual hazard and cannon ; and
this perfection can only be attained by the most constant and un¬
remitting practice. ,
Pyramids is played by two or four persons—in the
latter case in sides, two and two. It is played with
fifteen balls, placed close together in the form of a triangle
or pyramid, with the apex towards the player, and a white
striking ball. The centre of the apex ball covers the second
or pyramid spot, and the balls forming the pyramid should
lie in a compact mass, the base in a straight line with the
cushion.
Pyramids is a game entirely of winning hazards, and he who suc¬
ceeds in pocketing the greatest number of balls wins. Usually the
pyramid is made of fifteen red or coloured balls, with the striking
ball white. This white ball is common to both players. Having
decided on the lead, the first player, placing his ball in the baulk-
semicircle, strikes it up to the pyramid, with a view either to lodge
a ball in a pocket or to get the white safely back into baulk.
Should he fail to pocket a red ball, the other player goes on and
strikes the white ball from the place at which it stopped. When
either succeeds in making a winning hazard, he plays at any other
ball he chooses, and continues his break till he ceases to score; and
so the game is continued by alternate breaks until the last red ball
is pocketed. The game is commonly played for a stake upon the
whole, and a proportionate sum upon each ball or life,—as, for
instance, 3s. game and Is. balls. The player wins a life by pocket¬
ing a red ball or forcing it over the table ; and loses a life by run¬
ning his own, the white, ball into a pocket, missing the red balls,
or intentionally giving a miss. In this game the baulk is no pro¬
tection ; that is to say, the player can pocket any ball wherever it
lies, either within or without the baulk line, and whether the white
be in hand or not. This liberty is a great and certain advantage
under many circumstances, especially in the hands of a good player.
It is not a very uncommon occurrence for an adept to pocket six or
eight balls in a single break. Both Cook and Boberts have been
known, indeed, to pocket the whole fifteen. If four persons play
at pyramids, the rotation is decided by chance, and each plays
alternately,—partners, as in billiards, being allowed to advise each
other, each going on and continuing to play as long as he can, and
ceasing when he misses a hazard. Foul strokes are reckoned as in
billiards, except as regards balls touching each other. If two balls
touch, the player proceeds with his game and scores a point for
every winning hazard. When all the red balls but one are pocketed,
he who made the last hazard plays with the white and his opponent
with the red ; and so on alternately, till the game terminates by the
holeing of one or other ball. The pyramid balls are usually a little
smaller than the billiard balls ; the former are about 2 inches in
diameter, the latter 2TV inches to 2^ inches.
Losing Pyramids, seldom played, is the reverse of the last-named
game, and consists of losing hazards, each player using the same
striking ball, and taking a ball from the pyramid for every losing