Angles and Aiming

1. Half-Ball Strokes. 2. Thick run-throughs and Pots. 3. Cannons

The question is sometimes asked by beginners at
billiards: How can I recognise the half-ball stroke?

Various answers have been supplied to this question and
angle-sighting appliances have even been devised and supplied
with the view of familiarizing the eye of the beginner
with the half-ball throw-off.

To know that the half-ball angle is one of 35 degrees at
the edge of the object ball and of (apparently) 45 from its
centre may be a good thing and some useful practice may
be obtained by the use of an angle-sighter in conjunction
with a captive ball device. But the best training for the
eye, after all, is to be found in the practice of fixed positioned
half-ball shots, of which there are quite a number on
the billiard table.

From the pyramid, centre, billiard, and baulk spots alone
excellent half-ball practice is to be obtained, and we should
advise some such course of practice as the following:—

(1) Place the red ball on the pyramid spot and the cue
ball on an end baulk spot. This is a half-ball shot to
the top pocket on the opposite side of the table and a
half-ball cannon on to a ball placed well along an imaginary
line from the red ball to the pocket.

(2) Place the red ball on the spot at the centre of the
table and the cue ball four inches away from the end
spot of baulk and towards its centre. This is a half-ball
shot to the top pocket on the same side of the table and
a half-ball cannon on to a ball placed well along an imaginary
line from the red ball to the pocket. The cue ball
must, however, be hit above the centre and the cue must
be held lightly and sent nicely forward.

(3) Place the red ball at a point 24 inches above the
centre baulk spot and the cue ball on an end baulk spot.

This is a half-ball stroke into either middle pocket, but
again the cue must be held lightly.

(4) Place the red ball on the centre baulk spot and the
cue ball exactly behind on the circumference of the half circle.

This is a half-ball stroke with too and light handling
into either middle pocket, or from an end baulk
spot, with similar treatment, into a baulk corner pocket.

[In Nos.1, 2, and 3 the object ball should be played with
strength bringing it nicely placed for a middle pocket.]

A useful hint may be given concerning two classes of
shots, which are radically distinct from each other and
which have, nevertheless, one thing in common. They
are almost invariably taken by beginners too fine in the one
case and too full in the other. The shots are run-through
follows and pots, and what has been said applies more particularly
to pots when the object ball is fairly near a corner
pocket and to run-throughs when the pocket or cannon
ball is some distance beyond the object ball.

In the former case aim taken midway between the edge
and centre of the object ball only deflects such ball a couple
of inches at the end of a foot run whereas the same contact
in a follow-through would deflect the cue ball a couple of
feet in the length of the table. A pot, with the object ball
near to a corner pocket looks more direct than it really is
and at a distance less direct. Inversely a follow-through
with the cannon ball near at hand looks less direct than it
is and at a distance it looks more direct.

The safeguard with near pots and long follow-throughs is
to aim finer in the one case and fuller in the other, and
great assistance is to be gained by gauging the direction
to be taken by the object ball in pot strokes and by the cue
ball in run-throughs as though the objective point were
about a foot beyond the cue ball.

This would mean carrying the eye beyond the pocket in
some cases, but it is an excellent plan to adopt as it at once
reveals the fact that the course to be taken by the red ball
if the intervening shoulder of the pocket is to be avoided
will have to be considerably wider than appears to be the
case. This applies, of course, more to corner than it does
to middle pockets.

There is a surprising affinity amongst the various strokes
on the billiard table either at long, medium, or close range,
and this applies to cannons as much as it does to in-offs
and pots, and to nursery cannons as much as it does to
round the table cannons. In cannon play, however, there
are three balls to be moved instead of two, as, in pocket
play, and this increases the difficulty of the cannon position
game by at least the fifty per cent. represented.

It has been customary in published works upon the game
of billiards to represent the cannon stroke as vastly more
easy than the pocket stroke and this may be true of the
stroke per se. Three billiard balls measure in their combined
diameter 6¼ inches, and as the cannon ball can be
hit on either of its two sides, as well as full, there is certainly
more margin for error than in pocket play, as a
plainly struck ball whose centre reached a 3 5/8 pocket, two
inches from the centre of such pocket would obviously be
prevented by the shoulder from entering.

We have thus in a cannon ball a target apparently more
favourable than a pocket, but this apparent advantage is
reduced when it is recollected that a centrally-struck ball
often enters a pocket after actual contact with its shoulder
and that, by the use of side a ball may be made to enter
a pocket even when it strikes the cushion a few inches
below such pocket.

Our immediate object, however, is to point out that
merely making a given cannon in billiards is a very small
part of the purpose of the shot. The aim should always
be taken, not merely as from ball to ball, but as from (1)
ball to centre of ball, (2) ball to inner edge of ball, and (3)
ball to outer edge of ball.

This sort of cannon play requires even greater accuracy
of aim than pocket play, but it can be done with a little
thought and attention, and there are few things more
paying in billiards.