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Chapter 12. SINGLE -AND DOUBLE- BAULKS

As regards single-baulks made by giving a miss in baulk-the big question always is-how will you stand if your opponent replies by running a coup ? This will compel you to play at the red, and unless you can see daylight in that direction, you should be very chary of giving a miss in baulk which leaves the red in play.

Leaving a single-baulk by means of a stroke on the red is quite another matter. Should your opponent reply with a miss or a coup, you have the right to return the compliment, leaving him to be brought up by the rule governing the limitation of misses. As this rule is so important, I may explain that it means that you are not allowed to give two misses in succession unless a score or a double-baulk intervenes.

A Good Single-Baulk

For preference, you should always play to leave the red in and the white out when leaving a single-baulk-but be careful to leave the white safe-this elementary precaution is over-looked occasionally, even by players who ought to know better. Figure 41 shows a useful single-baulk. The red is on the spot, the cue-ball is in hand. By striking your ball low and rather dead, and the red about three-quarter thick, you can double the coloured ball back into baulk, leaving it where you can play at it with advantage, as shown in my diagram. This leave compels your opponent to go out for a score, most probably a cannon off the white via two cushions, a very uncertain shot, much more likely to leave something for you than to score for him.

By moving your ball to the centre-spot of the baulk-line, you can leave a double-baulk from the position in Fig. 41, if you play a decided half-ball on the red with a little running side on your own ball, which should be struck freely above its centre. This, however, is anything but an easy shot. The correct strength and ball-to-ball contact need a deal of gauging, and I commend the single-baulk to you as much safer. Even if you get the double-baulk, you are as likely as not to leave the balls stone safe in baulk, which enables your opponent to give a miss, and leave you to it with his compliments. Very probably, he will be able to give his miss in such a manner that nothing is left for you, while he has a "sitter" unless you disturb the balls. It is not clever to leave a double-baulk which clears the way for a manoeuvre of this sort-a single-baulk which leaves the red "easy" for a baulk-pocket and the white reasonably safe out of baulk is much to be preferred.

Double-Baulks

The best double-baulks you can make are those which get you out of trouble and leave the other man in it. Fig. 42 shows a good example of this type. As the balls lie, having lost the white, your only chance of a score is to smash the red into the facing top pocket, a rattling good winning hazard, and what do you get left if you make it? Nothing much unless you are very lucky. If you attempt this red winner, your only scoring chance worth a rap, the odds are that you will miss it and leave both balls out of baulk for your opponent to operate upon. On the other hand, you dare not give a miss and leave the red in the centre of the table, where it offers a simple half-ball loser into the top pocket.

You are in trouble, and your best way out is the beautiful double-baulk shown in my diagram. It needs a lot of making, and can only be depended on if your cushions are in good condition. You have to play very hard on the red with screw and side on your ball to bring it back into baulk as shown by the dotted line in the diagram. It takes a pretty good shot to do this, but it is much more difficult to hit the red hard enough to force it in and out of baulk and back again as shown by the continuous line in the diagram. As an exercise of cue-power, this shot is well worth trying, and if you can do it, you may rest assured there is not much the matter with your cushions or your cueing.

Alternatively, a single-baulk can be made by playing a heavy plain-ball at the red, which doubles that ball back into baulk, while the cue-ball rolls through to the side cushion and just has strength enough to stop safe near the top cushion. This, as you will soon discover, is much easier than the double-baulk, and I commend it for general use. The double-baulk should be reserved for a great emergency on a fast table. It is a lovely shot to make when you have to give a man a useful start in a handicap-he gets such a fright by the time the red has stopped running that he is a beaten man forthwith!

A Useful Stroke

Figure 43 shows a class of double-baulk you cannot know too much about. It frequently happens that the white is lost and the red left as in my diagram. If you then give a miss in baulk, as you may feel inclined to do because the cue-ball is in hand, the position of the red offers your adversary a good chance of an all-round cannon. If he elects to give a miss instead of trying for the cannon, he ought to be able to leave you something you will be sorry to see, as you must hit a ball in reply to his miss following yours. To avoid all this, you play for the double-baulk by placing your ball so that you run through the red nearly full and hard enough to bring your ball back into baulk.

If you do this, simply trying to bring your ball back as shown in my diagram, you can leave the red to take care of itself, it will find its way into baulk for a certainty.

Thick Contact and Free Cueing

The double-baulk left as described above is a very valuable one. It is always playable when the cue-ball is in hand and the red lies too far from the centre of the table to offer a top pocket loser. Of course, you would not attempt it when the red was too near a side cushion. If you did, a kiss would spoil everything, as owing to the thick contact the cue-ball must make with the red that ball would "catch" the cue-ball before it had time to get away. It is this thick contact which is the whole secret of these useful double-baulks. They are every time certainties if you will only cue thickly and confidently on the red at a pace which brings your own ball within the shelter of baulk. Free cueing is demanded, you will never get your ball "there and back" as far as you want it to travel if you "stab" your stroke ever so little. Let your cue go smoothly through your ball, play as I have directed, and you will soon add this effective double-baulk to the list of strokes you can depend upon.

A Rule to Remember

Figure 44 illustrates what may be called a rule rather than an individual stroke. The position has endless variations, and is most in request of all the double-baulking possibilities. The rule is that when the cue-ball and the red lie in a straight line across the table, as in my diagram, you play to send the red into baulk off one cushion, and bring the cue-ball into baulk off three cushions, using a bit of running side to help it round the table.

You do this whenever you can make a convenient angle to get the cue-ball round, and your ball is left in the direction of the top cushion. But when your ball is left nearer to baulk than in my diagram, then you reverse things by playing to bring your ball into baulk off one cushion and doubling the red round the table into baulk. This rule holds good until the red is left about two feet from the baulk line, when, generally speaking, it is best to bring the red into baulk by the shortest way and make the cue-ball take the long trip round the table. You cannot always do this, but it is an opportunity you ought never to miss when it is offered, as it eliminates the risk of sending the red over rather a lot of table space before it settles down in baulk. Dozens of diagrams could be drawn to demonstrate individual shots all based on Fig. 44 and its variations; but you can work them all out for yourself if you spend time and thought over my one diagram and my remarks concerning the rule to which it applies.

Other Safety Strokes

Playing to leave baulks, either single or double, and the giving of safety misses, are but chapters in the book of safety play. There remains the playing on a ball with the idea of leaving safety other than by a single or double-baulk. Here, to be frank, only experience of the game can help you very much. This aspect of safety play is rarely seen in action, and when it is needed you want to know a lot about billiards to handle it effectively. I doubt whether it can be taught-it is a case of mother wit, supplemented by training and knowledge, rising to a particular occasion. The same is even more true of that advanced and astute phase of safety play which takes the form of deliberately leaving your opponent a risky chance of a score, which, if he misses it, will leave a good game for you, and is not likely to leave much for him if he does manage to score from your beguiling leave. Some very pretty diagrams could be drawn about this sort of thing, but I should call it more subtle than safe, and do not advise you to worry much about it until you are able to make a hundred break every now and then.

Use Safety Play with Discretion

Mention of hundred breaks reminds me that, after all, safety play is purely negative in purport and effect. The only sure thing when you play for safety is that your scoring is at an end for the time being. You play in such a way that you hope the other man will be beaten, and, if you are skilful, this hope is usually justified. But it may not be. Billiards is a very funny game, as Edward Diggle remarked, and anything may happen while the rules allow any one of six pockets or a cannon to count whether played for or not.

Therefore, do not rely over-much on safety play. Use it with discretion, but never make it the strongest part of your game or anything like it. You must score points to win, it is not enough to stop the other chap from scoring. Never cramp your game with the intention of keeping your opponent out. Play free, open billiards, try to score whenever you can see even a sporting chance of so doing. When you cannot, play for safety with set purpose, but do not destroy the correct balance of your game by looking around for "safety first" instead of the prospect of a score when the balls happen to lie rather badly.

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