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Chapter 18. CONCERNING ANGLES AND BALL CONTROL

It is an old saying in billiard circles, and a very true one, that to be anything of an adept at the game a man must know-"the angles of the table". With all due respect to the mathematical experts, I do not think it is much use studying these angles on the blackboard. The factors are too variable for strict scientific demonstration, and the only way to study the angles of billiards to any playing purpose is to do so, cue in hand, at the table. Very well, Fig. 56 shows an elementary exercise you can work upon with profit. You begin by placing the cue-ball in line with the centre of the opening of the right-hand baulk-pocket stroke (1), in Fig. 56. Play this as shown to make your ball return from the top cushion into the other baulk-pocket.

To do this, you must not impart the least side to your ball. You aim to hit the dead centre of the top cushion at moderate pace, and unless you have a natural gift for gauging angles, you may be surprised at the practice you will need before you can be at all sure about your ball finding the pocket. Stroke (2) is easier. You play this from the line of the right-hand middle pocket, directing your ball, with no side on it, against the centre of the facing side cushion.

This takes your ball into the right-hand top pocket. It is advisable, by merely reversing the positions, to play both these strokes to take the cue-ball into other pockets, continuing the process until every pocket on the table is utilized to the fullest extent.

How Force and Side Influence Angle of Rebound

The above strokes all depend for their effect on the rule that, within strict limitations, the angles of incidence and reflection are equal when a moving billiard ball strikes a cushion and rebounds from it.

Much harm has been done, and much fallacy spread, through taking it for granted that this rule always applies. It does under the conditions demonstrated in Fig. 56, but never otherwise. Two things cause the normal angle of reflection to vary, it may be enormously. These are - force and side. Taking these in the order named, Fig. 57 shows the influence of force on the angle of rebound. If you play a sharp, hard stroke off the left-hand spot of the baulk-line, using no side on your ball, and aiming at the point on the side cushion indicated in my diagram, your ball will come round into the baulk pocket off three cushions.

But if you play at the same spot on the side cushion, and spot your ball in exactly the same place, and are again most careful not to use any side, your ball will take a very different angle if you play so slowly that it barely passes the middle pocket, as indicated by the dotted line in my diagram. To make my point clear, I purposely exaggerated the difference in the angles when instructing the artist who drew this diagram. You must allow for this, and also for variations in different makes of cushions. But when every compensation is applied, you will see very clearly that strength of stroke undoubtedly affects the angle of rebound in the manner here demonstrated.

You can see it even more readily when playing the "double" shown in Fig. 58. Here, if you strike the red dead full, the normal angle of rebound will take it to the middle pocket, as shown by the continuous line in the diagram.

But if you strike the red exactly as before, except that you use forcing strength, then the red will return on the dotted line in my diagram, or thereabouts. It is very necessary to understand how force of stroke affects the angle of rebound in the manner I have explained. The whole thing is ignored by countless cuemen who wonder at times why their angles are more eccentric than reliable, and the subject is one which well repays careful study by any man who hopes to make useful breaks.

Influence of Side on Angle of Rebound

The influence of side on the angle of rebound is never ignored, simply because it is too obvious for that. Its invariable action is easily seen in Fig. 59. This diagram is drawn with a large-sized ball to show my meaning as clearly as possible. It depicts a simple stroke from ball to cushion. At the angle shown, a plain-shot at moderate strength will make your ball hit the cushion as shown by the continuous line, and rebound practically straight over that line. If you use right-hand side, your ball will come off in the direction indicated by arrow "A", if you use left-hand side, your ball will leave the cushion as shown by arrow "B".

Value of a Knowledge of Angles

The playing application of the foregoing remarks is seen to perfection in a multi-cushion cannon like the example shown in Fig. 60. To ensure correctness in the angles, set the shot up like this: Place both the red and the white 7 inches from the side cushion, with the red adjacent to baulk and the white at the spot-end, as shown in the diagram. Place the cue-ball in line with the red, and about two feet from it.

Your stroke is a cannon with a two-fold object. First, of course, you have to make your cannon; but at the same time you bring the balls together, thus transforming bad position into good, a most advantageous change for the better which a good knowledge of angles will often enable you to effect. You must get plenty of left-hand side on your ball, strike the red a shade thicker than quarter-ball, and play at just the right strength to make the five-cushion cannon shown in my diagram. At the same time, the red will travel in the direction of the continuous line, and all three balls will be left together when this spectacular and effective cannon is completed. You are always likely to make it off three cushions, but this is not so good a shot, as there is a strong probability of potting the white when the cannon is made in this manner. The two additional cushions prevent this, and also deaden the run of the cue-ball, so that the cannon is completed gently enough to leave the balls as desired.

You must not play too hard, and if you find that you cannot get the cue-ball round, that you are "short in strength" as regards making the cannon, although the red travels where you want it, do not blame the cushions for being too slow. The fact that the red "gets there" shows there is nothing the matter with the cushions. If you hit the red hard enough to leave it in correct position, your ball must have been struck with sufficient force to make the cannon. Yet it may fail to do so, perhaps repeatedly. Why does this happen?

Free Cue Action Essential

I can tell you as surely as if I were watching your play. You are hitting your ball hard enough, but your cueing is not free enough to create the powerful rotary movement necessary literally to spin your ball over the considerable extent of table space it must traverse to make the cannon, and to compensate for culminative diminution of initial velocity caused by successive impacts with five cushions. Hard hitting will not assist you here-it will merely take the red out of position even if it gives you the cannon. The only way out of your difficulty is to let your cue go through your ball with all the effortless ease of well-nigh perfect cueing. I qualify "perfect cueing" to this extent, because a perfect cue-delivery is so rare that only exceptionally gifted cuemen possess it.

I say this with no intention to discourage, far from it. The fact I want to emphasize is that these great players owe their position more to their perfect cue-delivery than to anything else, a point I try my utmost to impress on all my pupils. Obviously, the nearer you get to such perfection, the better player you will become; and I have paused to stress the matter here because the cannon now before us is such an excellent test stroke of efficient cueing. Depend on it, if you can strike your ball with the crisp accuracy requisite to send it spinning round those five cushions, while the red "doubles" into correct position, your cue-delivery is tuned up to a pitch quite capable of taking you through the making of a hundred break. But a fifty break will be an exceptionally good one for you all the while your cueing fails at this test, even by just a few inches off the fifth cushion. You will jog along comfortably enough all the while plain hazards are offered by your control of the balls, but you will come down as soon as a mistake in strength compels the playing of a shot where real cue-power is the only thing which makes you master of the situation. Therefore, I advise you to practise this cannon with patient endeavour, as, quite apart from its value in an ordinary break-building sense, it reveals so much of the true value of your cuemanship.

Ball Control

It will also prove to you the force of my warning, written earlier in my book, of the difficulty inseparable from controlling both object-balls when playing cannons. At this stage, I am taking it for granted that you have a fair measure of control of the first object-ball when playing ordinary cannons. If you are weak in this respect you would be well advised to strengthen your game in this direction before embarking on the more ambitious flights the five-cushion cannon invites you to attempt.

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