My league has the BCA 8 Ball Rules on the wall but there is some debate on how the lag is conducted. I know two players should lag at the same time, but what is the accepted way to do this. The league says the lag is won by the ball ending closest to the near rail without ever touching it. Is that right?
Lagging Procedure and Rules
- Thread starter Cynabar
- Start date
The ball that ends up closest to the rail... The ball can either stop short, or bounce off the rail.
It's iffy, as long as you don't wait too long till after the guy shoots you can do it whatever way. As long as the second guy's ball has not hit the first rail, you can shoot any time before then.
After it hits the rail I'd think that he was waiting to see how hard the shot was and was trying to use that to calculate how to his his. That case I'd call for a new lag.
Also the balls can't hit, nor can they scratch or hit the side rails. Anyone that hits the side rails or scratches, or crosses over to the other side of the table loses the lag automatically.
It's also against the rules to do a practice lag right before the real lag. If you're warming up, go ahead and hit a few lag shots to get the speed of the table down, when you are ready to start the match, there is no "practice lag".
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Other player must shoot before 1 st player ball hit the rail.