Recent content by Bob Jewett

That was me. Some articles about that project are in item #29 here: http://www.sfbilliards.com/miscellaneous.htm

Some of the worst advice I've ever seen for a pool shot was by a team captain during at time-out. Absolutely clueless. The notion that the typical league player is going to learn anything useful during actual matches from their fellow players is questionable at best.

If you look at the two paths of the cue ball in the Sharivari video for separate (non-overlapping) contacts, the paths are quite far apart. The path in the stream video was very close to one of those paths. It is possible that there was overlapping contact, but that is still hitting one ball...

Sharivari has a good video discussing the shot and showing 8-first and 4-first shots. In each case the cue ball follows the ball it hit second. That is for shots that clearly hit one ball first. A very general principle in physics says that as the incoming line of cue ball is very gradually...

Ron Kilby used to post here, but not for a while. "kilby" I think he started making cues about 1985.

In your experience, is there always a referee present?

Considering how often it happens -- almost never in typical league games -- there is no reason to put a limit on intentional illegal contact. The real reason it's in there is because snooker has/had a rule that you should never benefit from a foul. It's unsportsmanlike and very lower class.

I wonder if it was possible to ask for a video review. The WNT did not have it available the last I heard.

The clock does not change until it is legal for the incoming player to take a shot. The clock is best switched by the outgoing player and I think it is a very good thing that the outgoing player is forced to return to his seat promptly.

Ummm... What about the announcers? I agree about the director (who chooses the view). This seems to be a pretty common problem. Let's see the opponent's reaction instead of the cue ball which is going towards a cluster. It really requires pool understanding and I think they are often stuck with...

Try equal offense instead. There was actually a league system of it around 1990.

What is the actual rule?

Their clock is visible to them every time they go to sit down and turn it off. My experience in using game clocks is that it does speed up play. When the chance to lose the match if they run out of time is looming over them, the slugs put on running shoes. Another advantage of a chess/game...

The "coaching" at 2:00 in the foul video looks to me like it is the "ref" saying whether a ball overlaps the rack outline. The referee, if there was a referee, is supposed to do that. But I don't think Bob was a referee.

The advantage of being there for the first rounds is that you can pretty easily watch the top players you want to see. Maybe it will be an easy match for them, but you still get to see them up close with the many-table layout. But, yeah, the more important and dramatic matches start at 64.