Diamond placement

3RAILKICK said:

First post-question

I play a little snooker (full rack reds) on a friends 5x10. I also play some 'golf' on a 5x10 with very tight pockets at a poolhall.

Question: What is the purpose of the diamond layout on the long side rails?

If memory serves-on one end the diamonds are at midpoint between the side and corner. At the other end-maybe 60% between the two pockets.

Is there a system at work here? Why not have traditional diamonds in place around the rails of the table?

Just curious-

Thanks

especially in 'golf' it would be helpful-

Click to expand...

The area called "baulk" which Americans might call "the kitchen" or "the area behind the head string" is sometimes indicated by two sights/diamonds. The baulk line is not where the head string is on a pool table -- it is somewhat behind the 25%-of-length location. I have never seen it, but I suppose the location of the Pyramid Spot (sometimes referred to as the Pink Spot) could also be indicated by diamonds. The equipment specifications say nothing about markings on the rails, so I suppose they are neither forbidden nor required. Four diamonds may be an American table thing.

I think that usually at snooker only the D is actually drawn on the table and not the entire baulk line.

A little research ... In E. White's 1807 book "A Practical Treatise on the Game of Billiards" the illustration of the table includes four sights each in the middle of a section of side rail. Baulk is also illustrated, and it is shown in roughly the modern proportion and not even with the diamonds. The illustrations in Kentfield's "Billiards" (1839) shows no sights. In Phelan's "Billiards Without a Master," (1850) all 18 modern diamonds are shown. He was an American although he was describing the game played both in the US and England. Shamos has a six-paragraph discussion of diamonds in "The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards" and says that nails marked baulk in a 1774 reference. He also points out that "Modern Snooker tables have no rail spots at all."