Old "new rule" - 1944

[dhansen]

I recently purchased a newspaper excerpt from 1944 featuring Welker Cochran after he beat Wille Hoppe in a World Championship.

One of the diagrams pictured says the following:

Under new rule player can use either ball in right foreground or background. In this setup, it would be impossible for him to make a 3-cushion shot with cue ball near far end of table.

Does anyone have any more information on this? Could the player choose either ball for any inning? Was it only allowed when the shot seemed exceptionally difficult? Was it really deemed "impossible" by professionals in this era? Was it to discourage safety play?

 

[JPB2]

I bumped an old thread after it came up in a search. In the picture above there is a clear shot choice. The harder shot was not impossible for either Cochran or Hoppe, but is way harder than the other option. Defense was emphasized more in that era and it is interesting to see those guys averaged almost the same at 1.35/.36 with the optional cue ball rule. I wonder what the top players would average now with optional cue ball. Optional cue ball would probably work well to develop players.