Rule on ball frozen to rail

[pdcue]

When I started playing in mid-late 80s and was reading a lot of books, some of which were older, I know I read that if a ball was frozen, the cueball or that ball had to contact another rail. Basically the rail was "dead" to both balls. Since then, I have only heard that if the cueball hits that same rail, that is a good hit.

So at some point that rule was around, not now, and it may have been a rule only in certain games even when I read it.

I'm just going to have to throw the bad memory flag here. First off - back AT LEAST
to the 50s the general rule was - unless the specific rules of a game were in conflict,
all rules defaulted to Straight Pool<14.1>.

I have rules from the early 60s - there was no dead rail rule.

I checked with two older 'friends' - one is almost 80, the other closing in on 90. The
consensus of opinion is: it is very doubtful that was ever a rule - if it were it must
have been scrapped sometime prior to the Spanish American War.

IMNSHO - You are thinking of local One Pocket rules.

Dale

 

[Tennesseejoe]

I suggest you take Dr. Dave's quiz first and then compare it after you see his video explanations. You will be surprised.

FYI, lots of examples and video demonstrations of both legal and illegal frozen-CB shots can be found here:

frozen CB shot resource page

and lots of examples of shots (both legal hits and fouls) where the OB is frozen to the cushion can be found in part 4 here:

NV B.63 - Instruction for pool rules quiz

You should suggest to your friend that he watch these. He might be interested ... and he might learn something.

Regards,
Dave

 

[dr_dave]

I suggest you take Dr. Dave's quiz first and then compare it after you see his video explanations. You will be surprised.

For those who want to test their knowledge of pool rules, all of the documents and videos supporting the pool rules quiz can be found at the bottom of the page on the rules resource page. I suspect some people might be surprised by how low a score they get.

Enjoy,
Dr. Dave

 

[Skippy27]

One important thing to remember is that in both the international rules that were posted is that the opponent must declare it frozen before the shot is made. The shooter can do this as well as good sportsmanship but it is not required as the responsibility falls on the opponent. This is also true in the APA.

If the opponent did not declare it frozen before it is struck and it turns out to not be a legal shot according to the rules, then the opponent is simply SOL.