Corrections to the general misinformation in the several posts above...
Warning! This will probably end up a long and boring post so pass over it if you are not interested...
This thread started as a thread about the Three Miss rule regarding central, full ball contact. It devolved for a while into general chaos regarding the standard Foul and a Miss rule during more common situations. These are the obscure Rules of Snooker that nearly nobody understands, even most actual snooker players in my experience. I like to say that these are like the "dropped third strike" and "infield fly" rules of baseball....most people are generally aware of them but not exactly sure of the specifics. So below are three screenshots of the video to demonstrate why this is specifically a central, full ball contact situation which ended in loss of frame and why the balls are not arranged EXACTLY the same as in the original shot (spoiler alert: by the Rules of Snooker, they are not required to be).
The screenshots:
As I hope everyone will agree, in the first photo, it is actually the Red ball third in line from the Pink that is on with central, full ball contact. To a non-snooker player, this probably makes no sense...the striker ("shooter" for non-snooker people) clearly could not possibly hit that particular Red full ball because there is the edge of that other Red in the way. Here's the rub...a Red cannot by definition be snookered or obstructed in any way by another Red. Even if there was a Red way down against the Black cushion (the bottom of the photo) that the cue ball could not possibly roll to because of the edges of ten other Reds in the way, this would still be considered a central, full ball contact situation. Just imagine all of those other Reds simply disappearing temporarily. They don't exist. Now if you could roll the cue ball central, full ball to that Red, we are officially in a central, full ball contact situation with the possibility of Three Misses resulting in the loss of frame.
Next is the referee resetting the positions after the first foul. If you watch the video again, you will notice a curious event. Referee Paul Collier positions the Reds where he thinks they need to be, then goes to reset White to its position. Striker Ricky Walden helps him with this (hey, he was there, he knows where it belongs). Then Paul Collier goes back to the Reds and makes an adjustment. Guess what? He NEEDED for that ball to be available in a central, full ball contact situation because he knew that is what it was prior to the first attempt so he had to make sure the SITUATION was the same for the second attempt even though the balls were probably not in exactly the same positions. Little doubt that he was quite certain they were not exactly correct, but, by the Rules, they do not actually need to be. The referee is required to replace any balls that he sees fit to the best of his ability (there are some cases that he may completely ignore balls that may have moved a little bit but have no relevance to the situation at hand), and he is also required to assure that the table situation is consistent with the original stroke. Thus, he had to make an adjustment to that Red.
Someone mentioned video support for resetting balls to their exact positions. Yes, of course this is done with all the pomp and circumstance in major tournaments and equipped venues. This clip is from a simple, Best of Five frames league match, not major. There is not even a live audience except maybe a few bodies that happen to be standing around.
You notice the "After second miss" photo is pretty close to the "After first miss" photo. Frankly, Paul Collier was probably a little surprised that this turned into the Three Miss situation that it did so he probably truthfully was not as well prepared to reset after the initial Miss because it just didn't seem to be a particularly difficult shot. After the first Miss occurred, he was ready for a second.
And lastly, yes, after any reset situation, the ref will consult with both players. This is simply common courtesy. Sometimes they may quibble a little and want to shimmy around this ball or that. Doesn't happen too often. Being a nice guy, the ref will try to make both players happy as long as he has fulfilled his requirements (see above). More often than not, the striker will correct the referee in a direction that makes the shot more difficult for him, i.e., the striker knows exactly how much of the snookering ball he was looking at so if the ref places it further away, the player usually says the cue ball was buried deeper. They all want to get it correct. After all, it is a gentleman's game. But ultimately, the ref has the final word. If necessary, the referee has the classic authority of Archie Bunker...."Case closed!"; doesn't actually need any permission at all from the players...it is just courtesy.
If you made it all the way through this and are still confused by these rules, that's okay. People have lived long and successful lives without this knowledge. But rules are rules. Some people forget that.
