Frozen ball rule change 2023

 

RULE CHANGE! RULE CHANGE! RULE CHANGE! 


Changes in the Rules do not occur often, but they do occur, and we have a new Rule affecting both 8-Ball and 9-Ball Rules effective July 1, 2023. Snooker and Carom, two old dogs who play each other often, are in an 8-Ball game. 


Snooker is at the table shooting. Snooker’s cue ball is frozen to one of his object balls. Snooker gets down on his shot and takes a normal and legally stroked shot without elevating his cue to a 45 degree angle. Carom is astonished that Snooker would have a lapse of memory as to the requirements of the VNEA when shooting the cue ball when it is frozen to an object ball. Carom calls a foul. Snooker does not acknowledge that a foul has occurred, and you as the referee are called to the table. 


You make the call!!!! Carom is adamant that Snooker has fouled since he failed to elevate his cue stick to a 45 degree angle. Snooker now has his brand new (2023-2024) Rule Book out and is quoting the seventh paragraph under the General Definitions of Pocket Billiards, which now provides as follows: 

“PUSH SHOT FOULS: It is a foul if the cue ball is pushed by the cue tip, with contact being maintained for more than the momentary time commensurate with a normal and legally stroked shot. (Such shots are usually referred to as push shots).


Gone is the requirement that the shot must be 45 degrees above or at least 45 degrees to the right or at least 45 degrees to the left of center from the straight line of the frozen balls.Carom admits that Snooker did not push the cue ball, and that he simply did not elevate this cue stick to at least 45 degrees. Snooker, who was burned with a change in 9-Ball Rules, now gets to turn the table on Carom by saying that effective July 1, 2023, the definition of a Push Shot has been modified and that the 45 degree language of that Rule has now been deleted. 

Snooker is correct. The New Rule eliminates the need to shoot at a 45 degree angle, and that a shooter may now shoot straight on as long as it is a normal and legally stroked shot. Snooker did not foul, and Carom will NOT have ball in hand.


Fred A. Johnson

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