Many ordinary amateur billiard players are very proud of their ability to bring off what are called "five" and "six" shots. These shots are rarely striven for by good players and are always regarded by them as a calamity when they occur accidentally. The reason is not far to seek. In bringing off a shot which sends the red ball to the billiard spot and the cue ball to baulk, an impossible, or very difficult, scoring position may be left to follow with. Of this scores of illustrations might be given.
It is obvious, therefore, that, in potting the red, it is better to leave the cue ball in a commanding position than simply to follow into the pocket, in making the immediate stroke. In the same way, and for the same reason, a simple cannon is usually to be preferred to a five shot.
On the other hand the five and six shots have their occasional uses in gathering the balls, and the five shot may also be attempted, for safety's sake, where it is not particularly wanted on its own account. Take, for example, a rather difficult pot, towards a given pocket, when an in-off is also possible from the same ball into another pocket.
The six shot may here be attempted by way of safeguard; or, if the cannon ball be near at hand, a five shot may, in such an emergency, be found equally useful.
Sometimes a position presents itself in which there appears to be no preferential choice between a cannon from the red to the white or from the white to the red. A moment's consideration at such a moment may save annoyance. Let us suppose that the stroke resolved upon is a drop cannon from one ball to the other by way of the top cushion and it is decided to play off the white. The stroke may just be missed, and the easiest of cannons left for the opponent.
Had the stroke been reversed and missed, the two white balls would have been left together with the red, at, probably, a safe distance. Suppose, again, that the two cannon balls are fairly nearly together under the top cushion and two or three inches away from it. Here the game to play is obviously a hard screw or "top" stroke from the white to the red, as, if the stroke were reversed, the white might easily be driven into a top corner pocket, which in the case of the red. would not so greatly matter. A little head work of this kind pays extremely well in billiards and the avoidance of the numerous pitfalls which the game presents to the unwary soon becomes instinctive and effortless.
In cannoning the same rules for securing and maintaining position must be followed as those which govern the pocket game. The object ball must be played upon fuller or finer than half-ball according to the position towards which it is intended to direct it and the stroke must also be so played that the contact with the cannon ball may be fuller or finer than half-ball as required. If the cue ball be not in hand it may be better to look out for a pocket rather than run the risk of scattering or separating the balls and it is, indeed, sound policy to stick to the pocket game whenever good after position as the result of a cannon seems to be problematical. It must always be remembered that the pocket game only disturbs one ball whereas the cannon game disturbs and often widely separates two.
Furthermore, the position at any rate of one ball, following pocket play, is assured. At the same time and especially when playing from baulk it is often easy to catch both the object and the cannon balls on the same side, with the result that they run together at equal speed and leave another easy cannon or other score to follow.
One of the most remunerative of the various classes of position strokes in billiards, as has been abundantly proved of late, is that by means of which a break is often made by good players from off the red ball alone. To lead up to this stroke, a good player, when nothing else can be reckoned on with any certainty, pots the white ball and guides his own ball to a position whence he can either get in off the red or pot it with a view to getting in off it from the spot the next stroke. In playing off the red, when the white has been lost, the object always is to bring it as near to the centre of the table as possible and preferably about 24 inches from baulk.
This is the ideal position for in-off practice with the red, because a half-ball played from one of the baulk end spots when the red is in this position finds a middle pocket and brings the red ball back down the exact centre of the table.
If upon its return it is found to be slightly above or below an imaginary line drawn from the 24-inch point towards a middle pocket, the next stroke must be slightly finer or fuller than half-ball, the strength being rather less in the former case and rather more in the latter.
As the ball comes lower down the table thicker contacts have to be made to drive it back towards the central line, and sometimes, again, when nearer the middle pocket than half-ball range cutting or driving strokes have to be resorted to either to send it on to the top cushion direct or by way of the side cushion.