A Few Cue Tips

• In making the gentle cannon off the spotted red at the top of the table, which sends the red to the corner pocket an excellent plan is first to get the aim for the pot and then play a little fuller or finer so as to strike the top or side cushion as required for the next stroke. In this way the red can always be left quite near to the pocket without going in, and the only thing to remember is so to guide the cue ball in making the pot that a cannon or another pot is left on.
• In playing middle pocket in-offs always take a preliminary glance from centre of top cushion or from top pocket on same side as object ball through the latter. This will at once reveal whether the intended contact would lose ball in top pocket or leave it in an undesirable position. This treating of every in-off as a pot is one of the most remunerative things in billiards.
• One of the first things to learn in billiards is the exact potentiality of the unhindered and unaccelerated cue. The gentlest of swings at the bottom of the table sends the ball two lengths and when this is realized the forcing of a stroke is at once seen to be an altogether exceptional requirement, so far, at any rate, as the object ball is concerned.
• One of the common mistakes in billiard playing is always to play half-ball simply because the half-ball stroke is on. Where there is nothing else to consider this is a good principle, but when playing from baulk it is frequently much better to alter the placing of the cue ball for a thicker or finer contact even though it may seem a little more difficult.
• In the same way a wider than half-ball placing and a forcing or screw shot is often essential to position, although the ordinary half-ball shot is clearly there also.
• There are many placings of the balls in which the right stroke for position is in every way as easy as the wrong. Take the case of either a fine in-off or a gentle follow-through into a baulk pocket with the cue ball near a side cushion. The thicker stroke leaves perfect middle pocket or drop cannon position, whereas a fine cut would leave the object ball in baulk.
• The art of securing the drop cannon, which leads to the top of the table from baulk, is worth any amount of practice, and when the red is on the spot, the white a little below a top pocket, and a fine in-off practicable, the drop cannon can nearly always be set up by cutting the white to its necessary position by way of the side cushion.
• In close cushion cannons, when one object ball is against the cushion and the other situated diagonally a little below with the cue ball a little lower still and in line with the red, care should be taken to get almost full on the first object ball, otherwise an annoying cover will ensue. Similarly when the cue ball is on one side of the other two a fullish contact prevents it from coming to rest between the object balls.
• Accept a wrong decision at the table rather than let it ruffle you. Equability is a strong billiard asset.