The rule (No. 11, B.C.C.) is as follows:- "If a striker shall force a ball off the table, he is penalized the value of that ball, and if the cue ball is forced off the table it shall be treated as if pocketed, and the striker penalized accordingly. When the cue ball is pocketed the next player continues from hand." Therefore the striker would, lose seven, and the game (under Rule 15) would be at an end.
"A member of our club recently opened a game here with a break of 42 off the red ball—the first stroke being a screw in-off the red from baulk. I should be much obliged if you can kindly inform me, through the medium of your monthly, if this constitutes a record break in opening play by either a professional or an amateur."
There is no official record of this kind, and the red loser from hand off the spot is rarely attempted by professionals except in the somewhat desperate attempt to prevent a long break from coming to a close when the white ball has been lost and the cue ball has followed the red into a pocket.
A correspondent asks us when Diggle made this spot-barred break of 985 against Roberts.
It was on January 4, 1895, and on February 27, 1902, he made a break of 791 against Dawson under the then revised rules of the B.A. He also made 673 under Remington-Wilson rules on February 2, 1907, and 672 under B.C.C. rules in 1910.