In addition to the half and thicker and thinner ball contacts from hand into the middle pockets that guide the red ball up and down the table for a series of such strokes, there are two useful methods of recovering the position after it has temporarily been lost on account of the red running; too near to the baulk-line.
One of these is a very fine and slow stroke into the nearest side pocket, and the second is a gentle screw into a baulk pocket, either of which, if properly played, leaves good position to continue with. There is also the strong screw into the middle pocket when the red ball has been left too high up the table on one side for plain ball play, but this is much more uncertain as regards position than either of the others and, in order to have any reasonable chance of success, must be made more difficult as a stroke by increasing the squareness of the angle, so as to keep the red away from the side cushion or baulk pocket shoulders.
If this stroke does not result in further middle-pocket possibilities it may still leave the red in position for a top pocket, and two other methods of opening up top pocket play are a gentle quarter-ball loser or a winner from hand into a middle pocket when the very full run-through ceases, by reason of the blindness of the pocket, from being a practical proposition.
In top pocket, as in middle pocket, play the first consideration is the directing of the red ball, which, as has been previously insisted upon, should be visualized as a pot before any attention, beyond the half-ball placing of the cue ball, has been paid to the pocket. It is, indeed, far better in the student stage to concentrate upon the red ball direction and to preserve an indifferent frame of mind as to whether the pocket is reached or not.
In this connexion the method advocated in the last article may again be mentioned as worthy of adoption. The red ball should be placed successively on the top, pyramid, and middle spot, and struck with the cue with such strength and in such direction that it comes to rest, off one, two, and three cushions severally, in easy middle pocket playing position. A piece of chalk should then be placed on the rail at each first point of contact and the red ball should then be played upon from a top corner pocket to the spot, and from hand to the pyramid and centre spots in such a way as to guide the red to the proper marked position. A halfball contact will effect this in the cases of the spot and the centre spot—for the latter of which the ball placing is about 3½ inches from the D corner spot—but for the pyramid spot stroke the placing should be about an inch and a half inside the D corner spot, and running side should be employed. This tends to cut the red somewhat, as the result of which it takes the second cushion higher up and comes out towards the easier middle pocket area.
This is almost the first time that "side" has been mentioned in these articles, but it is necessary that something should now be written on this subject if only because of the very effective part that side plays in maintaining position for red ball in-off play. It is all very well to lay down exact rules to be followed in the case of set-up half-ball positions, but when the cue ball is in hand the object ball is not always on the centre or pyramid spot, and when the red ball is on the spot the cue ball is not always at the middle of a side or corner pocket. Good players can guide it there or on the imaginary line that leads from the pocket to the spot, and this is a possibility that must always be borne in mind and its execution cultivated. But numberless positions arise, both when the cue ball is in hand and when it is in play, which have to be dealt with, even to make the bare stroke, by resort to side, force, or screw, and sometimes with two or all of these devices combined.
A matter may here be emphasized which is of vital importance in good-class play and which does not appear to have been dealt with in any of the numerous works on billiards that have been published. When a stroke is played with side, either in making an in-off or for position purposes after a pot or cannon, how should the aim be taken? There are hundreds —perhaps thousands—of amateur players who find (especially in potting) that a stroke that is otherwise easy to them goes unaccountably wrong when played with side. Yet there are many occasions—notably at the top of the table and conspicuously in snooker pool—when potting with side is essential if anything like a break is to be made.
Here, then, is the solution of the difficulty. Aim has to be taken through the cue ball at exactly that part of its diameter which is intended to be struck by the cue, and the point of aim on or off the object ball along this line must be exactly so much fuller or finer as the cue is removed from the centre of the cue ball.