Sometimes, at the top of the table, when a gentle cannon, screw or otherwise, would leave the red too much below its corner pocket objective, it is good business either to play with double strength, bringing the red back to the side of the table played from, or to cannon with such contact as will group the three balls under the top cushion in position for close cannon play.
This class of stroke is generally regarded as the professional's exclusive game, but there are amateurs such as Mr. W. B. Marshall, who can employ it quite usefully on occasion, and the number of nursery cannon players in the amateur ranks would be rapidly increased if the main principles that underlie the movement—or "trick," as it has also been termed —were more widely understood.
It must not, of course, be imagined that any amateur, however naturally gifted or however well informed as to the principles of close cannon play, can hope to be a second Falkiner unless he is prepared to pass the greater portion of his existence at the table. Falkiner, apart from his superb execution, has made so many millions of close cannons both in practice and in public that nothing new is now ever presented to him, and he has an instant solution for every apparent difficulty and intricacy. The only set-backs that can ever temporarily beat him are "touches" and "covers," and from the latter he can extricate himself as often as not by a swiftly-conceived masse stroke almost before the spectators are aware that anything is wrong, whilst the former, in causing the balls to be spotted, bring him back to the top in two or three.
For the student of the movement, whether advanced amateur or beginner, the main essentials to bear in mind are the following: (1) Keep the object ball that is farthest from the rail a little in advance of the one that is nearer to it, and the cue ball a trifle below the former; (2) keep both balls working along imaginary lines parallel with the top cushion; (3) when the ideal position described above is temporarily lost, judge by the potting rule that has been so often referred to in these articles which object ball is to be struck first, what is to be the amount of contact, and whether check or running side (if required) is to be employed.
An extremely important point in rail cannon play is embodied in the reference that has just been made to side. Usually side is resorted to in billiards in order to impart a different from normal course to the cue ball. Now, the idea is to alter the angle at which the object ball that is the nearer to the rail comes off the cushion, and it will be found that whilst, with the same contact, check side sends it in front of the cue ball, running side has a tendency to deflect it.
Some writers have attributed this to imparted side operating on the object ball, but the explanation is really much more simple. With precisely the same contact a cue ball carrying check side has a tendency to "bore" into the object ball and one bearing running side to glance off it. This tendency may be easily tested and illustrated by experimental resort to a very familiar position in open play.
The object ball is some little distance from a top corner pocket, nearer to the side than to the top, and the cue ball is on the opposite side of the table nearer the top. A plain screw into the top pocket will inevitably leave the object ball in baulk, but the same stroke with check side will double it twice across the table into a nice position for further pocket play. In the same way an object ball lying quite near a top corner pocket and the side cushion will be prevented from coming out into the table and deflected well down the side cushion into middle pocket position by the judicious use of running side instead of a plain stroke.
The utilization of side for the control of the object ball is one of the most interesting and important features in billiards, and in the retention of the close cannon position at the top of the table it is indispensable.
A few words should be added about cueing in close cannon play. Wrist action comes much into operation and the grasp of the cue cannot be too light. Both hold and bridge must be greatly shortened and the arm and wrist kept as flexible as possible. The slightest rigidity in the touch will lead to pushes or to "half-cocks," the professional term for the nervous or halting stroke that just finishes on or near the cue ball without appreciably moving and sometimes without even touching it.
William Cook has some good advice on nursery cannons in "The Game of Billiards" (1/-). In Chapter XV. he rightly says: "The very worst of all positions is when the cue ball gets placed between the two object balls. The making of a cannon from this position means splitting the object balls apart, which, as a rule, is the very thing the close cannon player has to avoid. It is a position which, as a rule, spoils the nursery cannon break, even if handled by the very best players."