Blackball (pool)

History

Eightball pool (and thus its standardised form, blackball), like international-style eight-ball, is derived from an earlier game invented around 1900 and first popularised in 1925 under the name B.B.C. Co. Pool by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company. Like blackball and eightball pool today, this forerunner game was played with seven yellow and seven red balls, unnumbered (in contrast to the international-style numbered stripes and solids, sometimes called American-style or kelly pool balls in Commonwealth English), a black ball (numbered "8" or unnumbered), and the white cue ball. The game had relatively simple rules compared to the modern game.

Equipment

The ball sets typically range from 2 inches (51 mm) up to  2 ³⁄₁₆ inch (56 mm), often with a slightly smaller cue ball, e.g.  1 ⁷⁄₈ inches (47.6 mm) for a 2 inch set. The most common sized sets on the market are 2 inch and 2 ¹⁄₈ inch (54 mm). Along with the single white cue ball, plain unnumbered red (or sometimes blue) and yellow colour balls, seven of each color, are used in lieu of the numbered solids and stripes common to international eight-ball and other pool games. Many (especially North American) suppliers refer to the yellows-and-reds sets as "casino" balls, whether UK- or US-sized, because they were formerly used in US casino-hosted, televised, modified-rules eight-ball tournaments popular in the 1970s; the coloured rather than numbered sets were selected for their distinguishability on TV. The black ball, however, still typically bears a number "8" (a holdover from kelly pool), though numberless variants are not unknown.

British pool tables come in 6  x 3 foot (1.8 x 0.9 m) or 7  x 3.5 ft (2.12 x 1.06 m) varieties, with 7 ft being the regulation size for league play. The table has pockets just larger than the balls and rounded, as in the game of snooker, whereas the international-style (or "American-style") table has pockets significantly wider, with pointed knuckles.

Tournament rules may require the presence of more than one type of rest (mechanical bridge), as in snooker.

Rules

There are two competing standards bodies that have issued international rules. The older of the two sets in British-style pool are the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) rules (often called "World Rules"). The majority of WEPF members come from the UK and Ireland, and from current and former Commonwealth of Nations countries, plus a few leagues elsewhere.

A competing but very similar set of rules has been promulgated by the larger World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), under the game name "blackball" to better distinguish it from the American-style game (for which the WPA also promulgates the world-standardised rules). It was intended that "blackball" would unify the various existing British-style rulesets (presumably also including the WEPF rules) although this has not yet happened. The governing body for WPA blackball in Europe, with numerous national and local affiliate groups, is the European Blackball Association (EBA).

WEPF World Rules

The older World Eightball Pool Federation rules pre-date the WPA blackball rules, and remain popular as amateur league rules in the UK, Ireland, Australia, some other Commonwealth countries, and a few European nations. World rules are no longer played at the professional level, since the International Professional Pool Association (IPA) swapped to WPA blackball rules in 2012 Locally the WEPF rules (or minor variants thereof) are sometimes referred to as "British standard pool", "Irish standard pool", etc. As of 2014, WEPF leagues exist in: Australia, Belgium, China, Cyprus, France, India, Japan, Malta, Morocco, New Zealand, Ireland, Reunion Island, South Africa, and the UK (with separate leagues in the Channel Islands, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).

The balls are racked with the black (the 8 ball) on the foot spot (or "black spot"), in contrast with US-style eight-ball, nine-ball and most other pool games, in which the apex ball is placed on the foot spot. A "fair break" is one in which an object ball is potted, and/or at least 4 object balls contact the cushion. If the black is potted, the game is restarted with a re-rack, broken by the original breaker. If the cue ball is potted on an otherwise fair break, it is a "non-standard" fault (foul) that simply ends the breaker's turn, with no further penalties. If it is a foul (non-fair) break, the incoming player gets two visits as with other "standard fouls" (see below), and gets to break, after a re-rack, without the option to instead play the balls as they lie. Openness of the table (unlike in the American-style game) does not last long, in that if the breaker pots a ball on the break from one group, and elects to continue shooting that group, then that group are his/her balls-on, even if the post-break follow-up shot is missed, while if the group chosen did not have any balls potted on the break, the table remains open until a ball is legally potted. If no balls were potted on the break, the table remains open. The shooter must nominate what group they are shooting for on the shot following the break if they had potted a ball off the break.

A legal (non-break) shot is one where the cue ball first hits a "ball-on" (one of the balls in the player's own group), and does not pot the cue ball, the black or any of the balls in the opponent's group, and either one of the shooter's balls-on is pocketed, or a (any) ball contacts a cushion after the cue ball contacts the (first) ball-on. I.e., it is the same as in American-style, but with the additional requirement that one not sink an opponent's ball (doing so is a fault), and lacking the requirement that ball and pocket have to be called (i.e. slop shots are perfectly valid, even on the black.) There are other forms of fault, generally the same as in other pool games, such as potting the cue ball (except on the break, as noted above), knocking balls off the table, moving balls accidentally, double-hits and pushes (though the standards are weaker than in American-style rules), unsportsmanlike conduct, etc. There are also other unique fouls such as the requirement (borrowed from snooker) to shoot away from any ball that the cue ball is frozen to, without moving it; however if the frozen ball is the shooter's own, it counts as contacting a ball-on, and only a (any) ball must reach a rail for it to be a legal shot. As in informal American bar pool, but not WPA/BCA/IPT standardised American-style rules, players are sometimes required to take certain shots (besides the break shot) from baulk or "the kitchen", i.e. from behind the baulk line (head string). Also, all deliberate jump shots that result in missing an intervening ball are faults.

After a fault, the offending player will effectively miss a turn and give the opponent two visits. These free shots must be taken from where the cue ball finished after their opponents foul, with two exceptions: the cue ball was potted, in which case the incoming player must take their shot from baulk; or the incoming player has been left in a foul snooker, in which case they may nominate a free ball, move the cue ball to baulk and play from there or indeed carry on as normal (i.e. shoot at one of their own balls).

WPA Blackball World Standardised Rules

Blackball rules are nearly identical in gameplay to (though worded differently from) the WEPF World Rules. One notable divergence is that after a fault, the incoming player has a free shot (i.e., may take the cue ball in position or in-hand in baulk; the "wrong ball first" rule is suspended).

World Championships

Both the World Pool-Billiard Association (with PPPO and EBA) and the World Eightball Pool Federation currently sanction a World Championship, the WPA version is held every other year. The 2014 WPA World Blackball Champion is Claudio Cassar from Malta, and the 2014 WEPF Eightball Pool World Champion is Tom Cousins from Wales.

For more information see: List of world eight-ball champions § Blackball and "British-style" eight-ball pool.