Billiards words · Beginner
The words you will hear in your first match, grouped the way you meet them.
B · Beginner · 20 words · Step 1 of 2Basic terms
English billiards
A game for two players (or sides) on a six-pocket table with three balls: a white, a yellow (or a spot white) and a red. Points come from pots, in-offs and cannons, alone or together, in a turn, and fouls and misses give points to the opponent.
Cue-ball
The ball the striker hits with the cue: the white for one player, the yellow (or spot white) for the other.
Object ball
A ball the cue-ball can score off. In English billiards the object balls are the red and the opponent's ball.
See also: English billiards, Cue-ball
Striker
The player about to play or in play. It is their turn until a stroke scores no points, or a foul is committed and the balls are at rest.
Table and equipment
Table
A full-size table whose playing area is about 11 ft 8½ in by 5 ft 10 in (3569 mm by 1778 mm), with a pocket at each corner and one in the middle of each long side.
Baulk
The baulk-line is a line 29 in (737 mm) from the bottom cushion, parallel to it. The line and the space between it and the bottom cushion are called baulk.
Also called: baulk-line
Scoring
Pot
An object ball entering a pocket after contact with another ball and without an infringement. A pot of the red scores three points. A pot of the opponent's ball scores two.
Also called: winning hazard
See also: Object ball
In-off
The cue-ball entering a pocket after contacting an object ball. An in-off the red scores three and an in-off the opponent's ball scores two. If it hits both, it counts as off the first ball hit.
Also called: losing hazard
See also: Cue-ball, Object ball
Cannon
The cue-ball contacting both object balls in one stroke without an infringement. It scores two points, and only one cannon can be scored in a stroke.
See also: Cue-ball
Hazard
A scoring stroke that is not a cannon: a pot, an in-off, two pots, a pot and an in-off, or two pots and an in-off.
Penalty points
Points that fouls and misses give to the opponent. A foul or a miss costs two points, and no more than two can be incurred in one stroke.
See also: Miss
Play and turn
In-hand
The cue-ball is in-hand before each game, after it has entered a pocket or been forced off the table, and after some respots. The striker then plays it from within the D, out of baulk.
Stringing
Both players strike a ball at once from opposite halves of the baulk-line to the top cushion and back. The ball finishing nearest the bottom cushion wins the string. The winner chooses the ball and whether to play first.
Also called: string, lag
See also: Baulk
Miss
Playing from in-hand when no object ball is out of baulk, and the cue-ball fails to hit an object ball, with no infringement. It is not a foul, but costs two points to the opponent, and the next player plays from where the balls lie.
See also: Cue-ball, Object ball, Baulk, In-hand, Playing from in-hand
Fouls
Conduct and officials
Referee
The official who decides fair play, intervenes on infringements, calls fouls and misses, and tells a player the position of a ball on request. The referee cannot comment on the difference in scores.
Match format
Game
A game is won by scoring most points in a stipulated time, by being first to a stipulated number of points, by being awarded it, or by concession.
See also: Concession
Match
An agreed number of games. The winner has most games or, if totals count, the greatest aggregate.