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"Double-Baulks"

You are in trouble, and your best way out is the beautiful double-baulk shown in my diagram. It needs a lot of making, and can only be depended on if your cushions are in good condition. You have to play very hard on the red with screw and side on your ball to bring it back into baulk as shown by the dotted line in the diagram.

It takes a pretty good shot to do this, but it is much more difficult to hit the red hard enough to force it in and out of baulk and back again as shown by the continuous line in the diagram. As an exercise of cue-power, this shot is well worth trying, and if you can do it, you may rest assured there is not much the matter with your cushions or your cueing. Alternatively, a single-baulk can be made by playing a heavy plain-ball at the red, which doubles that ball back into baulk, while the cue-ball rolls through to the side cushion and just has strength enough to stop safe near the top cushion. This, as you will soon discover, is much easier than the double-baulk, and I commend it for general use. The double baulk should be reserved for a great emergency on a fast table. It is a lovely shot to make when you have to give a man a useful start in a handicap-he gets such a fright by the time the red has stopped running that he is a beaten man forthwith!