Rolling up to a ball, is this a foul shot??

[Chappy5]

Probably the most under rated skill needed in your safety game by far and it can be very challenging to get it spot on and right.

Now i was watching this coaching video with Barry Stark.....

Go straight to 1:20mins in and Barry plays a shot with his Cue on the cloth right under the Cue ball and just lifts it up vertically to just touch the object ball thus avoiding a dreaded push shot from that range. Now is this a legal shot?? Barry says it is but i reckon it would get called a foul in a lot clubs.

Thoughts??

[wayne]

I think it is ok, as long as you don't double hit the cue ball on the way up, like dragging the tip over it.
It looks like he does that after a few shots.
This may leave it up to the refs discretion if it's a double hit or not.
The way i play it when that close is to cue perpendicular to the shot direction and play an almost miscue, so the tip has minimum contact but can't be a push as you're not playing in the direction of the shot.
Safer way.

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Well, you learn something new every day...

[Cannonball]

His raised shot is of course legal but some refs with poor eyesight who distrust what you're trying to do legally may suspect something fishy quite wrongly. It does look a bit dodgy but it's not. Ding played the clever deliberate mis-cue at this years worlds against Trump. It's visible and the ref and others can't argue they didn't see it played clearly.

http://video.eurosport.co.uk/snooker...20/video.shtml

[DeanH]

Not a foul as itself.
It would be a foul if:
1. a double hit/contact on the CB
2. a push shot (tip in contact with CB at the time CB contacts the OB);
3. the ferrule/shaft hits the CB.

I recall Steve Hendry in an interview with BBC (pre-pundit days) saying he always played the roll-up shot with top so not to stop short of the OB.

[Shockerz]

I have only played the perpendicular shot a few times but I tell the ref what I am gonna do now as one guy called it a foul and said I had miscued it.

I agreed that I had miscued it deliberately and it was legal; after a debate he didn't leave it as a foul.

[Catch 22]

Billiards players use it sometime for nursery cannons