Red ON the cushion?

[Erwan_BZH]

Hi folks!

I have a question for our most knowledgable referees here!

I was watching two of my mates playing the other day and some bizarre, and mighty rare, incident occured! One of the guys played a red middle pocket. He stroke it hard enough to send the red rattling in the jaws....then the red jumped off a jaw....landed on top of the cushion....rolled on a bit....and stopped there...ON top of the cushion! So the ball never went back on the cloth!

So, is it a foul or not?
What to do with this red? Get it out of the game or put it back somewhere on the table (let's say at the back of the pack, in line with the pink/balc, closest to its original spot?)

[The Statman]

It's a foul for forcing the red off the table. Four points away (unless a higher-value foul also occurred, of course) and the red is out of the game.

[flame]

quite right statman,the red has to finish on the bed or in a pocket,for it not to be a foul.

[Souwester]

Indeed it was a foul, as it was 'forced off the table' (ie it didn't end up in a pocket or on the bed of the table). If, though, as has been seen on televised matches in the dim and distant past, it had rolled along the cushion and dropped into another pocket, then that would have been a fair shot!

[flame]

correct, it finished in the pocket,

[dantuck_7]

I've had it twice where I have jawed a ball to the corner and it's looked like it's going to roll along into the middle pocket. Once a red made it about 3 inches before falling off and the other time about 4/5ths of the way along the rail before slowly losing speed and dropping off. Third time lucky?!

It's happened once with McManus on the brown (iirc) and was there another instance at the Crucible as well?

[The Statman]

I've had it twice where I have jawed a ball to the corner and it's looked like it's going to roll along into the middle pocket. Once a red made it about 3 inches before falling off and the other time about 4/5ths of the way along the rail before slowly losing speed and dropping off. Third time lucky?!

It's happened once with McManus on the brown (iirc) and was there another instance at the Crucible as well?

I don't know if it's happened another time at the Crucible, but I have on video Alex Higgins making a final black, and Dennis Taylor a red, at the same tournament (I assume, it was in the same musical montage and they were usually done for the one event), on the same cushion in the same direction.

If I recall correctly, it was a UK from roughly 1989. The music was Elton John's Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.

[missneworleans]

Yes I remember that black on from Alex
My mate who took cue for the first or second time missed a ball in the corner and it rolled ALL OVER THE CUSHION before falling into another pocket!

[Erwan_BZH]

Thank you all for your accurate answers!