A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which billiards-type games (cue sports) are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions, with the whole elevated above the floor.[1]:115, 238 An obsolete term is billiard board, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.[2][1]:27
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Cushions (also sometimes called "rail cushions", "cushion rubber", or rarely "bumpers") are located on the inner sides of a table's wooden <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">rails</dfn>. There are several different materials and design philosophies associated with cushion rubber. The cushions are made from an elastic material such as vulcanized (gum or synthetic) rubber. The chiefly American jargon "rails" more properly applies to the wooded outer segments of the table to which the cushions are affixed.
The purpose of the cushion rubber is to cause the billiard balls to rebound off the rubber while minimizing the loss of kinetic energy.
When installed properly the distance from the nose of the cushion to the covered slate surface is 1 7/16" [1] while using a regulation 2 1/4" ball set.
The profile of the rail cushion, which is the cushion's angle in relation to the bed of the table, varies between table types. The standard on American pool tables is the K-66 profile, which as defined by the BCA has a base of 1 3⁄16 inches and a nose height of 1 inch [2]. This causes the balls' rebound to be somewhat predictable during game play.
On a carom table, the K-55 profile is used (with a somewhat sharper angle than pool cushions). K-55 cushions have cloth, usually canvas, vulcanized into the top of the rubber to adjust rebound accuracy and speed [3].
Finally, snooker tables may use an L-shaped profile, such as the L77 profile [4]. This is mostly because snooker uses balls of a smaller diameter and smaller pocket entrances than pool does.
The bed – the cloth-covered horizontal playing surface – is, on good-quality equipment, made of solid, finely ground slabs of slate, most often from Italy, Brazil or China. Small pool tables may use only two slates, while carom, English billiards and tournament-size pool tables use three. Full-size snooker tables require five. The gap between slates is filled with a hard-drying putty, epoxy or resin, then sanded to produce a seamless surface, before being covered with the cloth.
Tables for the home market usually use slate beds as well, but the slate is often thinner, down to about 1⁄2 inch (13 mm). The early table beds were made of cloth-covered wooden boards. Today, inexpensive but not very rigid or durable materials used for the beds of low-end tables (e.g. for children's recreation rooms) still include wood, especially medium-density fiberboard and plywood, as well as plastics and other synthetic materials under various trade names.
Billiard cloth (sometimes erroneously called felt) is a specific type of cloth that covers the top of the table's "playing area". Both the rails and slate beds are covered with 21–24 ounce billiard cloth (although some less expensive 19oz cloths are available) which is most often green in color (representing the grass of the original lawn games that billiards evolved from), and consists of either a woven wool or wool/nylon blend called baize.
Most bar tables, which get lots of play, use the slower, thicker blended cloth because it can better withstand heavy usage. This type of cloth is called a woolen cloth. By contrast, high quality pool cloth is usually made of a napless weave such as worsted wool, which gives a much faster roll to the balls. This "speed" of the cloth affects the amounts of <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">swerve</dfn> and <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">deflection</dfn> of the balls, among other aspects of game finesse. Snooker cloth traditionally has a directional nap, upon which the balls behave differently when rolling against vs. running with the direction of the nap.
<dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">Sights</dfn>, also known as <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">diamonds</dfn> (for their traditional shape), are inlaid at precise, evenly spaced positions along the rails to aid in the aiming of bank or kick shots. There are seven along each long rail (with the side pocket interfering with where the seventh one would go, on pocket billiard tables) and three along each short rail, with each of the four corners counting as another in the mathematical systems that the diamonds are used to calculate. These sights divide the playing surface into equal squares. Books, even entire series of books, have been written on geometric and algebraic systems of aiming using the diamonds.
Spots are often used to mark the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">head</dfn> and <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">foot spots</dfn> on the cloth. Other markings may be a line drawn across the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">head string</dfn> (or across the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">balk line</dfn> with <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">the "D"</dfn>, in British-style pool). Another case is the outline of the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">triangle rack</dfn> behind the foot spot where the balls are <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">racked</dfn> in straight pool, since the outline of this area is strategically important throughout the game. In artistic pool, lines may be drawn between opposite sights putting a grid on the playing surface. Other grid patterns are used in various forms of balkline billiards. A recent table marking convention, in European nine-ball, is the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">break box</dfn>.
Pocketless carom billiards tables are used for such games as three-cushion billiards, straight rail, balkline, artistic billiards and cushion caroms.
Regulation 10 × 5 foot carom billiards tables have a playing surface (measured between the noses of the cushions) is 2.84 meters by 1.42 meters (9.32 × 4.65 feet) with a 5 millimeter allowance.[3] The standard height of the table, measured from the playing surface to the ground is between 75 and 80 centimeters.
The slate bed of a carom billiard table must have a minimum thickness of 45 millimeters and is often heated to about 5 degrees C (9 deg F) above room temperature, which helps to keep moisture out of the cloth to aid the balls rolling and rebounding in a consistent manner, and generally makes a table play faster. A heated table is required under international carom rules and is an especially important requirement for the games of three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.[1]:115, 238
Heating table beds is an old practice. Queen Victoria of England (1819–1901) had a billiard table that was heated using zinc tubes, although the aim at that time was chiefly to keep the then-used ivory balls from warping. The first use of electric heating was for an 18.2 balkline tournament held in December 1927 between Welker Cochran and Jacob Schaefer, Jr. The New York Times announced it with fanfare: "For the first time in the history of world's championship balkline billiards a heated table will be used..."[1]:115, 238[4]
Pocket billiards tables are usually pool tables, for the various pool games such as eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool and one-pocket. The term can be applied more broadly, to include all pocket tables for cue sports, including snooker (treated below), English billiards and Russian pyramid. As the name implies, pocket billiards tables have <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">pockets</dfn>, normally six of them – one at each corner of the table (<dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">corner pockets</dfn>) and one at the midpoint of each of the longer sides (<dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">side pockets</dfn> or <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">middle pockets</dfn>). Historically, as old engravings show, tables sometimes used to be made with only four pockets, while billiards-derived games such as bagatelle often had more holes, including straight through the bed in the middle of the table, a feature still found in bar billiards and bumper pool. (The rest of this section addresses six-pocket pool tables.)
Pocket billiard tables come in different sizes, typically referred to as 9-foot (2.7 m), 8 ft (2.4 m), or 7 ft (2.1 m) tables. In all cases, the table is rectangular with a 2:1 ratio (e.g. 9 × 4.5 ft).
There are only two sizes approved for tournament play by the International Olympic Committee-recognized sport governing body of pool, the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), and its various regional and national affiliates; under the World Standardised Rules of pool, these are the 9 × 4.5 ft and 8 × 4 ft models.[5][6] For a 9-ft table, the playing surface (the dimensions between the noses of the cushions) measures 100 inches (254 cm) by 50 inches (127 cm) with a 1⁄8-inch (3.2 mm) margin of error for either dimension. For an 8-ft table, the playing surface measures 92 inches (234 cm) by 46 inches (117 cm), with the same 1⁄8 inch variance allowed.
In the UK as well as a number of other British Commonwealth and European countries, the typical pool table is a 7-foot model – or even 6 × 3.5 ft (1.83 × 0.91 m) for the pub and home market. These are the sizes used by internationally-standardised blackball and the amateur World Eightball Pool Federation, as well as informal pub pool.[7] The 7-foot size is also frequently used in North American amateur leagues, and are common coin-operated fixtures in bars and other venues. The playing surface for a 7-foot table is 76 inches (193 cm) by 38 inches (96.5 cm).
Pockets, usually rimmed at the back with leather or plastic, may have leather mesh or cloth bags or plastic cups, or elongated wire racks, to catch the balls, common in home billiard rooms and pool halls, or in the coin-operated tables found in bars/pubs may instead lead to ball-return troughs inside the table, which channel the balls into a collection chamber on one side of the table (or, in non-coin-op models, on the racking end of the table). A disadvantage to pockets with bags or cups is that if too many balls go into the same pocket, it will fill up the receptacle and prevent any more balls from going in that pocket, requiring that some be moved out of the pocket manually before shooting again.
Regardless of table size, the WPA standard (sometimes informally called "American-style") table has wide, angular pockets that funnel notably inward, generally 1.75 to 2.25 times as wide at the opening as the diameter of the 2 1⁄4-inch (57 mm) balls, wider at the side (middle) pockets than the corners. WEPF pool (sometimes informally called "British-style" or "Commonwealth-style") is played with 2 to 2 1⁄8-in (51–54 mm) balls, and this type of table has smaller, narrow pockets (the width is calculated as the ball diameter multiplied by 1.6, and is consistent at all six pockets), with rounded entrances and nearly parallel sides, like those on a snooker table. One tactical consequence of this design difference is that the jaws of the WPA-type pocket are often used exactly like a horizontal version of the backboard of a basketball goal, to rebound the ball into the pocket; this technique does not work on blackball tables, and even shots down the cushion into a corner pocket are more difficult. The same also holds true of snooker and Russian pyramid tables, with similar "tight" pockets with rounded openings; all require more precise shots than WPA-style pool.
For tournament competition under WPA world-standardized rules (and league play under derived rulesets), the bed of the pocket billiard table must be made of slate no less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick. The flatness of the table must be divergent by no greater than 0.02 inches (0.51 mm) lengthwise and 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) across the width.[5]
A billiard table designed for the games snooker and English billiards is usually called a snooker table.
The playing area of a tournament snooker table, as standardized by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA or World Snooker) and the amateur International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) which uses WPBSA rules,[8] measures 11 feet 8 inches by 5 ft 10 in (356.9 cm by 177.8 cm) with a tolerance of ± 0.5 in (13 mm),[9] though commonly referred to as 12 ft by 6 ft. Smaller tables, approximately 10 ft by 5 ft. down to half size, are also sometimes used in pubs, homes and smaller snooker halls. The height from the floor to the top of the cushion is between 2 ft 9.5 in and 2 ft 10.5 in (85.1 cm and 87.6 cm).[9]
A snooker table has six pockets, one at each corner and one at the center of each of the longest side cushions. The pockets are around 86 mm (3.5 in), though high-class tournaments may use slightly smaller pockets to increase difficulty. The amount of undercut (trimmed underside of the rubber cushion's protruding <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">nose</dfn> at the pocket opening),[10]:8 if any, has a strong effect on how easily a ball is accepted by the pocket (the "<dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">pocket speed</dfn>"). On snooker and English billiards tables, the pocket entries are rounded, while pool tables have sharp "<dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">knuckles</dfn>". This affects how accurate shots need to be to get into a pocket, and how fast they can be when not dead-on, including shots that run along and against a cushion. The WPBSA defines proprietary <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">pocket templates</dfn>[9] for the widths of the pocket openings (<dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">corner</dfn> and <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">centre</dfn>), the curvature of the cushion noses and the undercut. The WPBSA and IBSF rule books' equipment sections do not actually specify the measurements of these proprietary templates[9][8] and their details have been a closely guarded secret[11] </ref> that varies over time, requiring that the templates be dated.[12] The organisations do not recognise tournament play or records (maximum breaks, etc.) if not performed on tables that conform to then-current templates.[12][13] A popular theory for this secretiveness is that the professional tables are actually made much easier, for more exciting shot-making on television, than amateur tables in snooker clubs.[11]
The cushions (sometimes known as rails, though that term properly applies to the wood sections to which the cushions are attached) are usually made of vulcanized rubber.
The <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">baulk</dfn> area is marked by a <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">baulk line</dfn> drawn on the cloth across the width of the table at 29 inches (737 mm) from and parallel to the face of the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">bottom cushion</dfn>.[9] A semicircle with a radius of 11.5 inches (292 mm) centered on this line within baulk forms <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">the "D"</dfn>[9] in which the cue ball must be placed when breaking or after the cue ball has been <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">potted</dfn> or shot off the table. The position of four of <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">the colours</dfn> are marked along the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">long string</dfn> (lengthwise centre) of the table, perpendicular to the baulk line: the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">black spot</dfn>, 12.75 inches (324 mm) from the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">top cushion</dfn>; the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">centre spot</dfn> or <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">blue spot</dfn>, located at the mid-point between the bottom and top <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">cushions</dfn>; the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">pyramid spot</dfn> or <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">pink spot</dfn>, located midway between the centre spot and the top cushion; and the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">baulk spot</dfn> or <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">brown spot</dfn>, located at the mid-point of the baulk line[9] (and, thus of the "D"). Due to its obviousness, the brown spot is not always marked (neither are the unmistakable <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">green</dfn> and <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">yellow spots</dfn>,[9] at the left and right intersections, respectively, of the baulk line and the "D"'s curve.[9][1]:116, 278 The exact placing of these markings are different on smaller tables, but proportional to the full-size model.
The <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">playing surface</dfn> of a good quality snooker table has a <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">bed</dfn> of slate and is covered with green baize. The thickness of this cloth determines the table's <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">speed</dfn> (lack of friction) and responsiveness to <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">spin</dfn>, thicker cloths being longer lasting but slower and less responsive. The nap of the cloth can affect the run of the balls, especially on slower shots and shots played with <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">sidespin</dfn> applied to the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">cue ball</dfn>. A snooker table traditionally has the nap running from the baulk to the top end and is brushed and ironed in this direction.
Other types of billiard tables are used for specific games, such as Russian pyramid, Asian four ball, and bumper pool. In addition, there are novelty billiard tables, typically for pocket billiards, that come in various shapes including zig-zag, circular, and hexagonal.
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