Touching ball

[Eels155]

Hi again.

Honestly I try getting my answers from the official rules and I can never work out how they are describing things!

If a player pots a red, and lands touching any of the 6 colours, let's say green, can he then nominate green and just play away from it?

[DeanH]

The wording does take a while to get used to, and often scenarios are covered by multiple sections

The Green can be a Ball On, the Player would need to declare their choice of Ball On, if they declare Green then that is Ball On, then they can just play away; the "Touch" is deemed to have been the contact.


Sec 3.8 Touching Ball
(b) When a Touching Ball has been called, the striker must play the cue ball away from that ball without moving it or it is a push stroke.

The use of Called here is the declaration by the player that Green is their choice of Ball On.

[DawRef]

If the cue ball ends up touching a red after potting a color, as described above, the referee will call touching ball, and indicate which ball the cue ball is touching. If the player plays fairly away from that red, hit's a color which then goes on to pocket another red, it is NOT a foul stroke, as the player played away from the initial red.
I have seen occasions when the red, once the cue ball has been struck, move slightly due to an indentation in the cloth, and it is therefore up to the referee to decide if it was a push stroke, or not. If the referee is satisfied that it was not a push stroke, he should replace the red to it's original position, before the next stroke is completed.
That is how I, as an ex referee, would have interpreted the rule in that situation..