Ideally for referees

[DawRef]

.....where as a ball on top of the cushion has not left the table in the first place.

So, if a player played a stroke and the ball rolled along the top of the cushion and stopped half way, you're saying thats NOT a foul or left the table? I Disagree. The ball has left the bed of the table. If it is a colour, it is re-spotted; if it is the cue-ball, played from in hand.

[The Statman]

So, if a player played a stroke and the ball rolled along the top of the cushion and stopped half way, you're saying thats NOT a foul or left the table? I Disagree. The ball has left the bed of the table. If it is a colour, it is re-spotted; if it is the cue-ball, played from in hand.

No I am not saying that.

I am saying that it has not left the table, so has returned to the playing surface without any outside involvement. Whereas a ball that left the table entirely and found itself back on the table could not have done so without someone/something.

If it stops on top of the cushion then it is clearly a foul under the Rules, in that it has not come to rest in a pocket or on the playing surface.

My comparison was merely between a ball leaving the playing surface but not leaving the table, and a ball leaving the entire table area and somehow returning to it.

[DawRef]

My comparison was merely between a ball leaving the playing surface but not leaving the table, and a ball leaving the entire table area and somehow returning to it.

Right. Follow you now.