foul and a miss (including misscue ?)

[dannyd0g]

I was only half watching Ebdon's match against Ding, and had some music on at the same time. So i was wondering when Ebdon was snookered and totally miscued and also went inoff - why wasnt that deemed a "foul and a miss" ?

There was nothing easy left for Ding when he respotted the white in the D. So why didnt have the option of having the balls put back as they were before and making Ebdon play his escape again ?

Apparently the referee has no discretion anymore and every failed escape is automatically called a miss (unless the escapee needs snookers) - so is a miscue not to be deemed a miss then ?

[Semih_Sayginer]

im certainly no referee, but remember recently (in the last 2 years or so) that it was mentioned in commentary when someone miscued and wasnt clled a miss:-

"it wasnt called a miss of course because he didnt intentionally miscue and even though he left no shot, he couldnt possibly have designed the miscue so that it wouldnt leave an easy shot as its went off of 3 balls"

the above text wont be word for word, but its close to

as said, im no ref, but the above made sense at the time, but i never even gave it a thought to check.

good question!

[The Statman]

Apparently the referee has no discretion anymore and every failed escape is automatically called a miss (unless the escapee needs snookers)

Not strictly true, the referee DOES have some discretion but it would, in the professional game, have to be an almost-impossible snooker and a very good attempt for a Miss not to be called. It does happen occasionally.

I was only half watching Ebdon's match against Ding, and had some music on at the same time. So i was wondering when Ebdon was snookered and totally miscued and also went inoff - why wasnt that deemed a "foul and a miss" ?

There was nothing easy left for Ding when he respotted the white in the D. So why didnt have the option of having the balls put back as they were before and making Ebdon play his escape again ?

As far as I am concerned, a miscue is still a Miss. If you think of the wording, "...player to the best of his ability to attempt to hit the ball on..." etc., a miscue fundamentally satisfies this criterion.

It is a commonly held myth that a miscue cannot be called a Miss, but as far as I know that is completely wrong.

I would have called it!

[Semih_Sayginer]

anyone got the contact info for the BBC Snooker team?

[The Statman]

I have just texted my good friend and fellow referee, and his response is:

"A player must attempt to the best of his ability to hit a ball 'on'. If miscuing is the best he can do, play him for £100 per point."

I have the email address for Saj, one of the BBC's snooker correspondents and former moderator of the old BBC board!

[edinmis]

yeah, i had same question in my mind when i watched that miscue.

how about the another situation when peter snookered himself after pot the first red, and try to escape the snooker to hit green first, foul and miss, then try to hit yellow, foul and miss, and then try to hit blue, but instead just hit yellow. but this time just called foul without miss.

Any thought for this?

[cueman]

I think the thing to remember also that Ebdon did actually hit the ball on in that shot and only the miss cue was the cause of the foul and not an actual miss of the ball on. Perhaps that is why the ref failed to call miss in this situation. Had Ebdon missed the yellow that he nominated then the ref would have called miss?

[The Statman]

I think the thing to remember also that Ebdon did actually hit the ball on in that shot and only the miss cue was the cause of the foul and not an actual miss of the ball on. Perhaps that is why the ref failed to call miss in this situation. Had Ebdon missed the yellow that he nominated then the ref would have called miss?

That would explain it. A Miss can only be called, of course, if the intended ball was not hit first. (I did not see the incident myself.)

[dannyd0g]

Thanks for your replies guys. Interesting that there are contrasting replies from senior members as to whether a misscue can be called a miss. Like yourself Statman, if i was the ref there and then, i too would have called a miss, and made Ebdon take it again.