Impossible situations

[Billy]

I'm fairly new here, so apologies if this has already been done, but I thought it might be interesting to have a thread where we offer up snooker situations that would create major problems for the ref. The rule books can't possibly cater for every eventuality, so staying within the realms of possibilty, what situation could you see arising that would give the ref big big problem?

A few answers to those problems would be nice too.

Here's mine anyway:

A strong shot is played, sending the cue ball flying into the air. The ball comes down on the cushion, rolls along to the bag and drops into the jaws of the pocket (but stays on). An inch or so from that pocket are two colours which means his opponent is now in an impossible-to-escape-from snooker. What does he do, and what will the ref's decision be when he fouls.

[zombieman]

This is actually covered in the rules:

Section 3, Rule 14:

The striker shall, to the best of his ability, endeavour to hit the ball on. If the referee considers the Rule infringed, he shall call FOUL AND A MISS unless only the Black remains on the table, or a situation exists where it is impossible to hit the ball on. In the latter case it must be assumed the striker is attempting to hit the ball on provided that he plays, directly or indirectly, in the direction of the ball on with sufficient strength, in the referee’s opinion, to have reached the ball on but the obstructing ball or balls.

[C-J]

As far as i know using the rail is not a foul when the ball comes back in play.So i would reckon your opponent has to play the shot.Of course he has to make a foul on the first attempt as a jump shot is not allowed,but he can hit it with his next attempt(otherwise he has to keep making fouls)

Zombieman just beat me with the official rule,thank you!

[samasnookerfan]

A player attempts to escape from a Snooker but hits the blue which goes crashing into the bunch of reds. A miss is called and the player asks for them to be replaced.
That would be a nasty impossible situation, i'm sure a player wouldn't do that though it would be too cruel on the ref!

[C-J]

A player attempts to escape from a Snooker but hits the blue which goes crashing into the bunch of reds. A miss is called and the player asks for them to be replaced.
That would be a nasty impossible situation, i'm sure a player wouldn't do that though it would be too cruel on the ref!

It would be a bit cruel but the ref can replace only the balls wich interfere with the situation.

[encipher]

This is a little off topic. But i was reading a ref's bio and apparently one time, while respotting pink, he accidentally dropped it and it hit a bunch of reds. If this was WC, and a ref did something so terrible that it knocked virtually all the balls out of position, what happens? Do they try to reposition EVERY ball to where it was, or do they replay the frame?

[marron]

That was mentioned the other day 'enciper'. Can't remember who was playing but i think it was an exhibition where someone had to score as many points as possible in 2.5 minutes, then Alec Chamberlain went and dropped the pink when re-spotting it

[hegeland]

I've seen it happen on TV once, I think it was Eirian Williams (big surprise...) that dropped the pink onto a couple of reds. Needless to say, his face got very red and he looked as if he was about to melt away in his costume.

[encipher]

What happened after that? Did they replay the frame or what ?

[marron]

Not sure, but apparently Chamberlain never refereed another one of the players matches again

[DawRef]

What happened after that? Did they replay the frame or what ?

I think it was Len Ganley that done this. However, what the referee would do is replace the balls in their original position, as he thought, re spot the pink and the frame would carry on.

What the referee must do is ensure that the player hasn't gained an advantage from his mistake.

I've nearly done it a couple of times, but then what I've done is re-held, given the ball a quick clean and then spotted it.

[Billy]

A player attempts to escape from a Snooker but hits the blue which goes crashing into the bunch of reds. A miss is called and the player asks for them to be replaced.
That would be a nasty impossible situation, i'm sure a player wouldn't do that though it would be too cruel on the ref!

Surely in this case they would have to turn to the monitors and then work with the assistant refs to get them back to where they were.

[APK]

I was refereeing a local tournament about 5 years ago and one of the players in the final was escaping from a snooker. He missed his intended ball and managed to smash the pack open. I spent a few minutes gathering the balls and replacing them to the players satisfaction only for the player to announce to the crowd that he was going to play a completely different shot which was not affected by the faffing he had caused.

He didn't get away with that again.