is it allowed to play the ball with the butt end of your cue?

[DeanH]

Sec 1.3 Cue
A cue shall be not less than 3ft (914mm) in length and shall show no change from the traditional tapered shape and form, with a tip, used to strike the cue ball, secured to the thinner end.
A tip must be added to the "thinner end", or as I usually call it "tip end".
but yes in the rules the leather tip is at the thin end and not the butt

[Greg M]

That's when they used to play a form of croquet indoors on a table complete with hoops and the balls were pushed along with the thick end of the mace with the flat keeping it level. When billiards developed push shots were outlawed and playing shots with the butt end of the cue was considered a push shot so was banned.

*snip!*

Is that why modern cues still retain the flat bevel on the butt? That's pretty cool - a nice touch of tradition.

[Cue crafty]

Sec 1.3 Cue
A cue shall be not less than 3ft (914mm) in length and shall show no change from the traditional tapered shape and form, with a tip, used to strike the cue ball, secured to the thinner end.
A tip must be added to the "thinner end", or as I usually call it "tip end".
but yes in the rules the leather tip is at the thin end and not the butt

So in Pool, they are allowed more than one cue to use in play, i.e. the Break cue and Playing cue, therefore is it not possible for a snooker player to have a second cue, with a thicker planed edge at the tip end for such shots? Hmmm

Given players are allowed to use half butts, extensions etc, it would seem to be hard to argue no??

[DeanH]

So in Pool, they are allowed more than one cue to use in play, i.e. the Break cue and Playing cue, therefore is it not possible for a snooker player to have a second cue, with a thicker planed edge at the tip end for such shots? Hmmm

Given players are allowed to use half butts, extensions etc, it would seem to be hard to argue no??

a snooker player can have a second cue, Brecel did once when he was trying out two cues
even pool cues are thin end with tip, not seen a cue of your description
The rule I quoted was for WPBSA snooker/billiards, not always the same for the various types of pool

[itsnoteasy]

I could be making this up but I'm sure I read somewhere that after they started using the thin end to strike the cue ball and getting down over the shot, Women players still used the butt end with the flat in a more stand up fashion as it was deemed unladylike to lean over the table.

[Cue crafty]

a snooker player can have a second cue, Brecel did once when he was trying out two cues
even pool cues are thin end with tip, not seen a cue of your description
The rule I quoted was for WPBSA snooker/billiards, not always the same for the various types of pool

So going back to the OP's question, it would be possible to fashion a "cue" or sorts that was thick as a baseball batt one end and width of a normal cue the other with the tapered end being the tip just for this shot in theory? could be 3ft long as well just for the job....

Cant see many wanting one but, butt?

[Danger Steve]

I could be making this up but I'm sure I read somewhere that after they started using the thin end to strike the cue ball and getting down over the shot, Women players still used the butt end with the flat in a more stand up fashion as it was deemed unladylike to lean over the table.

I think they had some kind of bridging aid or a rest so they could play shots in a more lady-like up right position?

[vmax]

So going back to the OP's question, it would be possible to fashion a "cue" or sorts that was thick as a baseball batt one end and width of a normal cue the other with the tapered end being the tip just for this shot in theory? could be 3ft long as well just for the job....

Cant see many wanting one but, butt?

I would suppose as long as one end was thinner than the other it would be OK. It would be pretty easy to find the centre of the cue ball with a flat tip 25mm in diameter but not much else There's a few players in our local league whose game wouldn't change with such a cue, been rolling everything in for thirty years or more

[snooker_bhoy]

Say a pro at a tournament attempted to pot the last black with his butt not knowing it was illegal; would the referee let him take the shot and then award the foul or would they attempt to inform/warn the player once they realised what the player was intending to do?

i know they warn a player on the 3 miss rule, but are referees generally allowed/expected/invited to anticipate and intervene before a shot that would have negative consequences is played or are they meant to be dispassionate?

[itsnoteasy]

Say a pro at a tournament attempted to pot the last black with his butt not knowing it was illegal; would the referee let him take the shot and then award the foul or would they attempt to inform/warn the player once they realised what the player was intending to do?

i know they warn a player on the 3 miss rule, but are referees generally allowed/expected/invited to anticipate and intervene before a shot that would have negative consequences is played or are they meant to be dispassionate?

It's not the refs fault if a player doesn't know the rules, he would let him play the shot. It's in the rules that the ref must warn the player on the third attempt, he's not doing it to be nice.

[DeanH]

Say a pro at a tournament attempted to pot the last black with his butt not knowing it was illegal; would the referee let him take the shot and then award the foul or would they attempt to inform/warn the player once they realised what the player was intending to do?

i know they warn a player on the 3 miss rule, but are referees generally allowed/expected/invited to anticipate and intervene before a shot that would have negative consequences is played or are they meant to be dispassionate?

The Miss Rule, as said by itsnoteasy, is written in the rules to warn the player before their third attempt.
A referee MUST not warn a player that they are about to make a foul, the foul must be made before a Foul is called.
If a player is about to play a shot with the butt, the referee must allow the shot to be taken for it to be a foul.

But then saying that, no foul was called when ROS used something to measure a gap
So say it was the last black on a maximum and your scenario happened.....and it was ROS... and it was not ROS...

[100-uper]

Why play with the butt of a cue when you could use one of these!