Snooker, free ball rule...

[d9f1c7]

http://tinypic.com/r/2w5rrj9/5
Sorry for the annoying tinypic site, don't know what they are thinking.

OK we know you cannot snooker with a free ball(unless only pink and black remain) . In the pic the black had been chosen as an extra yellow. It finished between the cue ball and the yellow. The blue is also between the cue ball and the yellow but closer to the cue ball. Is this a foul? This is an actual game situation.

[Andyvon]

No, I don't think it is.

Obviously, the black wasn't potted while it was a free ball so it's location is now irrelevant. The next object ball will be the yellow itself but that's snookered behind the blue. think that is a legal snooker. If the yellow was snookered behind the black then it would have been a foul but not as the picture stands.

[d9f1c7]

That's the point Andy, it is snookered behind the black. There is a bit of the black sticking out from the blue so even if the blue is 98% the snookering ball the black is also conributing. What if it was 50/50? or what if the blue was closer to the white but only covering a slither?

[New Judge]

The situation in your illustration is a legitimate snooker.

From rule 17 (which covers snookers):

If the cue-ball is so obstructed from hitting a ball on by more than one ball not on:

(i) the ball nearest to the cue-ball is considered to be the effective snookering ball, and

(ii) should more than one obstructing ball be equidistant from the cue-ball, all such balls will be considered to be effective snookering balls.

So in your picture the blue is the effective snookering ball and since the black was nominated as the free ball the snooker is legitimate. The location of the black is certainly not irrelevant as Andyvon suggests. If the balls had come to rest the other way round (i.e. with the black closest to the cue ball) it would have been a “foul snooker”.

[d9f1c7]

Thanks Judge.