Billards (sic)...

[rich p]

...for those who don't know, is a game like billiards played on a pocketless table; scoring being achieved through cannons.
I played it lots last week in france and checked up on the rules yesterday on Wiki.
It turns out that trapping the other 2 balls in the corner and tapping away at them in a series of cannons is called crotching. What a lovely term evoking a painful image which I can't seem to shift

There's another term called 'nursing' but that's probably what happens after too much crotching.

 

[Fnaar]

You can practice that 2 balls thing by playing pocket billiards, too

 

[Haitch]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carom_billiards


It's very popular in Holland, often making the front page of the sports sections and included in the TV sports programmes.

 

[User482]

Have any of you played this? http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Bar-Billiards.htm

 

[Haitch]

Have any of you played this? http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Bar-Billiards.htm

I have played the English, French and Italian versions without knowing the rules (or understanding the point). There used to be a couple of pubs where I grew up (north Cheshire) that had English billiard tables (not that I'm in any way even half decent on a billiard/snooker/pool table).

 

[upsidedown]

I seem to remember a billiards based game when i was a kid, had a pole in the middle, with a string with a ball on the end. You had to swing it and knock the billiard things down. Then pick them up. Then knock them down again. Then put it in the loft.

Kids these days eh ? Don't know they're born.

 

[User482]

I have played the English, French and Italian versions without knowing the rules (or understanding the point). There used to be a couple of pubs where I grew up (north Cheshire) that had English billiard tables (not that I'm in any way even half decent on a billiard/snooker/pool table).

I haven't seen it for years - there used to be a pub in the middle of Bristol with it.

I used to be a half-decent pool player when I was a student. But then, I had a lot of practice!

 

[661-Pete]

Didn't they have to change the rules in ordinary (pocket) Billiards, that you weren't allowed to score more than 'n' cannons in a row? (where n is some predefined number). Precisely because of the dodge that RichP describes, i.e. 'experts' were wedging the balls in the corner and then running up thousands of points just with cannon after cannon...

 

[XmisterIS]

Have any of you played this? http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Bar-Billiards.htm

Yep, I used to play this a lot as a student - my local pub had a table.

 

[rich p]

Have any of you played this? http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Bar-Billiards.htm

I used to play it a lot but the tables have all gone from pubs around here. The beauty of it as far as the pub was concerned is that it required a much smaller space compard with pool as you only play from one end. Pool won the battle though for some reason - a far inferior game to snooker and bar billiards IMHO.

 

[Fnaar]

Oh yes, Bar Billiards... freakin great game, that was!

 

[Piemaster]

Didn't bar billiards used to be featured on a TV show presnted by Fred Trueman (complete with pint) along with darts and a couple of others I can't remember?

 

[Fnaar]

Didn't bar billiards used to be featured on a TV show presnted by Fred Trueman (complete with pint) along with darts and a couple of others I can't remember?

Indoor League, I think. Classic!

 

[Piemaster]

Indoor League, I think. Classic!

Thats it! here.
Can't remember the last time I saw a proper pint pot in a pub either

 

[Dayvo]

Indoor League, I think. Classic!

That's right, and with BIG Bill Richardson, the arm-wrestling champion!