Is it compulsory to nominate the free ball in snooker?

Gaoth Laidir

Foul committed, free ball awarded. Player plays a colour as a free ball without verbally nominating it. Foul or no foul?

K.Flyer

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Foul committed, free ball awarded. Player plays a colour as a free ball without verbally nominating it. Foul or no foul?

Yes, the colour ball should have been audibly nominated or indicated for the ref to know which ball the player is intending to play.

OFFICIAL RULES OF THE GAMES OF SNOOKER
AND ENGLISH BILLIARDS

12. Nominated Ball
(a) A nominated ball is the object ball which the striker declares, or indicates
to the satisfaction of the referee, he undertakes to hit with the first impact
of the cue-ball.
(b) If requested by the referee, the striker must declare which ball he is on.
13. Free Ball
A free ball is a ball, other than the ball on, which the striker nominates as the
ball on when snookered after a foul.

Spudman_20000

There was an free ball instance during this tournament, think it was Milkins. He nominated the yellow but missed the pot into the middle pocket. He left his opponent snookered. I thought the rule was that you cannot snooker a player off a free ball? Maybe the rule doesn't apply if it wasn't deliberate.

GreeBo

Spudman_20000 wrote: »

There was an free ball instance during this tournament, think it was Milkins. He nominated the yellow but missed the pot into the middle pocket. He left his opponent snookered. I thought the rule was that you cannot snooker a player off a free ball? Maybe the rule doesn't apply if it wasn't deliberate.

Can't snooker with the free ball, as in behind it.

Spudman_20000

GreeBo wrote: »

Can't snooker with the free ball, as in behind it.

Ah ok, so you could play the nominated free ball and snooker a player behind a different ball?

Mysterypunter

Yes

Gaoth Laidir

So even if the ball being taken as a free ball is clearly obvious, the player still must nominate it, yes?

Mysterypunter

Think its a foul, 4 away if you don't, however obvious

Brian?

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

So even if the ball being taken as a free ball is clearly obvious, the player still must nominate it, yes?

No, it’s the same as taking a colour after a red if it’s obvious you don’t have to nominate verbally.

Brian?

Mysterypunter wrote: »

Think its a foul, 4 away if you don't, however obvious

I really don’t think so.

AllForIt

You have to nominate which colour ball is red because otherwise if you missed the nominated colour altogether and hit another colour then that would rightly be a foul. You can only pick one colour ball to be a temporary red, not all the colours.

AllForIt

Brian? wrote: »

No, it’s the same as taking a colour after a red if it’s obvious you don’t have to nominate verbally.

Edit: I'm not talking about free ball scenarios in what follows

If you completely missed a colour one was clearly going for, and the cue ball hit another colour and it potted, is that a foul? I don't think so, the aim is to pot a colour after a red and that's what happened, intentional or not.

K.Flyer

AllForIt wrote: »

If you completely missed a colour one was clearly going for, and the cue ball hit another colour and it potted, is that a foul? I don't think so, the aim is to pot a colour after a red and that's what happened, intentional or not.

But not in the context of free ball after a foul.
As per the extract from the rules that I posted above, the free ball must be clearly indicated to the referee.

AllForIt

K.Flyer wrote: »

But not in the context of free ball after a foul.
As per the extract from the rules that I posted above, the free ball must be clearly indicated to the referee.

Yes agreed, I edited my post as I was a bit unclear about what scenario I was talking about.

Gaoth Laidir

So there's still some disagreement about the free ball scenario. Some are saying you must nominate it, no matter what, others are saying you don't have to if it's obvious.

My understanding was that you must VERBALLY nominate the colour every time (if it's not verbal then it's not nominated). Others are saying not if it's obvious. I'm asking as it came up in a local tournament recently and the other player was adamant that it was obvious (and it was) and therefore not necessary to nominate. For me, it should have been.

Brian?

AllForIt wrote: »

Edit: I'm not talking about free ball scenarios in what follows

If you completely missed a colour one was clearly going for, and the cue ball hit another colour and it potted, is that a foul? I don't think so, the aim is to pot a colour after a red and that's what happened, intentional or not.

That’s 100% a foul.

Inviere

AllForIt wrote: »

I don't think so, the aim is to pot a colour after a red and that's what happened, intentional or not.

Any colour other than the one nominated/implied by the player, is not a viable ball to pot. It's without doubt a foul to do so.