Proposal #1

Cue ball fouls during timeouts or doubles play.

The current rules state that during a time out or doubles game, in a situation where there is a ball in hand, if a player other than the shooter touches the cue ball for any reason, it is a foul and a ball in hand (provided the player who touched the cue ball is on the shooter's team).

There are three options that we can choose from on this issue.

Keep the rule as it is.

Change the rule so that touching the cue ball is not a foul, but placing it or positioning the cue ball on the table would be a foul.

Do away with the rule altogether and allow anyone to touch the cue ball and place the cue ball and position the cue ball on the table during a ball in hand time out or a ball in hand situation in a doubles game. (Obviously, in a doubles game, the only other person allowed to touch the cue ball would be the shooters doubles partner).

These are the three options that have been discussed. Please comment and/or suggest other options for this rule.

Lenny Erickson

Personally, I think that this is supposed to be a fun, amateur league and this rule runs contrary to that end. Doing away with it would end the possibility of arguments and resentment over something that doesn't influence the outcome of agame.

The most common "fouls" when the wrong player touches the cue ball are generally due to lack of awareness of the rule, players slightly too keen to help their teammate or sometimes just a simple mistake. While many teams just wave such minor infractions off and choose not to enforce ball in hand, doing away with the rule would provide a chance to promote a friendlier approach to an issue that can cast a cloud over a whole match.

My proposal would be to vote on simply whether to keep or scrap the rule as re-wording it could lead to confusion and more problems, as was pointed out previouslly. Obviously, my stance is to get rid of this rule as to me it is a petty "foul" to call.