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Balkline

For other uses, see Glossary of cue sports terms § Balkline.
Cigarette card, c. 1911, showing George Sutton playing balkline
A typical modern balkline table configuration showing lines and anchor spaces. The center box is an artifact of balkline placement, and is never subject to balk space restrictions.[1]

Balkline is the overarching title of a group of carom billiards games generally played with two cue balls and a red object ball on a cloth-covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, pocketless billiard table. The object of the game is to score points, also called counts, by a player striking their cue ball so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball on a single stroke. A player wins the game by reaching a predetermined number of points.[1][2] The table is divided by lines drawn on the surface, called balklines, into marked regions called balk spaces. Balk spaces define areas of the table surface in which a player may only score up to a threshold number of points while the opponent's cue ball and the object ball are within that region.[1][3]

The balkline games were developed to be more difficult to play and less tedious for spectators than the precursor game, straight rail. The top players of straight rail became so skillful that they would score a seemingly endless series of points, with the balls barely moving in a confined area of the table.[1][4] Straight rail, unlike the balkline games, had no balk space restrictions, although one was later added. According to Mike Shamos, curator of the U.S. Billiard Archive, "the skill of dedicated players [of straight rail] was so great that they could essentially score at will."[5] The development of balkline is characterized by a series of back and forth developments, where new rules would be implemented to make the game more difficult and to decrease high runs to keep spectators interested, countered by skill development to account for each new rule.[1][6]

  1. ^ a b c d e Shamos, Michael Ian (1993). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards. New York City: Lyons & Burford. pp. 8, 15, 41, 46, 50–51, 86–87, 104, 108, 157–58, 167, 232–34. ISBN 1-55821-219-1. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  2. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana. Danbury, Ct: Grolier Incorporated. 1998. p. 746. ISBN 0-7172-0131-7.
  3. ^ Cohen, Neil, ed. (1994). The Everything You Want to Know About Sport Encyclopedia. Toronto: Bantam Books. p. 79. ISBN 0-553-48166-5.
  4. ^ Stein, Victor; Paul Rubino (1994). The Billiard Encyclopedia: An Illustrated History of the Sport (2nd ed.). New York: Blue Book Publications. pp. 301–02. ISBN 1-886768-06-4.
  5. ^ Shamos, "Balkline", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards, p. 15.
  6. ^ Hoyle, Edmond (1907). Hoyle's Games (Autograph ed.). New York: A. L. Burt Company. p. 40.
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