Accidentally Moving a Still Ball While Pocketing the 8 Ball
8/16/2021 10:15:58 PM
Accidentally Moving a Still Ball While Pocketing the 8 Ball
What is the penalty for accidentally knocking an opponent's ball with your body while pocketing the 8 ball?
In this scenario, the 8 ball is legally pocketed. During the final shot, the shooting player's breast moved the opponents 10 ball. The 10 ball did not strike any other ball.
Is this a win for the player who pocketed the 8 ball?
user1629177357This question relates to the following billiard rules:
Accidentally Moving a Still Ball While Pocketing the 8 Ball
Replies & Comments
RayMills on 8/17/2021 4:24:21 AMThe basis of any question about the rules of pool should include what organization or league under which the game is being played. You did not say, but I assume you are playing some version of 8-Ball pool because you said the 10 belongs to the opponent. So, you need to tell us whether non-cue ball fouls are also fouls. If they are, then the 8-ball wasn't legally pocketed. If there is no organization / league involved, the players needed to discuss this situation (and many others) before the game began.
Of course, it sounds like the moved 10-ball had no effect on the outcome of the shot. Within the tenet that pool should be a game brimming with sportsmanship, an opponent would be praised to demand that the game be awarded to the shooter, especially if the shooter was the only person to declare the movement. On the other hand, if the stakes are high and teammates are out for blood (and no referees are involved), every rule might be enforced to the utmost!
billiardsforum on 9/7/2021 6:03:21 AMTo supplement Ray's answer, here are the relevant parts from the official World Pool-Billiard Association rules (which are typically the basis of most league's and organization's specific rules).
Emphasis on parts below are ours.
The official name for what happened is a "touched ball". We'll assume it was accidental, and thus, is a standard foul.
6.6 Touched Ball
It is a foul to touch, move or change the path of any object ball except by the normal ball-to-ball contacts during shots. It is a foul to touch, move or change the path of the cue ball except when it is in hand or by the normal tip-to-ball forward stroke contact of a shot. The shooter is responsible for the equipment he controls at the table, such as chalk, bridges, clothing, his hair, parts of his body, and the cue ball when it is in hand, that may be involved in such fouls. If such a foul is accidental, it is a standard foul, but if it is intentional, it is 6.17 Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
Knowing that the shooting player committed a "standard foul", we can look at the 8 ball list of reasons you lose the rack (the game):
3.8 Losing the Rack
The shooter loses if he:
- (a) pockets the eight ball and fouls.;
- (b) pockets the eight ball before his group is cleared;
- (c) pockets the eight ball in an uncalled pocket; or
- (d) drives the eight ball off the table.
These do not apply to the break shot. (See 3.3 Break Shot.)
This tells us that the shooting player loses the rack.
Accidentally Moving a Still Ball While Pocketing the 8 Ball
- Title: Accidentally Moving a Still Ball While Pocketing the 8 Ball
- Author: user1629177357 (Deva Ward)
- Published: 8/16/2021 10:15:58 PM
- Last Updated: 9/7/2021 5:51:54 AM
- Last Updated By: billiardsforum (Billiards Forum)
