Guidelines for ‘Foul and a Miss’ rule at SnookerSA

The full ‘Foul and a Miss’ rule can be found in the WPBSA rules at https://wpbsa.com/rules/ under ‘Rules of the game/Snooker’ section 14.

At SnookerSA we apply modifications to the rule to make it more amenable to Club players for most club competitions. Here is how we apply the rule as follows:

A Miss may only be called once for each situation where striker fails to hit the ball on.

A Miss cannot be called if before or after the stroke penalty points are required by either player.

A Miss cannot be called if it is impossible to hit the ball on.

To the best of his ability

An important part of this rule is section 14(a) is “The Striker shall, to the best of his ability, endeavour to hit the ball on”. In general players always attempt to hit the ball on to the best of their ability, and as such a miss should not be called unless:

1. The referee considers that the player has the ability to hit the ball on and has gained a possible advantage by the miss.

2. If striker chooses a ball on that is harder to hit than another ball that is on.

3. There is a clear path in a straight line from the cue-ball to any part of any ball on.

Clear path in a straight line

Regarding point 3 above:

This can be extremely harsh considering that we are not professional players and indeed some of us are just beginners. Consider a full table length shot where the cue-ball is hampered by another ball (sometimes called a ‘Chinese snooker’) and there is 1 mm of the object ball visible. According to the WPBSA rules then this is a Miss every time. Take into account that we are not professional players Referees may give leniency in this situation to go against the rules and NOT call a miss.