One-cushion billiards is a

carom billiards Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score or "counts" by ' one's o ...

discipline generally played on a cloth-covered, , pocketless

billiard table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

with two

cue ball A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball pro ...

s and a third red-colored ball. In a one-cushion shot, the cue ball off both with at least one rail being struck before the hit on the second object ball. The object of the game is to score up to an agreed upon number of cushion caroms, with one point being awarded for each successfully made. If ''no'' object ball is contacted, one point is deducted. If there is ambiguity as to whether the second ball was contacted, it is resolved against the shooter. It is governed by the

Union Mondiale de Billard The Union Mondiale de Billard (French for World Union of Billiards) is the world governing body for carom (carambole) billiard games. History The organization was founded in Madrid, Spain on 1 June 1959, and is dedicated to promoting the mo ...

, the world governing body of carom billiards.

History

One-cushion billiards developed in the late 1860s as an alternative to the game straight rail, in which points are scored by a simple carom off both object balls with no cushion requirement. Straight rail fell into disfavor as skilled top players could score a seemingly endless series of points with the balls barely moving in a confined area of the table playing area. This was a result of the "rail nurse", a shot in which the object balls are nudged at very soft speed down a rail to a duplicate position again and again. The solution was to require that all shots include contact with at least one cushion before the second object ball is contacted, an idea taken from an early form of

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team ...

called the ''doublet game''. Later, between 1881 and 1889, a new nurse shot was developed for one-cushion, known as the "rub nurse". With the two object balls stacked perpendicular to a rail and just next to it, the rub nurse is performed by gently banking the cue ball off the rail so it softly grazes both object balls before coming to rest near the original position. By the late 1870s, the newer discipline of

balkline Balkline is the overarching title of a group of carom billiards games generally played with two and a red on a -covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, billiard table. The object of the game is to score points, also called ''counts'', by a play ...

increasingly becoming effective at limited nursing. It eclipsed one-cushion billiards as the game of public match play and tournaments until well into the 20th century. One-cushion billiards retained some popularity with the public; it is known that Mark Twain enjoyed the game on occasion. The presently-dominant game,

three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each su ...

, a direct outgrowth of one-cushion billiards also beginning in the 1870s, did not marginalize balkline until the 1920s. The U.S. title at one-cushion billiards has only been held by six men: Joseph Dion, William Sexton, Maurice Daly, George Slosson and

Willie Hoppe William Frederick Hoppe (October 11, 1887 – February 1, 1959) (surname rhymes with "poppy"), was an internationally renowned American professional carom billiards champion, who was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America ...

, who held it for 11 years from 1933 to 1944. Today, one-cushion billiards is rarely played in the U.S., but it still enjoys some popularity in Europe where it is featured as one of the five games making up the annual billiards '' pentathlons'', the other four games being 47.1 balkline, straight rail, 71.2 balkline and three-cushion billiards.

References

{{Cue sports nav Carom billiards