Right, can someone clear this up for me please?

I thought, that the rule used to be that a referee could only call a "miss" if a player turned down the opportunity to hit a red that he could see, in order to go for a red that he was snookered on, and subsequently missed.

Am i correct? Has this now changed, so that referees can call "misses" all over the place except in the snookers-required phase of a frame?

IMO, it makes a mockery of the rule when you see a player miss by a gnat's whisker, and the ref yells "miss", giving the opponenet the opportunity to have the cue ball replaced.

What are the guidelines referees are working to on this? Ta.

Terry

 

I believe the ref also calls a miss when he decides that a player didn't make a genuine attempt to hit the ball.

Some of the calls do seem daft to me, i.e. Trying to get out of a snooker, playing the white down the full length of the table, and ending up 2mm short of the object ball. However, the ref may decide that the player could have hit the ball if he hit the cue ball harder, which is true, and subsequently calls a miss a majority of the time...

You could say, that in these situations the player hasn't made a genuine attempt to hit the ball as he could hit the object ball if he played the cue ball a bit harder but, often, doen't want to for fear of leaving something on for his opponent... Who'd be a ref eh?

 

If a player isn't snookered but opts for a tactically difficult shot and misses, then that is a miss. If that happens 3 times then he forfits the frame.
If the player is snookered, say tucked up behind the green but theres loads of reds in the bunch, then players of that calibre should easily be able to hit a red, so if they tactically try to nestle into the bunch, or say tactically go for a harder red on a cushion (rather than the bunch) but miss, then that is a miss, but there is no three strikes and your out since the guy was snookered.

Where the rule hits a grey area is in a safety exchange where there are say only 2 reds left and its anybody's frame. Its seems when a player is genuinely trying to escape a snooker and misses, the ref seems to call a miss if he deems the other player doesn't gain an advantage - irrespective of whether the player was taking the easiest route to hit the ball and it had enough pace.

Justin

 

i agree with using the miss rule in the pro game but in the amateur game - no way!

i play in the local snooker league with some mates, some pretty good, some not, when we play in the league comps they supply a proper ref who uses the miss rule to the same guidelines as the pro refs on the tv. the other week a kid in our teams was snookered rather bad (at least 2 - 3 cushins to escape), he was missing the group of 3 remaining reds my miles, and i dont even think it crossed his mind to try leave the white safe incase he missed , that fact is he just didnt have the skill / experience to make a successful escape, he got called a miss 4 times before fluking an inch away attempt!