Carom billiards

and billiard balls.]]
**Carom billiards**, sometimes called **carambole billiards** or simply **carambole** (and sometimes used as another word for a game called "straight rail") are a family of billiards games played on cloth-covered tables. In these games, the players strike heavy balls with sticks called cues. Carom billiards tables have no pockets or opening where balls are sunk, that snooker and pool tables do have. In its simplest form, the object of carom billiards games is to score points or "counts" by bouncing one's own ball, called a cue ball, off of the other two balls on the table. The date the first carom game was invented is not exactly known. Also, how exactly the games developed and which game was first is not clear. However, carom billiards games are believed to have started sometime in the 18th-century (the 1700s) in France in Europe.

There are many different games, each with distinct rules, strategies and objects of play, that are all part of carom billiards. Some of the most well known games are *straight rail*, *cushion caroms*, *balkline*, *three-cushion billiards* and *artistic billiards*. There are many other carom billiards games that  aspects of these games, but that are not as well known. For example, the ''champion's game* was a short-lived game that developed during a  period between the invention of straight rail and the invention of balkline. Other games are combinations of these games and other games played on tables *with pockets* (pool or snooker games), such as *English billiards* played on a snooker table and its related games, *American four-ball billiards*, and *cowboy pool'', played on a pool table. also known as starfruit. The accuracy of the fruit origin has been questioned. It has been said to be just a legend, because the fruit does not look very similar to the big red ball that is used in carom games, and there is no direct proof for the fruit explanation.

## Equipment
### Cloth
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Cloth has been used to cover billiards tables since the 15th century (1400s). In fact, the company that became the most famous maker of billiard cloth, Iwan Simonis, was formed in 1453. Most cloth made for carom billiards tables is a type of cloth called "baize" that is dyed green in color, and is made from 100% wool that has fibers that are made to be very straight (a process called worsting). Baize cloth provides a very fast surface allowing the balls to travel easily across the table material, called a "bed". The green color of cloth was originally chosen to look similar to grass. Green has been the common cloth color since the 16th century (1500s). However, the color also serves a useful function. Human eyes more easily see green than any other color. This allows players to keep playing for longer periods of time without straining their eyes.

### Balls
 balls (61.5&nbsp;mm [27⁄16&nbsp;in] diameter), including a red object ball, a plain white cue ball, and a dotted cue ball for the opponent. Some games use an additional object ball.]]
Modern billiard balls are made from "phenolic resin", which is a type of very strong plastic. The size of carom billiards balls is normally 61.5&nbsp;mm (27⁄16&nbsp;in) in diameter. They weigh between 205 and 220&nbsp;grams (7.23 – 7.75&nbsp;ounces; 7.5 is average), and are quite a bit larger and heavier than the balls used for pool games. While UMB, the International Olympic Committee-recognized world carom billiards authority, permits balls as small as 61.0&nbsp;mm (approximately 23⁄8),

Billiard balls have been made from many different materials since the start of the game. For example, they have been made from clay, wood, ivory, plastics (including celluloid, Bakelite, crystalate, and phenolic resin) and even steel. The most common substance from 1627 until the early- to mid-twentieth century was ivory. The search for a  for ivory use was not for environmental reasons but based on how  they were and fear of danger for elephant hunters. The search was made more enticing when a New York billiard table maker offered a $10,000 prize for a substitute material. The first usable substitute was made from a material called "celluloid". Celluloid, which is an early form of plastic, was invented by a man named John Wesley Hyatt in 1868. There was a problem with the material though. Celluloid was unstable and highly flammable, sometimes exploding when people were making it.

### Billiard cues
The stick used to hit billiard balls, called a billiards cue, is different in some ways from the typical pool cue. Compared with pool cues, billiard cues are often shorter, with a shorter end cap (called a ferrule), a fatter bottom portion where the back hand grips the stick (called a butt), a wooden screw in the middle rather than one of metal or plastic, and a smaller tip diameter. These features make the billiard cue stiffer. This stiffness helps players in striking the larger and heavier billiard balls as compared with pool balls. The stiffness also acts to reduce an effect called "deflection" (sometimes called "squirt"). Deflection is an undesirable effect from the use of sidespin. Sidespin is spin placed on a ball by striking it not at its center but off to one side of its center, causing it to spin as it travels down the table. Deflection causes a ball to travel not in a straight line in the direction it was struck.

## History of games
 playing billiards (1694)]]
### Straight rail
Straight rail, sometimes called carom billiards, straight billiards, the three-ball game, the carambole game, and the free game in Europe, is thought to date to the 1700s. No exact time of  is known though. It was called French caroms, French billiards or the French game in early times, taking those old names from the French who made the game . The  of straight rail is simple: one point, called a "count", is scored each time a player's cue ball makes contact with both object balls (the second cue ball and the third ball) on a single strike of the cue ball. Winning is achieved by reaching a certain number of points, agreed to between the players to be the winning number. Despite its differences from straight rail, the champion's game only expanded the areas of the table where many points in a row could be scored before the balls had to be moved to a new position. This was not sufficient to stop nursing.

In the balkline games, rather than drawing balklines a few inches from the corners as was done in the champion's games, the entire table is divided into rectangular spaces. This is done by drawing balklines a certain distance across the length and the width of the table. The lines are drawn a number of inches parallel from each rail. This divides the table into eight rectangular areas called "balk spaces". Additionally, rectangles are drawn where each balkline meets a rail, called *anchor spaces*. The anchor spaces were added to the game to stop nursing techniques that developed especially for the challenges of balkline without them. 12½.2, 14.1, 14.2, 18.1, 18.2, 28.2, 38.2, 39.2, 42.2, 45.1, 45.2, 47.1, 47.2, 57.2 and 71.2 balkline. In its different forms, balkline was the main carom game played from 1883 to the 1930s. After that, other carom games became more popular. This is especially true of three-cushion billiards. Balkline is not very common in the U.S., but remains popular in Europe and the Far East. is thought to have developed in the 1820s in Britain, it developed out of an older game called  the *doublet game*, that dates to at least 1807. The game is sometimes incorrectly called  *one-cushion* or *one-cushion billiards*, which is the direct translation of its name into English from various other languages such as Spanish ("*una banda*") and German ("*einband*").

### Three-cushion billiards
In three-cushion billiards, sometimes called three-cushion carom, three-cushion, three-cushions, three-rail, rails and the angle game, the object is to carom off both object balls with at least three rails being contacted before the contact of the cue ball with the second object ball. Arising sometime in the 1870s, the origin of three-cushion billiards is not entirely known. It is undisputed that the Internal Revenue Collector of the Port of St. Louis, Wayman C. McCreery, made the game popular. At least one publication states he invented the game as well.

The first three-cushion billiards tournament took place January 14–31, 1878 in C. E. Mussey's Room in St. Louis, with McCreery taking part. The tournament was won by New Yorker Leon Magnus. The high run for the tournament was just 6 points, and the high average a .75. The game was infrequently played prior to 1907, with many top carom players of the era saying they did not enjoy it. However, in 1907 after the introduction of the Lambert Trophy, the game became more popular in the U.S. and internationally.

By 1924 three-cushion had become so popular that two very well know players in other billiard areas agreed to play each other in it at a challenge match. On September 22, 1924 Willie Hoppe (last name rhymes with "poppy"), the world balkline champion and Ralph Greenleaf, the world pocket billiards (pool) title holder, played a well-advertised, multiple-day, 600-point match. Hoppe was the eventual winner with a final score of 600–527. The game's  in the U.S. came about in 1952 when Hoppe, then 51-time billiards champion, announced his retirement.

Three-cushion billiards is a very difficult game. Averaging one point per turn at the table is professional-level play, and averaging 1.5 to 2 is world-class play. An average of one means that for every turn at the table, a player makes one point and misses once. This means that the player makes a point on only 50% of his or her shots. The highest run at three-cushion billiards for many years was 25, set by the American Willie Hoppe in 1918 during an exhibition. As of 2007, the high run record is 31 points, shared between Semih Saygıner of Turkey and Hugo Patiño who is originally from Colombia but resides in the U.S. The best game at the standard 50 points in a tournament is 9 innings by the Swedish player, Torbjörn Blomdahl in 2000, and 4 innings (count: 19-11-9-11) by Korean and U.S. national champion, Sang Lee in September 1992 in a game at SL Billiards in Queens, New York.

Three-cushion billiards is the most popular carom billiards game played in the U.S. today, where pocket billiards (pool) is far more widespread. Three-cushion retains great popularity in parts of Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Decades later, the Billiards World Cup Association (BWA) competed with UMB, but faded in the late 1990s due to financial problems. The International Olympic Committee-recognized World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) cooperates with the UMB to keep their rulesets consistent.

### Artistic billiards
In **Artistic billiards**, sometimes called **fantasy billiards** or **fantaisie classique**, players compete at performing 76 planned shots, each assigned a degree of difficulty. Each set shot has a maximum point value assigned for perfect execution, ranging from a 4-point maximum for lowest level difficulty shots, and climbing to an 11-point maximum for shots deemed highest in difficulty level. There is a total of 500 points available to a player. The governing body of the sport is the Confédération Internationale de Billiard Artistique (CIBA).

Each shot in an artistic billiards match is played from a well-defined starting position. In fact, in some tournaments the balls must be placed within two millimeters of a diagrammed position. Each shot must also be done in an established manner in order for points to be awarded. Players are allowed three attempts at each shot. In general,  the 76 shots in the game—even the lowest difficulty 4-point shots—require a high degree of skill, much practice and specialized knowledge to perform. The game is played mostly in western Europe, especially in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

## References
## Other websites 
*Union Mondiale de Billard  — world tournament sanctioning body
*Archival Billiard Resource 
*Animation showing the "rail nurse" with a description