Help with foul shot rules

Question: I'm playing the green. I hit and pot the green but the cue ball goes on and knocks the black into a pocket. Is that a penalty of 4 or 7? Half the players in our club say it's 4 because I hit the "ball on" properly, half say it's 7, regardless.

It is a foul of seven. Here is I think, the relevant extract of the rules:

value of the ball on or ball concerned, whichever is higher, by:
(i) striking when any ball is not at rest;
(ii) striking before the referee has completed the spotting of a colour that
is not a free ball;
(iii) causing a ball not on to enter a pocket;

Hope that helps

I'm not sure about this.

Dan-cat wrote:I'm not sure about this.

AAh - it's probably me DC. If the black goes in on a sot on the green, is it not 7 away?

Badsnooker player is right, Dan-cat.

Always default to the highest value.

Because of the way the rules are written, they can be difficult to understand.

For example:

If you go for the black but pocket the green, it’s a foul shot while going for a ball worth seven points. So foul seven.

If you go for the green but pocket the black, it’s a foul shot while going for a ball worth three points but the value of the ball fouled is worth seven points. So foul seven.

Just to confuse things, though, if you go for a red and miss it completely and the cue-ball hits the pink and then the black, it’s foul six. This is because once the cue-ball has hit the first ball it can do whatever it likes apart from going into a pocket or coming to rest not on the bed of the table or pocketing a ball no on.

In the same scenario, if the black was pocketed, it would be foul seven. There were two fouls here. The first was hitting the pink rather than the red and the second was pocketing a ball not on. The higher value takes precedence.

I hope this is clearer than mud!

Tim Dunkley (World Snooker coach)

Apologies to all concerned - I misread the OP.

I thought the scenario was: player goes for a red, hits it but misses, the white goes in-off glancing off the black on the way to the pocket.

This would be 4 right?

Yeah - that would be 4

Hi All.

Wondered if someone could help me with this please.

I went for a Red, and hit it, i then hit the Pink, but then went in off with the white. Is it 4 points or 6 points Please.

that would be foul four. the pink is not a ball concerned in the foul.

(assuming the red was the ball on)