In September 1995, the rule book was amended to introduce the wildly positively received ‘foul and a miss’ call. Since its early beginnings to present day, this rule has brought more attention and dispute than perhaps any other aspect of the modern game. It’s been 25 years living with miss rule – has it made things better?
Prior to foul and a miss, players were able to deliberately play foul shots with no real consequence in order to leave the cue ball in a safe position. Instead, they would sacrifice penalty points to their opponent as opposed to an opportunity where they could win the frame. Foul and a miss sounds pretty fair now, right?
However, problems occur if a player relies solely on miss points to get themselves into, or even win a frame after their opposition have made a sizeable contribution. A snooker could be laid and all of a sudden, there’s an extra 30 minutes added to the frame. This leads to the additional criticism of how it affects the tempo and entertainment value of the match, particularly for those who tune in occasionally and see a player still attempting the same shot.
There have been times when the miss rule had to be amended such as the 2009 UKC incident between Higgins and O’Sullivan where ROS snookered himself on the colours and accidently nudged a red before taking a shot, thereby cancelling the miss call by Jan Verhaas. Due to the red now being the playable colour on the next shot as opposed to a nominated colour, the rules were shortly after revised to cover rare circumstances such as these.
The other issue can arise when misses are called even if a players attempt at an escape was performed sufficiently not to warrant the call. So let’s say someone shot a three or four cushion escape but very narrowly missed their target yet is still called a miss. Misses are not called if the referee judges that the player played the shot to the best of their ability and got as close as they possibly could have contacting the object ball.
Although, what is often the case is that when a player is trying to make a tricky escape requiring multiple cushions, they are trying to also play safe. Which is where referees are in a tough spot because if there is an easier one-cushion escape available they kind of have to call the miss. Referees have to try and manage these situations along with its ruling to ensure fair calls are made – which can be the trickiest part of their job along with accurate re-spotting. The most recent foul/no miss call that I recall being fair was between Trump and Robertson in their epic Champion of Champions final overseen by Desi Bozhilova.
It’s strongly voiced by many which side of the coin they lie but even when players were consulted about it, while not entirely happy about it, they couldn’t think of a better alternative and stated the rule should probably remain. There may be a better solution out there that exists which we won’t know about for a while but in the meantime, it is pretty rare that exceptional circumstances occur which reignites the spark to debate this hot topic.
I do think referees should be given more authority to use their judgement and discretion to be a little more lenient when calling misses. If a player barely misses their object ball off a three or four cushion escape, misses shouldn’t be called because misses likely wouldn’t be called if it were a one-cushion escape – in the case of a full-table snooker anyway where the nap of the cushions can be a factor.
There should also be more care taken when replacing balls in a foul and a miss situation. Considering the technology available, there should be a far better job done by the markers when aiding the referee in replacing the balls. It happens far too often when balls are replaced and the before/after pictures are like two separate tables. Commentators are quick to commend a good job done when correctly replaced but quite frequently, they just have to keep quiet when they see the glaring differences between the before/after pictures.
What’s your thoughts on the foul and a miss rule? Should it stay or do you know of a better alternative?
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