Jacob Schaefer, Sr. tobacco card, circa 1880s‎

Cushion caroms, sometimes called by its original name, the indirect game,^[1] is a carom billiards discipline generally played on a cloth-covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, pocketless table with two cue balls and a third red-colored ball. Jacob (Jake Schaefer Sr (1855 &ndash 1910 nicknamed "the Wizard" was a professional Carom billiards player especially of the straight rail and balkline Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole and in some cases used as a synonym for the game of straight rail from Billiard balls are used in Cue sports, such as Carom billiards, pool, and Snooker. The game is sometimes incorrectly referred to as 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"). The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. ^[2]

Cushion caroms is traceable to 1820s Britain and is a descendant of the doublet game dating to at least 1807, which required the sole object ball to be banked off a cushion before being pocketed or, as it was described in 1833: ". The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located TemplateCuegloss will have to be hacked to support multi-page articles . . no hazard is scored unless it is made by reverberation. "^[3][4][2]

The name of the game is taken from the pre-existing shot. In a cushion carom shot, the cue ball caroms (strikes and rebounds^[5]) off of both object balls with at least one rail being struck before the hit on the second object ball. TemplateCuegloss will have to be hacked to support multi-page articles 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 in favor of the shooter. Ambiguity (Am-big-u-i-ty is the property of being ambiguous, where a Word, term notation sign Symbol, Phrase, sentence, or any ^[6][2]

Cushions caroms was defunct for a number of years, but was revived 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. Balkline (sometimes spelled balk line)is the overarching title of a large array of Carom billiards games generally played with two and a third red, on a -covered Straight rail had for a time been falling into disfavor based on frustration by spectators with skill developments which allowed top players to monotonously score a seemingly endless series of points with the balls barely moving in a confined area of the table playing area. Infinity (symbolically represented with ∞) comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness 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. ^[2][6]

Instead of stopping long runs as intended, the skills developed at straight rail were transferred over to cushion caroms. Some time between 1881 and 1889 a new nurse was developed for cushion caroms, 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 just before them resulting in a soft graze of both and the same or near the same position repeating. ^[2]

Photograph of Mark Twain and Louise Paine playing billiards

While cushion caroms waxed and waned, the game of balkline was increasingly becoming effective at limited nursing and eclipsed cushion caroms as the game of public match play and tournaments during the era. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910 better known by the Pen name Mark Twain, was an American Humorist, satirist Balkline (sometimes spelled balk line)is the overarching title of a large array of Carom billiards games generally played with two and a third red, on a -covered ^[2] This is not to say that cushion caroms did not retain some popularity with the public. For example, it is known that Mark Twain enjoyed the game on occasion. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910 better known by the Pen name Mark Twain, was an American Humorist, satirist ^[7][8][2]

The first known public exhibition at cushion caroms took place in 1867, won by Joseph Dion over John McDevitt. The first public match was won by "the wizard",^[9] Jacob Schaefer, Sr., and the first and only world tournament at the game, in New York in 1888, was won by Joseph Dion. Jacob (Jake Schaefer Sr (1855 &ndash 1910 nicknamed "the Wizard" was a professional Carom billiards player especially of the straight rail and balkline New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous

The U. S. title at cushion caroms has only been held by six men: Joseph Dion, William Sexton, Maurice Daly, George Slosson and the indomitable Willie Hoppe, who held it for 11 years from 1933 to 1944. William Frederick Hoppe, (b October 11, 1887, Cornwall on Hudson, New York, USA; d Today, cushion caroms 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. The pentathlon (as opposed to the Modern pentathlon) was an athletic event in the Olympic Games and other Panhellenic Games of Ancient 1 balkline, straight rail, 71. 2 balkline and three-cushion billiards. ^[2]

References