Part 195
2579. The French Game (or Sans Egal).
The French Game (or Sans Egal) is played as follows:--The player who wins the lead takes four b.a.l.l.s, leaving the other four for his opponent, and placing the black ball on the spot. He plays at it from baulk, and scores all he can. The other player then strikes up one of his b.a.l.l.s, and so on alternately; the maker of the highest number of points winning. While the coloured ball is on the table, it must be struck, and when it is holed it counts double, in addition to any other score made by the same stroke. If either player hole his adversary's ball he forfeits to him the number scored by the stroke.
If he fail to strike the black ball he forfeits five points. The rules as to rebounding b.a.l.l.s, foul strokes, &c., are the same as in the ordinary game.
2580. Old Canon Game.
Old Canon Game, sometimes played on a table without holes or pockets, consists entirely of canons--two b.a.l.l.s struck in succession by the player's ball. The game, 50 or 100 up, each canon counting two points, is played with three b.a.l.l.s only--a white, spot-white, and black (or red) ball. When played on the ordinary bagatelle table, the holes filled after making a canon score to the player. One point is forfeited for missing the white, five points for missing the red; and all points made without a canon. The players go on alternately, the first who scores the stipulated number winning the game.
2581. Other Games.
Mississippi, Trou Madame, c.o.c.kamaroo, and other toy-games are sometimes played on the bagatelle table; but they need no description.
To play well at any of the games, however, requires great care and nicety. Much depends on the manner of holding and using the cue, and the slight degree of force employed in making the stroke. Some experts are able to fill all the holes at one essay, placing the coloured b.a.l.l.s in the 8 and 7 at the first stroke, and then playing direct at the cups or at the cushion, till all the b.a.l.l.s are holed. At the French Game a hundred or more canons at a break is by no means unusual.
2582. Billiards.
This well-known game of skill is played on a rectangular table with three ivory b.a.l.l.s,--white, spot-white, and red; the object being to drive one or other of them into either of the six pockets, and to strike one ball against the two others. The first stroke is known as a hazard, and the second as a canon. The instrument for striking at the ball, is a long tapering stick called a cue; and the game is scored by hazards, canons, misses, and forfeitures. The ball struck with the cue is known as the player's ball; the ball played as the object ball.
A ball struck into a pocket, is a winning hazard; the player's ball falling into a pocket after contact with the white or red, is a losing hazard. Three princ.i.p.al games are played on the billiard table--the English game, or Billiards, Pyramids, and Pool.
2583. English Billiards.
English Billiards,--the best of all the games,--is usually played 50 or 100 up. The points are thus reckoned--three for each red hazard, two for each white hazard, and two for each canon. A coup--that is running in a pocket, or off the table without striking a ball--is a forfeiture of three points,--a miss gives one point to the adversary.
The game commences by stringing for lead and choice of b.a.l.l.s. The red ball is placed on the spot at the top of the table, and the first player either strikes at it, or gives a miss. Every time the red ball is pocketed, it is replaced on the spot. He who makes a hazard or canon goes on playing till he fails to score. Then the other goes on, and so they play alternately till one or other completes the required number of points, and wins the game.
2584. Pyramids.
Pyramids is a game played by two persons, or by four in sides, two against two. Fifteen b.a.l.l.s are placed close together in the form of a triangle or pyramid, with the apex towards the player, thus:
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
The centre of the apex ball covers the second or pyramid spot; and the first player strikes at the ma.s.s with a white ball from baulk.
Pyramids is a game consisting entirely of winning hazards, and he who succeeds in pocketing the greatest number of b.a.l.l.s, wins. A single point is scored for each winning hazard, and a forfeiture of a point for each losing hazard; the game being usually played for a stake--so much (say 6d.) a ball, and so much (say 1s. 6d.) for the game.
2585. Pool.
A game played by two or more persons, consisting of winning hazard only. Each player subscribes a certain stake to form a pool or gross sum, and at starting has three chances or lives. He is then provided with a marked or coloured ball, and the game proceeds thus:
The white ball is placed on the spot, and the red is played on to it from baulk. If the player pocket the white he receives the price of a life from the owner of the ball; but if he fail, the next player (yellow) plays on the red; and so on alternately till all have played, or till a ball is pocketed. When a ball is pocketed, the striker plays at the ball nearest his own, and goes on playing as long as he can score. The first player who loses his three lives can star: that is, he can purchase as many lives as are held by the lowest number remaining in the pool. The order of play is usually red upon white, yellow upon red, green upon yellow, brown upon green, blue upon brown, black upon blue, spot-white upon black, white upon spot-white; and this order is retained so long as all the original players remain in the game. When the number of players is reduced to two, they can, if they possess an equality of lives, as two each, or one each, divide the stake; or they may by agreement play out the game for the entire pool.
2586. Single Pool.
Single Pool is a game for two players, the white winning game, originally played with two b.a.l.l.s, for a money stake upon each life.
2587. Nearest Ball Pool.
Nearest Ball Pool is the same as ordinary pool, except that the player, after taking a life, plays upon the ball nearest to the upper or outer side of the baulk; or, if his ball be in hand, upon the ball nearest the baulk semi-circle.
2588. Black Pool.
Black Pool is ordinary pool with the addition of a black ball, which is placed on the centre spot. When, after pocketing the ball proper to be played on, the black is struck into a pocket, each player pays the price of a life to the striker.
2589. Skittle Pool.
Skittle Pool is pool with three b.a.l.l.s and twelve little skittles, placed in order round the table. A stake is determined on, and a price paid out of the pool for every skittle knocked over after striking a ball. An amusing game for a party of ladies and gentlemen.
2590. Penny Pot.
Penny Pot is pool without restriction as to the number of lives, played by any number of players, who pay a penny each to the taker of every life or winning hazard. For the scientific principles of billiards, and the full rules of the several games played on the billiard-table, the reader is referred to the excellent little shilling volume, "Billiards Made Easy,"[1] and the more elaborate treatise by Captain Crawley.
[Footnote 1: _Billiards made Easy_. With the scientific Principles of the Spot-stroke, and the Side-stroke, familiarly explained: By Winning Hazard. Ill.u.s.trated by practical diagrams. With a chapter on Bagatelle: Houlston and Sons.]
2591. Boss; or the Fifteen Puzzle.
Apparently simple, this game is really difficult of solution, Fifteen cubes of wood, severally marked from I to 15, are placed indifferently in a box made to hold sixteen; thus:
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9
11
3
7
1
2
3
4
------+------+------+------
------+------+------+------
8
14
10
15
5
6
7
8
------+------+------+------
------+------+------+------
6
12
13
2
9
10
11
12
------+------+------+------
------+------+------+------
5
1
4
13
14
15
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The puzzle consists in sliding the cubes from square to square, without lifting them or removing them from the box, until they are placed in their natural order. It is easy enough to move the squares up to 12; but to get the last three into order is often a puzzle indeed. If the figures fall in either of the following positions--13, 15, 14; 14, 13, 15; or 15, 14, 13--the problem is unsolvable; it follows, therefore, that the last row must be either 14, 15, 13; or 15, 13, 14. If you get the cubes into either of these positions, you can easily bring them right; but if you cannot, the only way is to begin the game all over again. Several other ways are suggested.
Cavendish (Mr. H. Jones) thinks he solves the puzzle by turning the box half round; but as this is only possible when the figures are on circular pieces of wood, his solution merely cuts the knot, instead of unravelling it.
2592. The Thirty-Four Puzzle.
This is an adaptation of tho old magic square, which amused the philosophers of old. A sketch of it appears in Albert Durer's painting of Melancholia. Sixteen discs or squares, numbered from 1 to 16, are placed indifferently on the table--or they may be in the fifteen box; and the puzzle is to so arrange them as to make the sum of the figures add up to 34, whether counted up, down, across or angularly. Here is the solution:
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1
15
14
4
1
8
13
12
------+------+------+------
------+------+------+------
12
6
7
9
14
11
2
7
------+------+------+------
------+------+------+------
8
10
11
5
4
5
16
9
------+------+------+------
------+------+------+------
13
3
2
16
15
10
3
6
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This is the simplest; but a more elaborate plan is to so arrange the figures that any form of the blocks will form a square sum of 34. See the annexed solution, which the ingenious in may still further complicate:
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16
3
2
13
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5
10
11
8
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9
6
7
12
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4
15
14
1
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2593. Fox and Geese.
