Inside Billiards INSTRUCTION FROM THE PROS with Robert Byrne
Try This Unusual Shot
Cees Sprangers of The Netherlands, an
editor for World Report 3 Cushion and a tireless compiler of three-cushion facts and figures, sent me the diagrammed shot in October of 1985. It has never been published. At a tournament in Oosterhout (where today the last event of the BWA season is usually held), Christ van der Smissen was faced with a difficult position against Junichi Komori. Rail first off the red ball was possible, but wasn’t easy and wasn’t safe. Drawing back off the white to send the cueball along the dashed line was impossible because of an immediate kiss. Van der Smissen instead played rail first with heavy left English and scored as shown. A miss would have left the balls relatively safe. After the game, Komori, several times champion of Japan, said that he had never seen the shot before. Komori won the match anyway, 20-19 in ten innings.