Well, I lied and now am back in, for it is just too intriguing. I happened to be scrolling though back pages of banks looking for something and stumbled upon the Midwest Ring Bank Tournament. As we are in the middle of trying to figure out how to properly play this game, I reviewed this match again. An excellent match, that I recommend to view.
At 18:30 of the match the player breaks and makes a ball. He continues to score a couple of banks, and then his next bank goes into the wrong hole and thus brings attention to the fact that balls need to be spotted, but they forget to spot the ball made on the break.
So once again we see errantly pocketed balls are being forgot to be spotted. If you view it, there is no reason not to spot the ball made on the break immediately. The breaker created the action so the resulting action should be squarely placed upon the player to have the ball immediately spotted. Not Fair, to spot the ball later and possibly ruin what otherwise would be a bank for the incoming player, for he did not create the action so should not receive it.
This Midwest ring game is played very close to the way I depicted tournament play. They collect from each player after a score, they raise the amount per scored ball and shake (breaker abstains) after a few games of play. A foul is not a loss of ball.
I am still not sure how they keep track of games played. I suggested coins (quarters) on top of the rail and then the racker places it under the rail for each game played.
I researched ring bank rules on the internet, and they are all over the place, but I never thought to research the Billiard Congress of America rules. I have a '95 and 2004 rule book and to my surprise they have adopted Banks.
The BCA plays ring game by their standard two player bank game rule, which is played that the winner is the winner of each game and not an accumulation of scored banks. Their ring game rule is full rack banks. The winner when 3 players play is the player that scores 5 balls, 4 players is 4 balls, and 5 players is 3 balls. Highest number of players is 5.
Their basic rules;
1. foul is a loss of a scored ball, or owed,
2. jumped ball off the table is a foul,
3. open break ( I could not find what the requirement is), and if not met then the incoming player accepts the table as is, or can break, which I believe is a fair way to do it. A ball made on the break is spotted at the end of the inning,
4. upon a foul other than a cb scratch the table is accepted as is,
Note; there is no remedy for when a ball is forgotten to be spotted.
So we now have America's rule making body that has adopted ring bank game. So that explains why banks are played somewhat the way they are. It also explains my research into ring game rules, that have players loose a scored ball, and balls are held for spotting until the end of the inning.
DCC recognizes that there is a problem with forgetting balls, and therefore in their bank rules they have it as a forgotten ball is spotted after each player has had an inning.
But, in the ring game a forgotten ball once remembered is spotted immediately, whether or not it screws up the players or incoming player's next bank. Very wrong! To be consistent then it should be spotted after each player has had an inning, or better yet after all other balls have been cleared, but who is going to track or remember.
The best way to play is to spot all balls immediately, and eliminate the problem, and make the game fair.
Whitey
