Rules of snooker satisfied that the player was only positioning the ball, and not playing a shot or preparing to play one. When a player commits a foul, the opponent receives penalty points equal to the value of the ball "on", the value of the highest valued ball involved in the foul, or 4 points, whichever is greatest. When multiple fouls are made in one shot, only the most highly valued foul is counted. Penalty points are therefore at least 4 points and at most 7. Not hitting the ball "on" first is the most common foul. A common defensive tactic is to
The Downside Ball Game tree in the great storm of 1990 and rebuilt with insurance money. At about the same time the whole area was re-surfaced with tarmacadam and its lower reaches grassed over.This, then, is the Ball Place that we know today and, in all essentials, its wall and court have not changed since 1854, but the game lingered on with periodic outbreaks of enthusiasm for what was inevitably becoming an antiquarian curiosity until surface disrepair during the Second World War made the courts virtually unplayable. It has proved itself to be such a useful and versatile space that it could be deemed