Straight rail

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Straight rail, also called straight billiards, three-ball billiards, or the free game, is a discipline of carom billiards that is the most basic form of the game. The game is played on a pocketless unmarked billiard table, usually 10 by 5 feet (3.0 m × 1.5 m) in size, and three billiard balls, one, usually white, that serves as the cue ball for the first player, a second cue ball for the second player (differentiated by a spot or by being yellow), and an object ball, usually red. The object of the game is to score points by striking the player's assigned cue ball with a cue stick so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball in the same stroke, known as a carom. Games are played to a predetermined number of points. Straight rail, from which other carom games derive, is thought to date to the 18th century, although no exact time of origin is known. The derivation of the name straight rail is not clear, though may be a reference to the pocketless table. An early mention appears in the March 23, 1881, edition of The New York Times, wherein it is referred to as "the straight rail game." In 1855, the first public stakes straight rail match in the U.S. took place in San Francisco. The contestants, Michael Phelan and a Monsieur Damon of Paris battled for seven hours, but the high run, set by Phelan, was just nine points. A technique soon developed, known as "crotching", referring to the space near the corner of a table where the rails meet.