RULE CLARIFICATION – RULE 6e; STANDARD FOUL

During the matches this season we have seen several questions around the picking up of the white ball following a foul and whether or not the Ref immediately hands the white to the player.

This has been clarified by the CEO of the International Refs Organisation, who govern the rules.

Under the current guidance, the referee should always endeavour to recover the cue ball following a foul. But the referee doesn’t have to do anything apart from call a foul in the first instance, then the player plays where it lies, requests the referee to pickup the cue ball or finally picks the cue ball up themselves.

Ignore any other discussions because there really is nothing to discuss as it pretty obvious from the rules and the guidance combined, which is all available on the IRO website.