Grady's Grad School

Crossing Banks and Kisses

By Grady Mathews

A "crossing" bank is o­ne where the cue ball gets out of the "kiss" area before the object ball reaches it. There are ways to tell if a shot qualifies as a crossing bank, and o­nce you can do so, you can use inside english to avoid the kiss.

When a shot is a crossing bank (don't forget the above definition!), and it is desirable to use inside english (whichever way the object ball is "cut," say, to the right, striking the cue ball o­n its right-hand side would be inside english), there are two simple rules to tell when there is a kiss:

1. If the cue ball can be pocketed in the straight-ahead or nearly straight-ahead pocket, going by the ball to be banked, there is no kiss with inside english.

2. If the cue ball cannot be pocketed shooting by the object ball, there is a kiss if inside english is used.

3. If there is half of a pocket or so for the cue ball to pass by the object ball, the kiss can be beaten by shooting easily and adding about a tip of english.

In Diagram 1, my pocket is "A," and the 1 ball is the last ball o­n the table. As much as I would like to be aggressive here, I just cannot beat the kiss. As this particular shot lies, I cannot beat the kiss with outside english, either.

The safety I prefer in this instance is to two-rail the 1 ball to Pocket "R" using left-hand english and about a quarter-ball hit. The 1 will end up around Pocket "R," and the cue ball will go two rails across the table and end up at about Point "P."  Note that this is the way you would play the object ball if your pocket were "R."

In Diagrams 2, 3, and 4, see if you think that there is a kiss using inside english.  Our pocket is always "A." I suggest practicing these shots until you instantly can tell when a crossing bank is a kiss shot.

Crossing banks often merit extra scrutiny, whether they are in o­ne-pocket or bank pool.  A kiss in the heat of battle can be disastrous. 

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