Three Cushion Billiards

Three-Cushion Billiards is another game that evolved from straight line billiards. Three-cushion developed for the same reasons that balkline developed, because straightline had become too easily mastered. 3-cushion billiards increased the difficulty by forcing players to hit a cushion with the cue ball between the striking of the first and second object balls.

Three Cushion Billiards

Three-cushion billiards is also known as three-rail, rails, three-cushion carom, three-cushions, the angle game or simply three-cushion. It remains popular in Europe, though it is mostly unknown in America.

As the name would imply, three-cushion billiards requires the ball the hit three cushions before striking the second ball. This means the cue ball must strike an object ball, then at least three rails, then the second object ball, if a point is to be scored. Three-cushion is one of the most difficult carom billiard games for this reason.

The Inception of Three-Cushion Billiards

It is unknown when three-cushion was invented, though it is thought to have come about in the 1860's in the American Midwest. By 1878, three-cushion had its first publicized tournament. The first tournament took place in St. Louis in 1878.

Despite its acceptance as a superior game to classic straight line, three-cushion was not played very often for the next thirty years. Many of the tournament-level players spoke out against three-cushion billiards, refusing to play in three-cushion tournaments.

In 1907, three-cushion became more popular in the U.S. and abroad, mostly due to the inception of the Lambert Trophy. This led to a surge in the play which culminated in 1924, when widely publicized three-cushion event took place.

The 1924 Challenge Match

In 1924, a three-cushion match took place between the World Title-holding pocket billiards champion, Ralph Greenleaf, and the world balkline champion, Willie Hoppe. Hoppe won the match of 600-point three-cushion by a margin of 73 points.

The game maintained popularity until 1952, when Willie Hoppe retired from billiards. Hoppe was the popular 51-time billiards champion, and without such a towering figure in the sport, three-cushion waned into obscurity. Three-cushion billiards has a certain popularity in Europe, though it is almost never played in the United States anymore.

The Reason for Three Cushion's Demise

Three-cushion is one of the more difficult billiards games of note. The average score per inning in professional three-cushion billiards is 1 point, while a world class player might average 1-and-a-half to 2 points.

The U.M.B.

The Union Mondiale de Billiards, or UMB, is the governing body of Three-Cushion billiards these days. The U.M.B. has sponsored three-cushion tournaments since the 1930's.