For the most part, PACS follows the rules of BCAPL as its foundation. With that said, we do differ on some rules. It is important to recognize that this is an amateur pool league and that we don’t have the luxury of having referees overseeing every shot. In deciding how we ( PACS ) want to treat certain situations, consideration should be given to the ability to peacefully enforce certain rules as well as trying to reduce conflicts that arise because some rules are ambiguous to many players. One such situation that occurs sometimes is when a player is bridging over another ball ( either with a mechanical bridge or just a regular hand bridge). In short, the BCAPL rule ( which can be found in the BCAPL rule set found under “Captains Area —> Official Rule Set —> 2012-2014 BCAPL Rulebook”) states that it is sometimes a foul if the object ball being bridged over is disturbed by the cue stick, but it is not always a foul. In other words, it’s not a “one size fits all” rule. The rule book will explain it better than I can but even at that, most of the league players are not going to understand the rule completely and arguments will be commonplace if we try to enforce that it is sometimes (but not always) a foul. Therefore, this is how we will be treating these situations. If a ball is being bridged over and is inadvertently moved either with a piece of equipment ( including the cue stick or bridge) or by a part of the shooters body, the opponent will have the option to restore the ball or leave where it comes to rest. IT WILL NOT BE A FOUL EVEN IF THE BALL BEING BRIDGED OVER IS CONTACTED WITH THE CUE STICK ( OR THE BRIDGE) WHILE IN THE SHOOTING MOTION UNLESS THAT OBJECT BALL THEN CONTACTS ANOTHER OBJECT BALL. In the event that the ball being bridged over is moved inadvertently and that object ball then contacts the cue ball, IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED A FOUL. This differs with the official BCAPL rule, but I believe that this will be the best way to handle these situations since a referee isn’t present and there would likely be arguments on whether the object did or did not contact the cue ball.
