Trucco (also called trucks, [1] troco, [2] or lawn billiards) is an Italian and later English lawn game, a form of ground billiards played with heavy balls, [1] large-headed cues sometimes called tacks, a ring (also called the argolis or port), and sometimes an upright pin (the sprigg or king). [1] The game was popular from at least the 17th century [1] to the early 20th century, and was a forerunner of croquet, [3] [4] surviving for a few generations after the introduction of the latter.
The oldest name in English seems to be trucks or truck from the Italian trucco and Spanish troco, meaning ' billiard '. [2] The game appears to be derived from jeu de mail and its offshoot pall-mall (the latter having been especially popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as in western continental Europe); both were earlier ground billiards games, using mallets and often featuring a hoop target (then usually made of straw).
Trucco was popular as a country-house pastime in the 19th century. Under the name lawn billiards, it appears as an alternative to croquet in English books of games and pastimes of the period, [5] and was also attested in the United States in this period. [6] Trucco was also played at pubs with large lawns, but apparently died out by the time of World War II. [7] The 1884 edition of Enquire Within upon Everything , a concise household-life handbook and topical encyclopedia, suggested that the game was popular enough in England in the late Victorian era that "the balls, cues, &c., are sold by most dealers in croquet implements". [8]
An English painting of the early 17th century illustrates two fancily-dressed gentlemen playing trucco in small rectangular court without turf (probably clay, and perhaps 10–12 feet (3.0–3.7 m) wide and of larger but indeterminate length) bounded with wooden boards, using scoop-shaped maces, a ring-shaped target mounted upright on the ground, and a single leather or wooden ball barely small enough to fit through the hoop, and well under 1 foot (0.30 m) in diameter, if the scale in the image can be trusted. By the 19th century, the game in the same country was played in a round and usually unbounded area, often a lawn, and there was a ball for each player.
The late-19th-century version of trucco was described in many editions of Enquire Within (spellings are as in the original): [8]
This is a game that may be played by any number of persons in a field or open space. The implements are wooden balls and long-handled cues at the ends of which are spoonlike ovals of iron. In the centre of the Troco ground is fixed a ring of iron, which moves freely on a pivot .... The wooden ball is lifted from the ground by means of the spoon-ended cue, and thrown towards the ring – the object of the player being to pass the ball through the ring; and he who succeeds in making any given number of points by fairly ringing his ball, or canoning against the other balls, wins the game.
Canons are made by the player striking ... balls successively with his own ball fairly delivered from his spoon. Thus ... a clever player may make a large number of points – five, seven, or more at a stroke: two the first canon, two for a second canon, and three for the ring. This, however, is very seldom accomplished.
Considerable skill is required in throwing the ball, as the ring, turning freely on its pivot, twists round on being struck. To "make the ring," it is necessary, therefore, that the ball be thrown fairly through its centre. But in order to get nearer to it a judicious player will endeavour to make two or three canons, if the balls lie within a convenient distance and at a proper angle to each other.
The English rules, as of 1884 [8] (and republished intermittently until at least 1916), [9] called for a circular playing area at least 8 yards (7.3 m) across (often considerably larger), with the rotating-ring port fixed in the center. This was mounted, almost flush with the ground, on a stake (which might be attached to a buried board for additional stability), and was required to turn freely. Each player used a single ball, smooth, spherical, typically made of lignum vitae or boxwood, and weighting 3–5 pounds (1.4–2.3 kg). A ball in-play was manipulated only with a mace (cue), which was long, wooden, and had a curved iron head like a giant spoon. The game did not involve any un-"owned" object ball s; every ball in play was that of a player. Unlike some other forms of ground billiards and indeed of trucco itself, the late English game did not involve a pin target, had a turning instead of stationary port, and required not the rolling of balls along the ground, but rather the tossing of them with the maces. Formal competition was presided over by an umpire, who bindingly settled any scoring disputes. [8]
The game required two players, or more but divided into two teams, and was played to a predetermined number of points (typically 15 or 21); whichever player or team reached this score was the victor. [8] The nature of the scoring system would have been conducive to three or more directly competing players (more than two sides), but Enquire Within does not lay out such a variation.
The game began with players outside the circular playing area. The first player to shoot (presumably determined by coin-toss), used the mace to hurl their ball at the target ring, from any position outside the playing circle the chose, hoping to pass the ball through the ring (but to not go very far past it in the event of a miss). "Making one's ring" permitted another shot. Failing to do so ended that player's turn. After this first ball was put into play, players had two legal shots available: shooting for the ring, or shooting to hit an opponent's ball – a cannon shot (also called a carom in billiards terms, or a roquet in the jargon of croquet). Success at either the ring or a cannon permitted another shot; failure to do either ended the turn. Turns alternated between opposing players (or between teams, with teammates within them also rotating). A successful cannon earned 2 points, and a successful ring 3 points, and it was possible though uncommon to score more than three points on a single shot, such as by cannoning off two balls in series, or bouncing off a ball and through the ring, or throwing through the ring then rolling to cannon a ball. [8]
Each ball in play was always left where it lay after a shot (legal or otherwise); there were no circumstances for ball-in-hand play, other than a ball being driven outside the defined playing circle and thus no longer being plain. In that event, the player to whom it belonged could move it to a preferred spot outside the ring at their next turn and play it from there, as with their beginning shot in the game. In team play, teammates were permitted to assist each other – e.g. with advice, or in attempting to use cannons to drive each other's balls closer to the ring for an easier shot on it, rather than knocking opponent balls further away – but no player was permitted within 4 yards of the ring until their own individual ball was in play. [8]
All fouls cost a 1-point penalty. These included: playing the wrong ball; playing out of turn; knocking over the ring; taking more than a single step while executing a toss; or touching a ball "with hand or person" (except outside the playing area before introducing or re-introducing the ball into play). [8]
The full text of the block quotation above had an error in it, besides the misspelling of cannon ; it incorrectly suggested that a cannon was successfully driving one's ball into an opponent ball and then into another opponent ball; in a typical two-player game, there were only two balls in play, according to the detailed rules in the same publication, [8] so this three-ball requirement could not have been possible. The quoted material was first published in a preface in another edition, without the detailed rules.
The rules of this and other outdoor games did not appear in either the original 1856 version of Enquire Within or the 1858, 1863, 1865, or 1872 editions; croquet appeared in some editions without trucco, as sometimes did other outdoor games, including lawn tennis, and sometimes indoor billiards games. As the publication came out twice or more annually for much of its print run, but only a few editions have been scanned and made available online, it is unclear in what range of editions trucco appeared (first indexed as "troco", later as "lawn billiards"). It did appear in 1884, 1886, 1894, and 1903; the latest known version in which it appeared was published in 1916.
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports are also collectively referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some varieties of English.
Croquet is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded in a grass playing court.
English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two cue balls and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as one used for snooker and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls.
Roque is an American variant of croquet played on a hard, smooth surface. Popular in the first quarter of the 20th century and billed "the Game of the Century" by its enthusiasts, it was an Olympic sport in the 1904 Summer Games, replacing croquet from the previous games.
Golf billiards is a pocket billiards game usually played for money. Unlike the majority of such games, it allows more than two people to play without compromises or rule changes. The game borrows from the outdoor game of golf, which is historically related to the cue sports. It is usually played on 10-foot or 12-foot snooker tables as their size and structure are more appropriate. In 2006 the Billiard Congress of America commented it was more popular than snooker in the United States.
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient, and resilience are important to accuracy.
Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, pocketless billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score points or "counts" by caroming one's own cue ball off both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball on a single shot. The invention as well as the exact date of origin of carom billiards is somewhat obscure but is thought to be traceable to 18th-century France.
Pall-mall, paille-maille, palle-maille, pell-mell, or palle-malle is a lawn game that was mostly played in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is considered a precursor to croquet.
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 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, 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.
Pool is a classification of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the rails, into which balls are shot. Each specific pool game has its own name; some of the better-known include eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool. Eight-ball is the most frequently played discipline of pool, and is often thought of as synonymous with "pool".
Four-ball billiards or four-ball carom is a carom billiards game, played on a pocketless table with four billiard balls, usually two red and two white, one of the latter with a spot to distinguish it. Each player is assigned one of the white balls as a cue ball. A point is scored when a shooter's cue ball caroms on any two other balls in the same shot. Two points are scored when the shooter caroms on each of the three object balls in a single shot. A carom on only one ball results in no points, and ends the shooter's inning.
The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also games such as English billiards that include aspects of multiple disciplines.
Cowboy pool is a hybrid pool game combining elements of English billiards through an intermediary game, with more standard pocket billiards characteristics. The game employs four balls, the cue ball and three others, numbered one, three, and five. A game of Cowboy pool is contested as a race to 101 points, with those points being awarded for a host of different shot types. Dating back to 1908, the game is a strictly amateur pastime.
One-cushion billiards also known as cushion caroms is a carom billiards discipline generally played on a cloth-covered, 10-by-5-foot, pocketless billiard table with two cue balls and a third red-colored ball. In a one-cushion shot, the cue ball caroms off both object balls with at least one rail being struck before the hit on the second object ball. The object of the game is to score up to an agreed upon number of cushion caroms, with one point being awarded for each successfully made. If no object ball is contacted, one point is deducted. If there is ambiguity as to whether the second ball was contacted, it is resolved against the shooter. It is governed by the Union Mondiale de Billard, the world governing body of carom billiards.
Five-pin billiards or simply five-pins or 5-pins, is today usually a carom billiards form of cue sport, though sometimes still played on a pocket table. In addition to the customary three balls of most carom games, it makes use of a set of five upright pins (skittles) arranged in a "+" pattern at the center of the table. The game is popular especially in Italy and Argentina, but also in some other parts of Latin America and Europe, with international, televised professional tournaments. It is sometimes referred to as Italian five-pins or Italian billiards, or as simply italiana. A variant of the game, goriziana or nine-pins, adds additional skittles to the formation. A related pocket game, with larger pins, is played in Scandinavia and is referred to in English as Danish pin billiards, with a Swedish variant that has some rules more similar to the Italian game.
Bottle pool, also known as bottle-billiards and bottle pocket billiards, is a hybrid billiards game combining aspects of both carom billiards and pocket billiards. Played on a standard pool table, the game uses just two object balls, a cue ball, and a 6+3⁄4 inches (170 mm) tall, narrow-necked bottle called a shake bottle or tally bottle, traditionally made from leather, that is placed on the table and used as a target for caroms. Those unfamiliar with the game sometimes mistakenly use its name as a synonym for the very different game of kelly pool. Bottle pool has been described as combining "elements of billiards, straight pool and chess under a set of rules that lavishly rewards strategic shot making and punishes mistakes with Sisyphean point reversals."
Carom billiards and pool are two types of cue sports or billiards-family games, which as a general class are played with a stick called a cue which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiard table bounded by rubber cushions attached to the confining rails of the table.
Ground billiards is a modern term for a family of medieval European lawn games, the original names of which are mostly unknown, played with a long-handled mallet, wooden balls, a hoop, and an upright skittle or pin. The game, which cue-sports historians have called "the original game of billiards", developed into a variety of modern outdoor and indoor games and sports such as croquet, pool, snooker, and carom billiards. Its relationship to games played on larger fields, such as hockey, golf, and bat-and-ball games, is more speculative. As a broader classification, the term is sometimes applied to games dating back to classical antiquity that are attested via difficult-to-interpret ancient artworks and rare surviving gaming artifacts.
Jeu de mail or jeu de maille is an ancient outdoor game, originally from Naples, which gave rise to numerous modern sports, such as golf, croquet, hockey and its variations, and polo. It is a now-obsolete lawn game originating in the Late Middle Ages and mostly played in the Kingdom of Naples and France, surviving in some locales into the 20th century. It is a form of ground billiards, using one or more balls, a stick with a mallet-like head, and usually featuring one or more targets such as hoops or holes. Jeu de mail was ancestral to the games golf, palle-malle and croquet, and, billiards.
Slosh is a cue sport played on a snooker table. The game features seven balls, coloured white, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black, with points being scored for pocketing or playing caroms and cannons off object balls. The game is played to a score of 100 points, or a length of 30 minutes. First played in the early 1900s, not much is known about the game's origins.