Unluckiest pool shot ever?

[Gary Male]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aleh6fRm_A0

[Gavin Chipper]

Either that or shittest pocket ever.

[Martin Gardner]

Yeah I have a few similar stories. The most recent one was in France, where the games of pool and snooker aren't popular, but we found a local bar with a pool table. But it was bizzare - the pockets weren't off the edge of the table. Basically, they were actually partly on the table, to help you imagine, if a ball was tight on the side cushion (rail in American slang) you could roll it slowly into the middle pocket, and gravity would take over. On the same lines, one shot I wanted to pot a ball that was about 10cm from the pocket, about half ball, and cannon into other balls to develop them. I hit the object ball right into the centre of the pocket, and because I hit it hard, it bounced off the back of the pocket and back onto the table. On the other hand, anything you rolled it, it would take, they were quite 'cone shaped' as well, so you just had to get the ball into the "basin" and gravity would take over.

Another one was a similar incident to the one above where the pocket was clearly broken but that hardly mattered to us. I had a shot into it and played position, and again the ball basically bounced out of the pocket.

On the other side of the coin, I've seen in professional snooker matches on TV the one where the red (or colour) bounces off the table, rolls along the cushion by which I mean on top of it, and into the pocket. I'll have a look on YouTube as well, but Peter Ebdon had the best fluke I've ever seen. Different in many ways, because he was playing a deep screw on a red from the baulk end, miscued and jumped the white in the air, it hit another red, not the intended one, and that red went right in the middle of the pocket. Wow.

[Dan Vanniasingham]

Either that or shittest pocket ever.

That pocket has nothing on this one.
It's not hugely uncommon in the game though. Jonny Archer has been purposefully placing a ball or two into the pocket he's shooting at over the years to prevent the ball spinning back up and out, but as shown in this clip - that doesn't always work either.

[Chris Philpot]

On the other side of the coin, I've seen in professional snooker matches on TV the one where the red (or colour) bounces off the table, rolls along the cushion by which I mean on top of it, and into the pocket.

This clip shows perhaps the most famous such incident, with Alan McManus fluking the brown ball in a turgid match against Nigel Bond at the 2003 World Championships. (Apologies for the poor quality of the clip - it's the best of a bad bunch. It's available in higher quality 1 minute and 53 seconds into this clip.)

As for the cue ball jumping through the air, here's a great example from Bill Werbeniuk.