A little off topic, but this thread reminded me of something quite strange I saw once. Anyone who was at the APA Singles Regionals in Omaha in 1988 might remember this. During the Womens' Finals a local player (I'll call her Carol), and someone from out of town (Something "Skank" I think) were both down to a single ball in the hill-hill game. Skank was lining up to shoot the wrong ball, and everyone in the room held their breath. Just before the shot one of Skank's friends called out "Skanky, you're solids!" or something to that effect. Skank looked up, switched her shot, and made her last ball.

Before Skank could pocket the eight and win the match, Carol called a foul, since any type of coaching is forbidden in APA singles play. Skank claimed that she hadn't been coached, that she noticed the mistake on her own, and that she should not be punished just because some drunk couldn't keep his mouth shut.

The League Operator couldn't make a ruling (he was sort of clueless) so there was a rather long shouting match, followed by a call to APA headquarters in St. Louis. The final ruling was that since it was a friend of Skank's that had done the "coaching" a rules violation had occurred and Carol should get ball-in-hand.

So finally after about a 30 minute delay that game was allowed to continue. Carol picked up the cueball, sat it in front of the eight, and shot the eight in. She had completely forgotten (a)that she was shooting stripes, and (b)that she still had one ball left. After all of the uproar Carol had lost the game and the match after all.

If there is a moral to this story, I suppose it would be that you need to keep your own ducks in a row, not count on someone else to line them up for you.