Back to sports wiki

Sport from the database

Balkline

Balkline is a family of carom billiards games on a pocketless table with three balls. Lines divide the table into balk spaces; when both object balls are in such a space, only a limited number of further caroms may be scored before at least one ball must leave the space.

LevelVariant FamilyPrecision Sport CategoryPrecision sport

AI-generated illustration: Balkline — AI-generated illustration

Classification

Category Precision sport

Family Precision Sport

Level Variant

Getting started

Kurzbeschreibung Balkline is carom billiards with zone rules on a pocketless table.

Geeignet für Suitable for people who like calm precision, angles, spin and position play.

Cost Medium: club/hall table time and a loan cue are enough; owning a carom cue can come later. Medium depending on billiards club, table time, coaching and equipment. Carom/billiards club or billiard hall with a pocketless carom table. Balkline is best started after simple caroms and free-game basics.

First progress Simple caroms can come fairly quickly; runs and zone position take long practice.

Fitness level easy

Was du brauchst

pocketless carom table
three carom balls
cue
chalk
marked balklines or club table
instruction

First steps

find a carom table
learn basic stroke and follow/draw
play simple caroms
have the balkline rule explained
test 47/2 or 71/2 slowly

Carom club, billiards club, billiard hall with carom table, UMB/CEB-adjacent clubs or a free-game coach.

Respect equipment, keep table spacing and start with controlled strokes rather than power.

Weitere Angaben

Tags balkline, precision-sport, carom-billiards, prazisionssport, praezisionssport, karambolage-billard

Rules and format

Die Grundlagen

Ziel

Strike both object balls with the cue ball and continue runs despite balk restrictions.

Teilnehmer

Individual players, occasionally team/club scoring.

Teamgröße

Singles.

Spielfeld

Pocketless carom table with balklines.

Dauer

Point or inning format by competition.

Wertung

One point per legal carom; the balk rule limits repeated points in the same zone.

Gewinnbedingung

Reach the target score or best result in the format.

Ausrüstung

carom table
three balls
cue
chalk

Wichtige Regelpunkte

foul stroke
failure to contact both object balls
ignoring balk limit
wrong ball
equipment/time breach

Regelquellen

Federations and sources

Federations

Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB)

UNION MONDIALE DE BILLARD Union Mondiale de Billard · world-governing-body · high
The Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB) World Confederation of Billiards Sports · official-federation-profile · high
The European Championships All-In-One 2026 Confederation Europeenne de Billard · official-event-guide · high
Discover the rules for Carom billiards Billards Breton · rules-explainer · medium
balkline billiards Britannica · reference-guide · medium