TAKING THE BISQUE - An article by Mike Steer
Bisque taking is not an exact science and I am sure there
will be people reading this who will disagree .
Please understand that this is for the comparative
beginner so if you are not in that category you might
want to skip this article altogether.
The half bisque gets a bad press because you cannot
score after taking it (you can’t run a hoop or peg out) so
people think it has a limited use. Don’t you believe
it.
At the start of a game, players will often take a
full bisque in the belief that they can get in front of hoop
1 with all the other balls nicely placed for a 4-ball break. It never quite
works out somehow and they end up taking another full
bisque to get going. Look
at how much sorting out you have got to do in this situation
and consider taking that half bisque first thus saving one
of those precious full bisques for later.
The half bisque has a very good ‘get out of jail
free’ value. I
once lost a game when I made a bad mistake and set up my
opponent with an easy finish.
I forgot I had a half bisque and could have used it
to great effect.
One other thing to consider is the match winning ploy
of leaving your opponent cross-wired at hoop 1, whilst you
scarper to the other end of the lawn (leaving them a shot at
you of course). Imagine
you have just taken your first ball round and your other
ball is for hoop 1. This is a leave that has to be planned
ahead and can be very difficult to accomplish for a
beginner. This
is where the half bisque comes in (if you haven’t already
spent it). You
will often find that you just about manage the cross wiring
but not quite and the thing turns into a nightmare. Not to worry, the
half bisque gives you a whole new turn with all the balls
live again and you find you can do a perfect cross-wiring.
And now to the full bisque. Think of bisques
as money to be spent. You
need to budget and you want value. Taking a bisque
just to move your ball 6 inches (15 cm) before you take
another bisque to run a hoop whilst the other balls on
the lawn are languishing on some distant boundary, is not
good value. Sometimes,
I know, everything is nicely set up and you just need to get
through that hoop and …..
Quite often however there is so much more you can do.
If you still have a continuation shot left in your
turn, just stop. Have
a good look round. Have
you left a ball behind?
Is the pioneer for the next hoop a long way out from
where you had hoped it would end up? Pick the ball that
is most out of place and use your continuation shot to get
‘behind’ it. By
this I mean pick a spot from which you can rush the stray
ball to somewhere useful. Having taken a bisque, you can
play each of the balls in turn before you have to run that
hoop. Think of
a bee visiting flowers, one by one.
Let’s take an example. You are for hoop 2 and your
approach shot falls a bit short creating a very angle hoop
shot. You are
playing red. The
blue ball is your escape ball and you are quite happy with
that but the black, your pioneer at hoop 3 is near the north
boundary and the pivot ball (yellow) has strayed a bit from
where you like it. Use
your continuation shot to go off the lawn on the north
boundary close to the black ball. Choose your spot
carefully because when red is put on the yard line you want
a rush on black towards hoop 3. Don’t be afraid to
go and survey the scene before you take this shot. Take off from
black (which hopefully has been knocked nearer to the hoop)
and get close to the pivot ball . Roquet this, again
nudging it in to place and finally take off to blue. Again think about
how you should approach blue as you might want to improve
that too.
Of course there are more obvious situations where you
will decide for yourself but the principle is the same each
time. Suppose
you have just come onto the lawn and your opponent has left
you well separated and along way from his/her balls. If you have plenty
of bisques left you might consider a shot with the intention
of taking a bisque if you miss. But even here you
have a choice and perhaps there is a worthwhile shot and one
that doesn’t yield quite as much. For example, in
this situation take a shot at your opponent’s balls which
are together. This
is not dangerous because you are intending to take a bisque
and there is a good chance that you can get a useful rush on
the other ball. If
you shoot at your own ball, well OK you might get lucky but
if not what do you do?
Leave them together for your opponent to exploit or
take a bisque. Now
what? a long dodgy take off that might go off or fall short? On the other hand
if your opponent has left one of your balls close to the
boundary you could shoot to miss deliberately so that when
your ball is replaced on the yard line, you have a useful
rush.
So, to summarise:
Use a half bisque
and a full bisque to make sure you get a good start.
Use a half bisque to
set up a fiendish cross-wiring at your hoop.
Use a half bisque as
a 'get out of jail' card that will give you the confidence
to take a dangerous but possibly fruitful shot without
worrying about the consequences if you miss.
Use a full bisque to
improve the position of the balls on the lawn.
Think ahead and play
your continuation shot to a spot where taking the bisque
will give you a rush to somewhere useful.
If your opponent has
left a ball close to, but not on the boundary yard
line, this is a gift for the bisque-taker. Walk over to the
ball close to the boundary and put your mallet down as if
replacing a ball on the yard line. Decide where your ball
has to go off, for
it to come back on in a rush position. You are not
allowed to mark this spot but you can leave your mallet
there and go back to the ball you are about to play to see
where you should send it off.