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Hi

I'm having a little trouble interpreting the touching ball rules.

I'm OK with the rules if the white ball is to be played away when touching one ball, or indeed when the white is in contact with one of my balls and at the same time one of my opponent's balls (where I can play into the opponent's ball and move it just so long as I don't move mine as I play the shot).

What the rules do not seem to cater for is the following:-

1) Touching two of my own balls. My guess is that I've got to play away in such manner as to avoid moving either of them, as an inference from the rule about touching one of mine and one of yours at the same time, and as with touching just one of mine, it will be deemed to be legal as long as I touch a cushion with something. However, it could also be inferred that I'm allowed to move one of mine, as long as I don't move my other one?

Please could someone clarify this for me?

2) Touching two of my opponent's balls. My guess is that I can move one of them but not both as I play my shot, and then have to make contact with my own object ball in order to be a legal shot. Once again this is inferred from the rule about being allowed to move an opponent ball but not my own from the rules. However, it could also be inferred that I'm not allowed to move either, as there isn't anything specific about it in the rules and each of the opposition balls can be looked at individually as though I was just touching one, under that rule?

Please, again, could someone clarify.

3) Touching one of my balls and the black at the same time. Does the touching two balls rule permit me to move the black as I strike the cue ball, or not, as it is not an opponent's ball under a strict interpretation of the rule?

Yet again, please could this be clarified.

4) Touching one of my opponent's balls and the black.

Is the answer to this the same as the answer to 2, until such time as the black is my object ball, at which time the black becomes one of my balls and we can clearly revert to the rules?

Obviously, the time taken to answer this question for me will not eat into the one minute allocated for your next shot.

hth