elnino wrote:In what circumstances would a Referee declare:
a) " FOUL, John Virgo 23, Joe Johnson 6"?
b) "PENALTY, John Virgo 7"?
What is the fundamental difference in how play continues after a "FOUL" or a "PENALTY" call by the Referee?
You have me stumped on this one, but it sounds like you have been watching some pretty old video footage. I will do my best with what little information I can discern from the post...
The terms "foul" and "penalty" are both specifically defined in the Rules (well, "penalty points" actually), Section 2. Definitions:
"15. Penalty Points
Penalty points are awarded to an opponent after any foul.
16. Foul
A foul is any infringement of these Rules."
The simple difference then is that the "foul" is the actual breach of a Rule, the "penalty" is the punishment (which is really an award for the opponent) that is the result of the "foul".
As far as the referee's call, he is obliged to call, "Foul" immediately when he notices any breach of the Rules but the call is simple without any detail. Meanwhile, activity continues such as balls rolling around the table, and when the action on the table is completed, the referee will call the resulting break score and penalty points in the form of a): "FOUL,......................................... John Virgo 23, Joe Johnson 6". The reason for the pause is because the penalty imposed may depend on what may happen next. For instance, playing at the pink near a pocket, the white goes immediately in off, but perhaps the pink knocked into the black which has the possibility of falling into a pocket and thereby changing the penalty points to be awarded.
I don't specifically recall ever hearing a call made in the form of b) using the term "PENALTY". The only guess that I can make about this is that the call of "Foul" is intended to be immediate when the breach occurs so that if a referee were to call "Penalty" instead, my assumption is that this is a delayed call of some past foul event of which the referee was unaware and so he had not called, "Foul" at the time of the infringement. Perhaps the player was calling a foul on himself such as Joe Johnson, crouching to play at the red ball, brushed the black ball and so called the foul on himself.
As for the fundamental difference in how play continues, I haven't a clue.
Assuming my interpretation of the "Penalty" call is correct, I am not aware of any difference in how the situation would progress.