Carom billiards

Carom (or carambole) billiards

A carom billiard table and billiard balls
Highest governing body	Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB)
First played	18th century France
Characteristics
Contact	No
Team members	Single opponents, doubles or teams
Mixed gender	Yes, sometimes in separate leagues/divisions
Type	Indoor, table, cue sport
Equipment	Billiard ball, billiard table, cue stick
Venue	Billiard hall or home billiard room
Presence
Olympic	Proposed for 2010

Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole (and in some cases used as a synonym for the game of straight rail from which many carom games derive), is the overarching title of a family of billiards games generally played on cloth-covered, 1.5-by-3.0-metre (5 by 10 ft) pocketless tables, which often feature heated slate beds. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score points or "counts" by caroming one's own cue ball off both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball(s) on a single shot. The invention as well as the exact date of origin of carom billiards is somewhat obscure but is thought to be traceable to 18th-century France.

There is a large array of carom billiards disciplines. Some of the more prevalent today and historically are (chronologically by apparent date of development): straight rail, cushion caroms, balkline, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards. There are many other carom billiards games, predominantly intermediary or offshoot games combining elements of those already listed, such as the champion's game, an intermediary game between straight rail and balkline, as well as games which are hybrids of carom billiards and pocket billiards, such as American four-ball billiards, and cowboy pool.