 It is governed by the Union Mondiale de Billard, the world governing body of carom billiards.One-cushion carom developed in the late 1860s as an alternative to the game straight rail, in which points are scored by a simple carom off both object balls with no cushion requirement.Straight rail fell into disfavor as skilled top players could score a seemingly endless series of points with the balls barely moving in a confined area of the table playing area.