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Snooker is a billiards game, played on a special table, with one white cue ball, 15 red balls and 6 balls of various colours (the 'colours'). It is particularly popular in Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and India. There has recently been a surge of interest in East Asia, with players from Thailand, Hong Kong and China entering the rankings. The intention of the game is to score points by causing the red and coloured balls to be played into the pockets along the edge of the table (in all 4 corners and the middle of each of the long cushions).1 History
The game of billiards dates back to the 15th century, but snooker is a more recent invention. In the late 19th century, billiards games were popular among British army officers stationed in India, and players used to experiment with variations on the game. The most commonly accepted story is that, at the officers' mess in Jubbulpore in 1875, Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain (no relation to the later Prime Minister) suggested adding coloured balls to a billiards game. The word 'snooker' was army slang for a first-year cadet. This came to be used for novices to the game, and eventually for the game itself. British billiards champion John Roberts travelled to India in 1885, where he met Chamberlain. Chamberlain explained the new game to him, and Roberts subsequently introduced it to England.
Snooker championships date back to 1916. In 1927, Joe Davis, by far the best player of the time, helped establish the first professional world championshipJoe Davis and Tom Dennis competing in the final of the 1927 World Snooker Championship. The inaugural 1927 World Snooker Championship was organised by the snooker player, Joe Davis, who went on to win the competition by beating Tom Dennis 20 11 in the fin, and won its prize of £6.10s (£6.50, equivalent to about £200 today). He went on to win every subsequent world championship until 1946.
Snooker suffered a decline in the 1950s and 1960s, so much so that no tournament was held from 1958 to 1963. In 1969, the BBC, in order to demonstrate their new colour broadcasts, launched a new snooker tournament, called Pot BlackPot Black was a UK television snooker tournament that played a large part in the popularisation of the modern game. In the late 1960s the BBC started broadcasting in colour, and were looking for programmes that could exploit this new technology. The game. The multi-coloured game, many of whose players were just as colourful, caught the public interest, and the programme's success wildly exceeded expectations.
A few years later, the world championship was first televised, and snooker became a mainstream professional sport. World rankings were introduced in 1977. Money poured into the game, and a new breed of player, typified by Steve DavisAlternate use: Steve Davis (trombonist Steve Davis (born August 22, 1957) is an English professional snooker player. Having turned professional in 1978, Davis won the World Snooker Championship 6 times during the 1980s ( 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 and 1, young, serious and dedicated, started to emerge. The first televised maximum break of 147 was achieved in 1982 by Steve Davis. The top players became sterling millionaires. There was even a comic snooker song in the pop charts: Snooker LoopySnooker Loopy is a humorous song by cockney duo Chas & Dave and the 'Matchroom Mob', released in 1986. Capitalising on the immense popularity of snooker at the time, the song featured a number of snooker players of the era ( Tony Meo, Dennis Taylor, Terry by Chas & Dave .
Perhaps the peak of this golden age was the world championship of 1985The final of the 1985 World Snooker Championship is often cited as the most exciting game of snooker in history. It was played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in the United Kingdom between Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, appearing in his second fina, when 18.5 million people (one third of the population of the UK) watched Dennis TaylorDennis Taylor (born January 19, 1949) is a retired Irish snooker player. He was the 1985 Snooker World Champion, beating Steve Davis on the last black in a tense final. Taylor was renowned for the glasses he wore during matches, the large frame supposedly lift the cup after a mammoth struggle that went on well after midnight.
Snooker remains immensely popular in the United Kingdom, second only to footballFootball is the most widely played and watched team sport in the world. The game is often known as soccer or occasionally association football to differentiate it from other codes of football. Football is a ball game played between two teams of 11 players amongst television viewers.
