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In 1875, army officer Neville Chamberlain, stationed in Ootacamund, Madras, and Jabalpur, devised a set of rules that combined black pool and pyramids. The word snooker was a well-established derogatory term used to describe inexperienced or first-year military personnel. In the early 20th century, snooker was predominantly played in the United Kingdom where it was considered a "gentleman's sport" until the early 1960s, before growing in popularity as a national pastime and eventually spreading overseas. The standard rules of the game were first established in 1919 when the Billiards Association and Control Club was formed. As a professional sport, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.


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The World Snooker Championship first took place in 1927. Joe Davis, a key figure and pioneer in the early growth of the sport, won fifteen successive world championships between 1927 and 1946. The "modern era" of snooker began in 1969 after the broadcaster BBC commissioned the television series Pot Black, later airing daily coverage of the World Championship, which was first televised in 1978. Key figures in the game were Ray Reardon in the 1970s, Steve Davis in the 1980s, and Stephen Hendry in the 1990s, each winning the World Championship at least six times. Since 2000, Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the most world titles.

Top professional players compete in regular tournaments around the world, earning millions of pounds on the World Snooker Tour, a circuit of international events featuring competitors of many different nationalities. The World Championship, the UK Championship, and the Masters together make up the Triple Crown Series, considered by many players to be the most highly valued titles. Although the main professional tour is open to women, female players also compete on a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker. Competitive snooker is also available to non-professional players, including seniors and people with disabilities. The popularity of snooker has led to the creation of many variations based on the standard game, but using different rules or equipment, including six-red snooker, the short-lived "snooker plus", and the more recent Snooker Shoot Out version.

Snooker originated in the second half of the 19th century in India.[3] In the 1870s, billiards was popular among British Army officers stationed in Jubbulpore, India, and several variations of the game were devised during this time.[3][4] A similar game, which originated at the Officers' Mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in 1875,[5][6] combined the rules of two pool games: pyramids, played with fifteen red balls positioned in a triangle,[a][8][9][10] and black pool, which involved the potting of designated balls.[11][12][13] Snooker was further developed in 1882 when its first set of rules was finalised by British Army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain,[b][5][14] who helped devise and popularise the game at Stone House in Ootacamund on a table built by Burroughes & Watts that had been brought to India by boat.[15][16] The word snooker was, at the time, a slang term used in the British Army to describe new recruits and inexperienced military personnel; Chamberlain used it to deride the inferior performance of a young fellow officer at the table.[17][14][18]

Snooker featured in an 1887 issue of the Sporting Life newspaper in England, which led to a growth in popularity.[5] Chamberlain was revealed as the game's inventor, 63 years after the fact, in a letter to The Field magazine published on 19 March 1938.[5] Snooker became increasingly popular across the Indian colonies of the British Raj, and in the United Kingdom, but it remained a game mainly for military officers and the gentry;[19] many gentlemen's clubs that had a snooker table would not allow non-members inside to play.[5] (Reflecting the game's aristocratic origins, the majority of tournaments on the professional circuit still require players to wear waistcoats and bow ties, although the necessity for this attire has been questioned.) To cater for the growing interest, smaller and more open snooker clubs were formed.[5] The Billiards Association (formed 1885) and the Billiards Control Club (formed 1908) merged to form the Billiards Association and Control Club (BA&CC) and a new, standardised set of rules for snooker was first established in 1919.[20][21] The possibility of a drawn game was abolished by the use of a re-spotted black as a tiebreaker.[20] These rules are similar to the ones used today, although rules for a minimal point penalty were imposed later.[22]

The BBC first launched its colour television service in July 1967.[33] In 1969, David Attenborough, then the controller of BBC2, commissioned the snooker tournament television series Pot Black, primarily to showcase the potential of the BBC's new colour television service, as the green table and multi-coloured balls provided an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the new broadcasting technology.[6][34][35] The series became a ratings success and was, for a time, the second-most popular show on BBC2 behind Morecambe and Wise.[36] In the same year, the 1969 World Snooker Championship reverted to a knockout tournament format, with eight players competing. Due to these developments, the year 1969 is taken to mark the beginning of snooker's modern era. The World Snooker Championship moved in 1977 to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, where it has been staged ever since, and the 1978 World Snooker Championship was the first to receive daily television coverage.[37] Snooker quickly became a mainstream sport in the United Kingdom,[38][39] Ireland, and much of the Commonwealth, and has remained consistently popular since the late 1970s,[citation needed] with most of the major tournaments being televised.[11] In 1985, an estimated 18.5 million viewers stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch the conclusion of the World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, a record viewership in the UK for any broadcast on BBC Two or any broadcast after midnight.[40][41]

A standard full-size snooker table measures 12 ft  6 ft (365.8 cm  182.9 cm), with a rectangular playing surface measuring 11 ft 8.5 in  5 ft 10.0 in (356.9 cm  177.8 cm).[67] The playing surface is surrounded by small cushions along each side of the table. The height of the table from the floor to the top of the cushions is 2 ft 10.0 in (86.4 cm).[68] The table has six pockets, one at each corner and one at the centre of each of the two longer side cushions.[68] One drawback of using a full-size table is the amount of space required to accommodate it, which limits the locations where the game can easily be played. The minimum room size that allows space on all sides for comfortable cueing is 22 ft  16 ft (6.7 m  4.9 m).[69] While pool tables are common to many pubs, snooker tends to be played either in private settings or in public snooker halls.[70] The game can also be played on smaller tables,[67] with variant table sizes including 10 ft  5 ft (305 cm  152 cm), 9 ft  4.5 ft (274 cm  137 cm), 8 ft  4 ft (244 cm  122 cm), and 6 ft  3 ft (183 cm  91 cm)[71][better source needed]

The cloth on a snooker table is usually a form of tightly woven woollen green baize,[72] with a directional nap that runs lengthwise from the baulk end of the table to the far end near the black ball spot.[73] The nap affects the speed and trajectory of the balls, depending on the direction of the shot and whether any side spin is placed on the ball.[73][74] Even if the cue ball is struck in precisely the same manner, the effect of the nap will differ according to whether the ball is directed towards the baulk line or towards the opposite end of the table.[5][73][74]

Snooker accessories include: chalk for the tip of the cue, used to help apply spin on the cue ball; various sorts of rest, such as the swan or spider for playing shots that are difficult to play by hand; extensions for lengthening the cue stick; a triangle for racking the reds; and a scoreboard which is typically attached to a wall near the snooker table.[75] A traditional snooker scoreboard resembles an abacus and records the points scored by each player for the current frame in units and twenties, as well as the frame scores. A simple scoring bead is sometimes used, called a "scoring string" or "scoring wire".[76] Each segment of the string (bead) represents one point as the players can move one or several beads along the string.[76]

The game continues until every red ball has been potted and only the six colours and the cue ball are left on the table.[68] The colours must next be potted in the ascending order of their values, from lowest to highest, i.e. yellow first (worth two points), then green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points), and finally black (seven points); each colour remains in the pocket after being potted.[68] When the final ball is potted, the player with the most points wins the frame.[68][g] If there are not enough points remaining on the table for a player to win the frame, that player may offer to concede the frame while at the table (but not while their opponent is still at the table); a frame concession is a common occurrence in professional snooker.[68][77] Players will often play on even when there are not enough points available for them to win, hoping to force their opponent into playing foul shots by laying snookers.[68][77] These are shots that are designed to make playing a legal shot harder, such as leaving another ball between the cue ball and the object ball.[78]

Points in snooker are gained from potting the object balls in the correct sequence. The total number of consecutive points (excluding fouls) that a player amasses during one visit to the table is known as a "break".[67] A player could achieve a break of 15, for example, by first potting a red followed by a black, then another red followed by a pink, before failing to pot the next red. Breaks of 100 points or more are referred to as a century break, and are recorded over the career of a professional player.[81] A maximum break in snooker is achieved by potting all reds with blacks, then potting all six colours, yielding 147 points; this is often known as a "147" or a "maximum".[82] As of 8 January 2024,[update] there have been 195 officially confirmed maximum breaks achieved in professional competition.[83] 0852c4b9a8

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