In 1875, army officer Neville Chamberlain, stationed in India, 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.

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. The most prominent players of the modern era are Ray Reardon in the 1970s, Steve Davis in the 1980s, and Stephen Hendry in the 1990s, each winning at least six world titles. Since 2000, Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the World Championship seven times, most recently in 2022.


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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. The main professional tour is open to both male and female players, and there is 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 during the British Raj.[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][c] 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.[22][23] The possibility of a drawn game was abolished by the use of a re-spotted black as a tiebreaker.[22] These rules are similar to the ones used today, although rules for a minimal point penalty were imposed later.[24]

The BBC first launched its colour television service in July 1967.[35] 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][36][37] The series became a ratings success and was, for a time, the second-most popular show on BBC2 behind Morecambe and Wise.[38] 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.[39] Snooker quickly became a mainstream sport in the United Kingdom,[40][41] 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.[42][43]

Snooker referees are an integral part of the sport, and some have become well-known personalities in their own right. Len Ganley, John Street, and John Williams together refereed 17 of the first 20 World Snooker finals held at the Crucible Theatre.[66] Since 2000, non-British and female referees have become more prominent in the sport. Dutch referee Jan Verhaas became the first non-Briton to referee a World Championship final in 2003,[67] while Michaela Tabb became the first woman to do so in 2009.[68] Tabb was the only woman refereeing on the professional tour when she joined it in 2002, but tournaments now routinely feature female referees such as Desislava Bozhilova, Maike Kesseler, and Tatiana Woollaston.

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).[69] 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).[70] The table has six pockets, one at each corner and one at the centre of each of the two longer side cushions.[70] 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).[71] While pool tables are common to many pubs, snooker tends to be played either in private settings or in public snooker halls.[72] The game can also be played on smaller tables,[69] 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)[73][better source needed]

The cloth on a snooker table is usually a form of tightly woven woollen green baize,[74] with a directional nap that runs lengthwise from the baulk end of the table to the far end near the black ball spot.[75] 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.[75][76] 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][75][76]

Each player has a cue stick (or simply a "cue"), not less than 3 ft (91.4 cm) in length, which is used to strike the cue ball. The tip of the cue must only make contact with the cue ball and is never used for striking any of the reds or colours directly.[70]

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.[77] 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".[78] Each segment of the string (bead) represents one point as the players can move one or several beads along the string.[78]

A player wins a frame by scoring more points than their opponent. At the start of a frame, the object balls are positioned on the table as shown in illustration A. Starting with the cue ball in the "D", the first player executes a break-off shot by striking the cue ball with the tip of their cue, aiming to hit any of the red balls in the triangular pack. The players then take alternating turns at playing shots,[d] with the aim of potting a red ball into a pocket and thereby scoring one point. Failure to make contact with a red ball constitutes a foul, which results in penalty points being awarded to the opponent.[70] At the end of each shot, the cue ball remains in the position where it has come to rest (unless it has entered a pocket, where it is returned to the "D") ready for the next shot.[70] If the cue ball finishes in contact with an object ball, a touching ball is called.[e] The player must then play away from that ball without moving it or else the player will concede penalty points.[70] When playing away from a touching ball, the player is not required to strike another object ball. 152ee80cbc

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