ON THIS PAGE YOU WILL FIND OUT ALL ABOUT HOW THE GAME OF SNOOKER CAME ABOUT , HOPE THIS PROVES HELPFUL , WITH A FULL RUN DOWN OF ALL THE RULES OF SNOOKER.
In the early days of snooker, it was generally accepted that the game originated in the British Army garrisons of India as a combination of the various billiard games, particularly English billiards, which where then commonly played. Beyond this nobody laid claim to its specific origins until a debate began in the late 1930s.
One thing is certain though, the game which Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain of the Devonshire regiment claims to have named snooker ("snooker" once being a derogatory term for a first-year cadet of the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich in England) in 1875, and which for many years was referred to as snooker's pool, bore more relation to the existing billiard games of the time than the modern game of snooker – fewer balls were used, they were positioned on different spots, had different values, and the scoring sequence and rules would be unrecognizable to a follower of today's game of snooker.
Who brought about the changes which form the modern game remains a mystery, but they were generally in place by 1900. They probably evolved through a series of individuals in the Army Officers' Mess, or it is even thought the English gentleman at the club in the Ootacamund hills of India added more balls to the game – perhaps this is why Chamberlain waited over 60 years until the late 1930s before making his claim to be the originator of snooker.
Here follows a letter by Compton McKenzie which appeared in the Billiard Player publication of April 1939. The details of the letter have become accepted as fact as to the origins of the game of snooker.
The Billiard Player – April 1939
Last year an article in "The Field" put forward the theory that the game of snooker had its origin at the Royal Military Academy (RMA), Woolwich, where officers of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers receive their training as cadets.
The theory was plausible, because a first-year cadet at "The Shop", as the RMA is familiarly known, is called a "snooker," the soubriquet being time's corruption of the original word for a newly-joined cadet, which was "Neux." It must be remembered that the RMA was founded as long ago as 1741.
The writer of the article stated that the original rules of snooker were copied out by Lord Kitchener from those at "The Shop," brought by him to Ootacamund, India, and there hung up in the Club.
This assertion was formally contradicted by General Sir Ian Hamilton in a letter to "The Field" of July 11, 1938. In point of fact Lord Kitchener never visited India until many years after snooker had become a popular game out there.
Investigation has established that so far from snooker having originated at "The Shop," the game was invented at Jubbulpore in the year 1875 by Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain, who is fortunately still with us and whose memory is perfectly clear on the subject.
It befell during the "Rains" that Sir Neville, then a young subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment, anxious to vary the game of Black Pool which was being played every long wet afternoon on the Mess billiard table, suggested putting down another coloured ball, to which others of different values were gradually added.
One day a subaltern of the Field Battery at Jubbulpore was being entertained by the Devons, and in the course of conversation told young Chamberlain about the soubriquet "snooker" for first year cadets at Woolwich. To quote Sir Neville's own words: "The term was a new one to me, but I soon had an opportunity of exploiting it when one of our party failed to hole a coloured ball which was close to a corner pocket. I called out to him: 'Why, you're a regular snooker!'
"I had to explain to the company the definition of the word, and, to soothe the feelings of the culprit, I added that we were all, so to speak, snookers at the game, so it would he very appropriate to call the game snooker. The suggestion was adopted with enthusiasm and the game has been called snooker ever since."
In 1876 Sir Neville Chamberlain left the Devons to join the Central-India Horse, taking with him the new game. A year or two later came the Afghan War, a more serious potting game in which young Chamberlain was himself potted.
However, fortunately for himself and the great game which we enjoy so much today, he recovered from his wound, and when at the close of 1881 General Sir Frederick Roberts became Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, the inventor of snooker served on his personal staff, and was with Roberts when every summer he moved to the hill station at Ootacamund known to all and sundry as "Ooty"
Here came officers from big garrisons like Bangalore and Secundderabad and planters from Mysore. All of them enjoyed snooker as a speciality of the "Ooty" Club where the rules of the game were drawn up and posted in the billiards room, but not by Lord Kitchener.
During the eighties rumours of the new game in India reached England. One evening Sir Neville Chamberlain when dining in Calcutta with the Maharaja of Cooch Behar was introduced to a well-known professional billiards player whom he had engaged from England for some lessons.
This professional told the Maharaja he had been asked in England to obtain the rules of the new game snooker and the Maharaja introduced Sir Neville Chamberlain to him as the best person to give him the information he wanted because he was the inventor of it.
In a letter to "The Field" of March 19, 1938, Sir Neville regretted he did not know the name of the professional but thought he was probably a contemporary of John Roberts and W. Cook. A week or two later Mr. F. H. Cumberlege wrote to Sir Neville Chamberlain to say that the professional must have been John Roberts himself who came out to Calcutta in 1885. Mr. Cumberlege added that he remembered showing the Maharaja the new game of snooker at Cooch Behar after a shooting party in the spring of 1884.
Sir Neville Chamberlain has received from several other distinguished authorities confirmation of his claim to be the inventor of snooker. Major-General W. A. Watson, Colonel of the Central India Horse (his old regiment) wrote: "I have a clear recollection of you rejoining the regiment in 1884. You brought with you a brand new game, which you called snooker or snookers. There were the black, the pink, the yellow and the green. We all understood it was your own invention. We took to it very keenly."
Major-General Sir John Hanbury Williams (Colonel of the 43rd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) wrote: "I was always under the impression that you introduced the game of snooker to the 43rd. in 1884-5. Certainly the 43rd never played snooker till you came and introduced it to us. Hope you will stick to the honour of its invention."
Field Marshal Lord Birdwood wrote: "I remember well you introducing the game of snookers into the 12th Lancers' Mess, when I was a subaltern in the Regiment at Bangalore in '85."
Sir Walter Lawrence, Bt., wrote: "When we first met in Simla in 1886, when you were with Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief, and afterwards when we served together in Kashmir, I always looked upon you as the inventor of snooker, and I know that this idea was common to many of my friends. Quite recently, last year (1937) I was telling some of my friends in England who were discussing snooker, that I had the honour of knowing very intimately the inventor of the game."
The testimony of these and other highly distinguished officers finally disposes of the theory advanced with some emphasis by the writer in "The Field" that the game of snooker originated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and it has been a privilege for me to assemble in print such incontrovertible evidence.
There is nothing to add except that all the many thousands of snooker players the world over will wish Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain, who is now in his 84th year, many another year to enjoy the honour of being the inventor of a game, now 63 years old, which has added so much to the gaiety of nations.
– Compton McKenzie. (1938)
Snooker, they say, began on a very wet and miserable day in Jubbulpore in India in 1875.
In those days, the officers of the Devonshire regiment would spend many hours around the billiard table as the monsoon lashed down. Boredom was the order of the day for those young men and one such officer, Sir Neville Chamberlain, started to experiment.
Various games, such as pyramids, life pool and black pool, were devised involving more than the traditional three billiard balls. These variations started to catch on and the inventive Chamberlain started to add various coloured balls until a basic form of Snooker was evolved.
That game included 15 reds, yellow, green, pink and black. Snooker was finally born when blue and brown were added in later years. Then, during the 1880’s word filtered back to England about this new game. Top Billiard player, John Roberts, journeyed to India in 1885 and was introduced to Chamberlain, and snooker was on the way.
Snooker grew and grew, though Joe Davis earned just £6.10s.0d. for his initial first World Championship win in 1927.
That was a far cry from 2000 when Mark Williams banked £240,000 for capturing the Embassy World Championship trophy on a tournament circuit worth over £4.5 million.
Snooker has come a very long way in a relatively short period of time, to a stage where it can rightly claim to be a major internationally televised and participation sport.
Times have changed from those early days and, if it had not rained in India, who knows what might have happened?
SNOOKER FACTS
Snooker is second only to football in terms of television popularity with viewers in the UK.
There were more than 250 snooker programmes shown throughout the 1999-2000 season, which means snooker is on television more often than Eastenders or Coronation Street.
Televised tournaments generated a cumulative viewing audience of 350 million in the UK alone.
Around 32 million people - more than 50% of the UK population - tuned in to watch snooker during the course of the season.
Seven events, six of which were terrestrial and one satellite, commanded coverage totalling 356 hours and 27 minutes.
There were 86,573 seconds of clear sponsor exposure from television and the national press generated 1,525 brand mentions.
Seven tournaments produced a total media value of £7,579,226. Television achieved £6,510,724 (85.9%) and press £1,068,502 (14.1%).
HOW EVENTS HAPPEN
World Snooker, together with the Sponsors, Venue staff and Media spend months planning each event down to every last detail so that when the players arrive, everything runs like clockwork.
The chief responsibility for getting each venue ready is down the World Snooker Tournament Manager. He will have several meetings with the venue Manager over the course of the year to clearly plan out what needs to be done and when.
The week leading up to the start of the tournament see the venue transformed into the playing arena.
During this week television riggers come in to install the lights, towers and commentary boxes. The set is then erected and the tables fitters arrive to install the tables.
Once all the pre-event dust has settled, the Tournament Manager hands over to the Tournament Director.
It is the Tournament Directors responsibility to brief the referees.
Head of Security is in charge of all areas of the venue including the arena doors, stage door and backstage.
Once the tournament is up and a normal working day is never less than 12 hours, often 16 or 17 hours.
THE RULES OF SNOOKER
SECTION 1. EQUIPMENT
1 The Standard Table 3 Cue
2 Balls 4 Ancillary
SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS
1 Frame 11 Ball On
2 Game 12 Nominated Ball
3 Match 13 Free Ball
4 Balls 14 Forced Off The Table
5 Striker 15 Foul
6 Stroke 16 Snookered
7 Pot 17 Spot Occupied
8 Break 18 Push stroke
9 In-hand 19 Jump Shot
10 Ball In Play 20 Miss
SECTION 3. THE GAME
1 Description 11 Fouls
2 Position Of Balls 12 Penalties
3 Mode Of Play 13 Play Again
4 End Of Frame, Game and Match 14 Foul and a Miss
5 Playing From In-hand 15 Ball Moved By Other Than Striker
6 Hitting Two Balls Simultaneously 16 Stalemate
7 Spotting Colours 17 Four-handed Snooker
8 Touching Ball 18 Use Of Ancillary Equipment
9 Ball On Edge Of Pocket 19 Interpretation
10 Snookered After A Foul
SECTION 4. THE PLAYERS
1 Time Wasting 4 Non-striker
2 Unfair Conduct 5 Absence
3 Penalty 6 Conceding
SECTION 5.THE OFFICIALS
1 The Referee 3 The Recorder
2 The Marker 4 Assistance By Officials
The rules of snooker state that a regulation full-sized table should have a playing surface of 5 feet 9½ inches x 11 feet 8½ inches. The height of the table from the floor to the top of the cushion rail officially
must be between 2 feet 9½ inches and 2 feet 10½ inches.
The bed of the table is covered with green napped billiard cloth on which the spots for the various balls and the baulk line are marked
out.
The baulk line, 29 inches from the face of the baulk cushion (also known as the bottom cushion), is the line on which the spots for the yellow, green and brown balls are placed – these three balls are sometimes referred to collectively as the baulk colours. From the yellow spot to the green spot is described a semicircle (radius 11½ inches) known as the D.
The blue spot is positioned midway between the two centre pockets. The pink spot is positioned midway between the blue spot and the face of the top cushion. And finally, the black spot is positioned 12¼ inches away from the face of the top cushion in a straight line with the pink, blue and brown spots.
A room ideally needs to be a minimum of 18 feet x 24 feet to accommodate a full-sized table, though smaller sized tables of excellent quality are manufactured in various sizes for a limited room space or budget, and they are also a great building-block for children to start learning the sport on.
RULES PAGE
A set of snooker balls consists of: fifteen reds; one yellow, one green, one brown, one blue, one pink, one black (known collectively as the colours or coloured balls); and one white ball (known as the cue-ball).
Regulation size balls for full-sized tables measure 2 1/16 inches in diameter.
Smaller balls are manufactured for smaller than full-sized tables, with diameters of 1 7/8, 1 3/4 and 1 5/8 inches the most popular size of balls. Though due to room constraints on the table, usually tables of 8 feet in length and below will only usually feature a set of ten red-balls instead of fifteen.
At the start of each frame – a frame is the snooker term for one game or a rack – the colored balls are
placed on their respective spots, with the red balls placed in a triangle with the apex red ball as near as possible to the pink ball without actually touching it (see picture of the snooker table set-up to the right).
The basic idea of snooker is that players play alternatively to pocket balls (referred to in the game of snooker as to pot or potting balls) to build-up a frame winning score. And when there is no opportunity to pocket a ball, make it as difficult as possible for your opponent to achieve this aim by playing defensive or what is referred to in the game of snooker as a safety shot.
To build-up a score, a player must first attempt to pocket any of the red balls (worth one point each) into any of the six pockets on the table. Having pocketed a red ball, the player is then free to select and pocket any colored ball into any pocket to add to their score – if more than one red ball is pocketed in the same stroke a player scores accordingly, but is free to select and pocket only one colored ball.
Each colored ball is worth the following points: Yellow (2 points), Green (3 points), Brown (4 points), Blue (5 points), Pink (6 points), & Black (7 points). Please note, once a red ball has been pocketed the colored ball only needs to be nominated by a player if there is reasonable doubt to which colored ball the player is aiming for.
Once a colored ball has been pocketed, unlike a red ball which stays in the pocket, it is returned to its respective spot on the table. A player can then attempt to pocket another red ball and continue the sequence to build-up their score. However, if the pocketed colored ball's spot on the table is occupied or obstructed by another ball, the colored ball must then be placed on the vacated spot of the highest valued ball and left there till such a time it is pocketed, then returning it to its spot – assuming that its spot has since been vacated. In the event of all the spots being occupied, the colored ball is then to be placed as near to its own spot in a direct line toward the face of the top cushion (the cushion nearest to the black spot).
Once the final red ball has been pocketed, a player again has the option of playing to pocket a colored ball. If the colored ball is pocketed, as usual it is re-placed on the table, then a player must try to pocket the colored balls in strict order, into any pocket, in ascending numerical value from the yellow ball to the black ball – only this time, when each colored ball has been pocketed, it stays in the pocket.
The accumulation of points with a series of successful pocketed balls in snooker is called a break. The highest break you can achieve in a frame of snooker, that is managing to successfully pocket all 15 red balls alternatively with 15 black balls and all of the colored balls in order, is officially recognized as 147 and is known as a maximum break.
At one time in a frame, a player may find that there are not enough points available on the table to overtake their opponent's score to win the frame (referred to as needing a snooker or snookers). So this is the time when the player needs to employ a tactic to try and force their opponent to commit a foul stroke, in order to gain the extra points for their score.
A foul stroke in snooker can be committed in several ways and carries a minimum penalty of 4 points going to the non-offending player. The value of the penalty depends on which ball the offense was committed on; foul strokes committed on the colored balls which are worth more than 4 points are given away in accordance to their respective value. In the event of a foul stroke having been committed on more than one ball, only the points of the highest valued ball involved are given away.
The term to snooker means to position the cue-ball behind another ball, thus blocking a clear path to the target-ball(s) (in snooker the target-ball(s) are referred to as the ball or balls on). This may happen unintentionally or by design by a player to try and gain those extra points to win the frame, as it forces a player to strike the cue-ball on a less direct path to the target-ball(s) with either a massé shot (usually refered to in snooker as a swerve shot) or by playing off a cushion. This position is known as a snooker or being snookered, and failure to hit the target-ball(s) is a foul stroke – this tactic can also be deployed throughout a frame as a defensive safety shot.
Foul Strokes can be committed with the following rule infringements:
Failing to hit a ball.
Pocketing the cue-ball: If the cue-ball is pocketed, the non-offending player is allowed to place the cue-ball anywhere within the area known as the D and play from then on.
Pocketing the wrong ball(s): This includes pocketing a colored ball when a red ball is the target-ball; pocketing a colored ball other than the target-colored ball; and pocketing a red ball when a colored ball is the target-ball.
Playing a push-shot (a legal shot in pool): A push-shot is committed when the tip of the snooker cue is still in contact with the cue-ball when the cue-ball makes contact with another ball. This can happen when the cue-ball is very close to the target-ball or when the cue-ball is touching another ball (known as a touching-ball). A touching-ball must be announced by either a player or referee, and as moving a ball which the cue-ball is touching will inevitably be a push-shot, it must be played away from – if the/a target-ball is touching the cue-ball, playing directly away from it is deemed a legal shot and not a foul stroke.
Striking the cue-ball whilst it is still moving.
Striking the cue-ball whilst any other balls are moving.
Striking the cue-ball with both feet off the floor – a foot must maintain contact with the floor during a shot.
Striking the cue-ball with anything other than the tip of a billiard cue which must be of at least three feet in length.
Touching or moving any ball.
Jumping the cue-ball over another ball unintentionally or by design (a legal shot in pool).
Playing out of turn.
In some situations after a foul stroke, the offending player may gain an advantage over their opponent – for example, the cue-ball could come to rest in a snooker or other safe position.
To counter this situation, after any foul stroke committed the offending player can be requested by their opponent to continue at the table. However, if the non-offending player is snookered on the target-ball(s), that is the player cannot be judged to be able to strike the cue-ball to hit both sides at the same time of the object-ball (though please note that you cannot be snookered on a particular target-ball by another target-ball), the player is allowed to nominate any ball on the table as their target-ball (known as a free-ball). If the free-ball is the pocketed, it will score only in accordance as the original target-ball – in theory, before any red balls have been pocketed, if a player is awarded a free-ball there is a possible break of 155 on, though this is not recognized as the maximum break total.
Other rules to take note of as regard to the free-ball are: it is permissible to pocket a target-ball using a free-ball in a combination shot (referred to in snooker as a plant, but its much more common use is for pocketing red balls in a combination); and also a player may not snooker their opponent behind a free-ball, except that is when only the colored balls pink and black remain on the table. However a player may use a free-ball to snooker their opponent behind another non-target ball.
Also, if a player is deemed by the referee to have not come close enough to making contact with the target-ball(s) from a snooker, then the referee will give the option to their opponent to have the cue-ball, and any other balls if necessary, replaced in their original positions. The shot is known as a miss and will be called along with a foul stroke by the referee (a miss however will not be called if any player requires a snooker or snookers at that moment in the frame), and the player must then attempt the shot again until contact is made with the target-ball(s), or the referee deems the player has made an exceptional attempt at making contact with the target-ball(s) – in calling a miss, the referee will usually take into consideration the size of the target balls such as a cluster of reds, and the pace at which the cue-ball was struck. And when a player is not snookered and fails to hit the target-ball(s), a foul stroke and a miss will automatically be called by the referee. Three misses of this kind will result in the automatic forfeiture of the frame – this section of rules however is much more stringently enforced in professional and top amateur level snooker.
The break-off is the opening shot played in a frame of snooker. The player who has the break-off is allowed to place the cue-ball anywhere within the area known as the D, and play for the red balls. As it is extremely difficult to pocket a red ball from this shot, it is usual practice for a player to try and return the cue-ball back to the baulk area (preferably to the baulk cushion or behind one of the baulk colored balls) as a safety shot.
A frame is technically still alive until only the black ball remains with the cue-ball on the table. Once this situation has been reached, the player who is more than 7 points (the value of the black ball) behind has lost the frame – I believe it was decided in the 1970s that it was deemed unsportsmanlike play to try and gain points from a foul stroke on the final black ball.
Of course, some frames are closely fought and a player may need to pocket the final black ball to win. This is known as a black ball game, and the player who pockets the black ball or whose opponent commits a foul stroke on it wins the frame.
If the scores are level once the final black ball has been pocketed at the end of a frame, the black ball is replaced on its spot and the players spin a coin to decide who will place the cue-ball in the area known as the D, and play from then on. The normal rules of a black ball game are then contested.