Snooker season 1996/1997 on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
'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. The series became a ratings success and was, for a time, the second-most popular show on BBC2 behind
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a
commissioned the television series ''cue sport
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivisions ...
played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize
Baize is a coarse woollen (or in cheaper variants cotton) cloth, similar in texture to felt, but more durable.
History
A mid-17th-century English ditty—much quoted in histories of ale and beer brewing in England—refers to 1525:
Hops, her ...
, with six pockets
A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag o ...
, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a , fifteen red balls, and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black—collectively called the colours. Using a cue stick
A cue stick (or simply cue, more specifically billiards cue, pool cue, or snooker cue) is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the . Cues are tapered sti ...
, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the white to other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each time the opposing player or team commits a . An individual of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker ends when a player reaches a predetermined number of frames.
Snooker gained its identity in 1875 when army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, stationed in Ootacamund
Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and ...
, Madras, and Jabalpur
Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...
, devised a set of rules that combined black pool
Black pool, originally known as everlasting pool, was a form of pocket billiards (pool) mainly played in the late 19th century, first being recorded in 1862. This game was derived from life pool but lacked the pooling of bets and players had unlim ...
and pyramids
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
. 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
The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships ...
was formed. As a professional sport
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...
, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...
.
The World Snooker Championship
The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...
first took place in 1927
Events January
* January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General.
* January 7
...
. Joe Davis
Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is ...
, 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 #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Pot Black
''Pot Black'' was a snooker tournament in the United Kingdom broadcast on the BBC. Each match was contested over a single , where other tournaments were significantly longer. The event carried no ranking points, but played a large part in t ...
'', later airing daily coverage of the World Championship, which was first televised in 1978. Key figures in the game were Ray Reardon
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (gra ...
in the 1970s, Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
in the 1980s, and Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
in the 1990s, each winning the World Championship at least six times. Since 2000, Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
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
The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...
, a circuit of international events featuring competitors of many different nationalities. The World Championship, the UK Championship
The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sullivan ...
, 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 amateur women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker
World Women's Snooker, founded as the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981, and known as World Ladies Billiards and Snooker (WLBS) from 2015 to 2018, is a subsidiary company of the World Professional Billiards and Snoo ...
. 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
The 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament was a professional snooker tournament sponsored by the ''News of the World''. The event was played under the Snooker Plus rules, a variant of snooker with two additional (orange and purple). The ...
", and the more recent Snooker Shoot Out
The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional ranking snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. The 2017 event was the first time the tournament was staged as a ranking event. Hossein Vafaei is the current champion.
History
...
version.
History
Snooker originated in the second half of the 19th century. In the 1870s,billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivisions ...
was popular among British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officers stationed in Jubbulpore
Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...
, India, and several variations of the game were devised during this time. A similar game, which originated at the Officers' Mess
The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...
of the 11th Devonshire Regiment
The Devonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that served under various titles and served in many wars and conflicts from 1685 to 1958, such as the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. In 1958 ...
in 1875, combined the rules of two pool
Pool may refer to:
Water pool
* Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming
* Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings
* Tide pool, a rocky po ...
games: pyramid pool
Pyramid pool, or simply pyramids, is a form of pool that was played mainly in the 19th century. It was one of several pool games that were popular at this time, and was forerunner to modern games such as eight-ball, blackball, straight pool, an ...
, played with fifteen red balls positioned in a triangle; and black pool
Black pool, originally known as everlasting pool, was a form of pocket billiards (pool) mainly played in the late 19th century, first being recorded in 1862. This game was derived from life pool but lacked the pooling of bets and players had unlim ...
, which involved the potting of designated balls. Snooker was further developed in 1882 when its first set of rules was finalised by British Army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, who helped devise and popularise the game at Stone House in Ootacamund
Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and ...
on a table built by Burroughes & Watts that had been brought to India by boat. 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.
Snooker featured in an 1887 issue of the '' Sporting Life'' newspaper in England, which led to a growth in popularity. 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. Snooker became increasingly popular across the Indian colonies of the British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
, and in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, but it remained a game mainly for military officers and the gentry
Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past.
Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies
''Gentry'', in its widest c ...
; many gentlemen's clubs that had a snooker table would not allow non-members inside to play. (Reflecting the game's aristocratic origins, the majority of tournaments on the professional circuit still require players to wear waistcoat
A waistcoat ( UK and Commonwealth, or ; colloquially called a weskit), or vest ( US and Canada), is a sleeveless upper-body garment. It is usually worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear. ...
s and bow tie
The bow tie is a type of necktie. A modern bow tie is tied using a common shoelace knot, which is also called the bow knot for that reason. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar of a shirt in a symmetrical manner so that t ...
s, although the necessity for this attire has been questioned.) To cater for the growing interest, smaller and more open snooker clubs were formed. The Billiards Association (formed 1885) and the Billiards Control Club (formed 1908) merged to form the Billiards Association and Control Club
The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships ...
(BA&CC) and a new, standardised set of rules for snooker was first established in 1919. The possibility of a drawn game was abolished by the use of a as a tiebreaker. These rules are similar to the ones used today, although rules for a minimal point penalty was imposed later.
Played in 1926 and 1927, the first World Snooker Championship
The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...
—then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker—was won by Joe Davis
Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is ...
. A Women's Professional Snooker Championship (now the World Women's Snooker Championship
The World Women's Snooker Championship (formerly known as the Women's World Open Championship from 1976 to 1981 and the World Ladies Snooker Championship from 1983 to 2018) is the leading tournament on the World Women's Snooker Tour. The reigning ...
) was created in 1934 for top female players. As a professional English billiards and snooker player himself, Davis raised the game from a recreational pastime to a professional sporting activity. Davis won all fifteen tournaments held until 1946, when he retired from the championships. However, snooker declined in popularity in the post-war era; the 1952 World Snooker Championship was contested by only two players and was replaced by the World Professional Match-play Championship
The World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional snooker tournament established in 1952 as an alternative to the professional World Snooker Championship by some of the professional players, following a dispute with the Billiar ...
, which was also discontinued in 1957. In an effort to boost popularity of snooker, Davis introduced a variation known as "snooker plus
The 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament was a professional snooker tournament sponsored by the ''News of the World''. The event was played under the Snooker Plus rules, a variant of snooker with two additional (orange and purple). The ...
" in 1959, which added two extra colours, but this version of the game was short-lived. A world championship for top amateur players, now known as the IBSF World Snooker Championship
The IBSF World Snooker Championship (also known as the World Amateur Snooker Championship) is the premier non-professional snooker tournament in the world. The event series is sanctioned by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation. A nu ...
, was founded in 1963, and the official world championship was revived on a challenge basis in 1964.
The BBC first launched its colour television
Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...
service in July 1967. In 1969, David Attenborough, then the controller of BBC2, commissioned the snooker tournament television series ''Pot Black
''Pot Black'' was a snooker tournament in the United Kingdom broadcast on the BBC. Each match was contested over a single , where other tournaments were significantly longer. The event carried no ranking points, but played a large part in t ...
'', primarily to showcase the potential of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew, 14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984) and Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman, 27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999), known as Morecambe and Wise (and sometimes as Eric and Ernie), were an English comic double act, working ...
. In the same year, the 1969 World Snooker Championship
The 1969 World Snooker Championship (also known as the Player's No.6 World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament. It was the first World Snooker Championship in a knock-out format since 1957, follow ...
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
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...
to the Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's ...
in Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, where it has been staged ever since, and the 1978 World Snooker Championship
The 1978 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1978 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 17 and 29 April 1978 at the Crucible Theatre in S ...
was the first to receive daily television coverage. Snooker quickly became a mainstream sport in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, and much of the Commonwealth, and has remained consistently popular since the late 1970s, with most of the major tournaments being televised. In 1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
, 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
Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He is best known for winning the 1985 World Snooker Championship, where he defeated the defending champion Steve Davis in a ...
and Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
, a record viewership in the UK for any broadcast on BBC Two or any broadcast after midnight.
As professional snooker grew as a mainstream sport, it became heavily dependent on tobacco advertising
Nicotine marketing is the marketing of nicotine-containing products or use. Traditionally, the tobacco industry markets cigarette smoking, but it is increasingly marketing other products, such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco product ...
. Cigarette brand Embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...
sponsored the World Snooker Championship for 30 consecutive years from 1976 to 2005, one of the longest-running deals in British sports sponsorship. In the early 2000s, a ban on tobacco advertising led to a reduction in the number of professional tournaments, which decreased from twenty-two events in 1999 to fifteen in 2003. The sport had become more popular in Asia with the emergence of players such as Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...
and Marco Fu
Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP (, born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix (snooker), 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian ...
, and still received significant television coverage in the UK—the BBC dedicated 400 hours to snooker in 2007, compared to just 14 minutes 40 years earlier. However, the British public's interest in snooker had waned significantly by the late 2000s. Warning that the sport was "lurching into terminal crisis", ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper predicted in 2010 that snooker would cease to exist as a professional sport within ten years. In the same year, promoter Barry Hearn gained a controlling interest in the World Snooker Tour
The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...
, pledging to revitalise the "moribund" professional game. Since then, the number of professional tournaments has increased, with 44 events held in the 2019–20 season. Snooker tournaments have been adapted to make them more suitable for television audiences, with some tournaments being played over a shortened duration, or the Snooker Shoot Out
The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional ranking snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. The 2017 event was the first time the tournament was staged as a ranking event. Hossein Vafaei is the current champion.
History
...
, which is a timed, one- competition. The prize money for professional events has increased as the sport continues to grow, with the top players earning several million pounds over the course of their careers. Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
, the winner of the 2021 World Snooker Championship
The 2021 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2021 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 17 April to 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 4 ...
, received £500,000 out of a total prize fund of £2,395,000. However, lower-ranked professional players struggle to make a living from the sport, especially after paying tournament entry fees, travel, and other expenses. Players including 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
have claimed that a 128-player professional tour is financially unsustainable.
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. 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, while Michaela Tabb
Michaela Tabb (born 11 December 1967, in Bath, Somerset, England) is a Scottish snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top t ...
became the first woman to do so in 2009 World Snooker Championship, 2009. 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.
Gameplay
Equipment
A standard full-size Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, snooker table measures , with a rectangular measuring . The playing surface is surrounded by small along each side of the table. The height of the table from the floor to the top of the cushions is . The table has six , one at each corner and one at the centre of each of the two longer side cushions. 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 . While Billiard table#Pool (pocket billiards) tables, pool tables are common to many pubs, snooker tends to be played either in private settings or in public Billiard hall, snooker halls. The game can also be played on smaller tables, with variant table sizes include , , , and . Smaller tables can come in a variety of styles, such as fold-away or dining-table convertible.
The Billiard table#Cloth, cloth on a snooker table is usually a form of tightly woven woollen green baize
Baize is a coarse woollen (or in cheaper variants cotton) cloth, similar in texture to felt, but more durable.
History
A mid-17th-century English ditty—much quoted in histories of ale and beer brewing in England—refers to 1525:
Hops, her ...
, with a directional Nap (fabric), nap that runs lengthwise from the end of the table to the far end near the . The nap affects the speed and trajectory of the balls, depending on the direction of the shot and whether any is placed on the ball. Even if the 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. A Billiard ball#Snooker, snooker ball set consists of twenty-two unmarked balls: fifteen , six , and one white cue ball. The six colours are one each of yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black, although the brown and blue balls were not a part of the original rules. Each ball has a diameter of . At the start of the game, the red balls are racked into a tightly packed equilateral triangle and the six colours are positioned at designated on the table. The cue ball is placed inside Glossary of cue sports terms#D, the "D" ready for the shot. Each player has a cue stick
A cue stick (or simply cue, more specifically billiards cue, pool cue, or snooker cue) is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the . Cues are tapered sti ...
(or simply a "cue"), not less than in length, which is used to strike the cue ball. The of the cue must only make contact with the cue ball and is never used for striking any of the reds or colours directly.
Snooker accessories include: for the tip of the cue, used to help apply on the cue ball; various sorts of , such as the or for playing shots that are difficult to play by hand; for lengthening the cue stick; a for the reds; and a which is typically attached to a wall near the snooker table. A traditional snooker scoreboard resembles an abacus and records the 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". Each segment of the string (bead) represents one point as the players can move one or several beads along the string.
Rules
Objective
A player wins a frame by scoring more points than their opponent. At the start of a frame, the 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 . The players then take alternating at playing shots, with the aim of a red ball into a pocket and thereby scoring one point. Failure to make contact with a red ball constitutes a , which results in penalty points being awarded to the opponent. 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. If the cue ball finishes in contact with an object ball, or a ball that could be a object ball, a is called. The player must then play away from that ball without moving it, or else the player will concede penalty points. When playing away from a touching ball, the player is not required to strike another object ball. When a red ball enters a pocket, the striker must then pot a coloured ball (or "colour") of their choice. If successful, the value of the potted colour is added to the player's score, and the ball is returned to its designated spot on the table. (If a designated spot is unavailable, the colour is respotted on the spot of the next-highest valued colour; if no spots are available, the colour is respotted as close as possible to its own spot towards the top of the table.) The player must then pot another red ball followed by another colour. The process of alternately potting reds and colours continues until the striker fails to pot the desired object ball or commits a foul -- at which point the opponent comes to the table to start the next turn -- or when there are no red balls remaining. Points accumulated by potting successive object balls are called a "" (see #Scoring, Scoring below). At the start of each player's turn, the objective is to first pot a red ball, unless all reds are off the table, or the player has been awarded a , which allows them to nominate another object ball instead of a red. The cue ball may contact an object ball directly or it can be made to bounce off one or more cushions before hitting the required object ball. The game continues until every red ball has been potted and only the six colours and the cue ball are left on the table. The colours must next be potted in the ascending order of their values, from lowest to highest, i.e. first (worth two points), then (three points), (four points), (five points), (six points), and finally (seven points); each colour remains in the pocket after being potted. When the final ball is potted, the player with the most points wins the frame. 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. 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 . 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. If the scores are equal when all of the object balls have been potted, the black is used as a tiebreaker. In this situation, called a "", the black ball is returned to its designated spot and the cue ball is played , meaning that it may be placed anywhere on or within the lines of the "D" to start the tiebreak. The referee then tosses a coin and the winner of the toss decides who takes the first strike. The game continues until one of the players either pots the black ball to win the frame, or commits a foul (losing the frame). Professional and competitive amateur matches are officiated by a referee, who is charged with ensuring the proper conduct of players and making decisions "in the interests of fair play". The responsibilities of the referee include announcing the points scored during a break, determining when a foul has been committed and awarding penalty points and free balls accordingly, replacing colours onto their designated spots after they are potted, restoring the balls to their previous positions after the "miss" rule has been invoked (see Scoring), and cleaning the cue ball or any object ball upon request by the striker. Another duty of the referee is to recognise and declare a stalemate when neither player is able to make any progress in the frame. If both players agree, the balls are returned to their starting positions and the frame is restarted (known as a ""), with the same player taking the break-off shot as before. Professional players usually play the game in a sporting manner, declaring fouls they have committed which the referee has not noticed, acknowledging good shots from their opponent, and holding up a hand to apologise for a fortunate shot, known as a "fluke".Scoring
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 to the table is known as a "break". 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. 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". , there have been 178 officially confirmed maximum breaks achieved in professional competition. Penalty points are awarded to a player when a foul is committed by the opponent. A foul can occur for various reasons, such as sending the cue ball into a pocket, or failing to hit the object ball. The latter is a common foul committed when a player fails to escape from a "", where the previous player has left the cue ball positioned such that no legal ball can be struck directly in a straight line without being wholly or partially obstructed by an illegal ball. Fouls incur a minimum of four penalty points unless a higher-value object ball is involved in the foul, up to a maximum of seven penalty points where the black ball is concerned. When a foul is committed, the offender's turn ends and the referee announces the penalty. All points scored in the break before the foul was committed are awarded to the striker, but no points are scored for any ball pocketed during the foul shot. If dissatisfied with the position left after a foul, the next player may nominate the opponent who committed the foul to play again from where the balls have come to rest. If the referee has also called a "miss"—meaning that the referee has deemed the opponent not to have made their best possible attempt to hit the object ball—the player has the option of having the balls replaced to their original positions and forcing the opponent to play the shot again. If, after a foul, the next player cannot cleanly strike both sides of the object ball, the referee may call a free ball, allowing the player to nominate any other ball in place of the object ball they might normally have played. If a player is awarded a free ball with all 15 red balls still in play, they can potentially make Maximum break#Breaks exceeding 147, a break exceeding 147, with the highest possible being a 155 break, achieved by nominating the free ball as an extra red, then potting the black as the additional colour after potting the free-ball red, followed by the 15 reds with blacks, and finally the colours. Jamie Cope was the first player to achieve a verified 155 break during a practice frame in 2005, with other players such as Alex Higgins claiming to have made a similar break.
One of snooker is called a "frame". A snooker generally consists of a predetermined number of frames. Most matches in current professional tournaments are played as the best of 7, 9, or 11 frames, with finals usually the best of 17 or 19 frames. The World Championship uses a longer format, with matches ranging from the best of 19 frames in the first round to best of 35 for the final, which is played over four of play held over two days. Some early world finals had much longer matches, such as the 1947 World Snooker Championship, which was played over the best of 145 frames.
Governance and tournaments
Professional
Professional snooker players compete on theWorld Snooker Tour
The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...
, which is a circuit of Snooker world rankings, world ranking tournaments and invitational events held throughout the snooker season. All competitions are open to professional players who have qualified for the tour, and selected amateur players, but most events include a separate qualification stage. Players can qualify for the tour by virtue of their position in the world rankings from prior seasons, by winning continental championships, or through the Challenge Tour (snooker), Challenge Tour or Q School (snooker), Q School events. Players on the World Snooker Tour generally gain a two-year "tour card" for participation in the events. Beginning in the 2014–15 snooker season, 2014–15 season, some players have also received invitational tour cards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the sport; these cards are issued at the discretion of the World Snooker Board, and have been awarded to players including Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
, James Wattana, Jimmy White, and Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
. Some additional secondary tours have been contested over the years. A two-tier structure was adopted for the 1997–98 snooker season; comprising six tournaments known as the WPBSA Minor Tour was open to all professionals, but only ran for one season. A similar secondary UK Tour was first played from the 1997–98 season, which was renamed the Challenge Tour in 2000, Players Tour Championship in 2010 and returned as the Challenge Tour in 2018.
The global governing body for professional snooker is the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...
(WPBSA), founded as the Professional Billiard Players' Association. The WPBSA owns and publishes the official rules of snooker, and has overall responsibility for policy-making in the professional sport of snooker. World Snooker Ltd responsible for the professional tour which is owned by both the WPBSA and Matchroom Sport.
World rankings
Every player on the World Snooker Tour is assigned a position on the WPBSA's official world ranking list, which is used to determine the seed (sports), seedings and the level of qualification each player requires for the tournaments on the professional circuit. The current world rankings are determined using a two-year rolling points system, where points are allocated to the players according to the prize money earned at designated tournaments. This "rolling" list is maintained and updated throughout the season, with points from tournaments played in the current season replacing points earned from the corresponding tournaments of two seasons ago. Additionally, "one-year" and "two-year" ranking lists are compiled at the end of every season, after the World Championship; these year-end lists are used for pre-qualification at certain tournaments and for tour-card guarantees. The top 16 players in the world ranking list, generally regarded as the "elite" of the professional snooker circuit, are not required to pre-qualify for some of the tournaments, such as the Shanghai Masters (snooker), Shanghai Masters, the Masters and the World Snooker Championship. Certain other events, such as those in the Players Series, use the one-year ranking list to qualify; these use the results of the current season to denote participants. As of the 2020–21 snooker season, 2020–21 season, there are 128 places available on the World Snooker Tour, with players either in the top 64 on the official ranking list, or finishing as one of the top eight prize money earners during the most recent season, guaranteed a tour place for the next season, this being assessed after the World Championship.Tournaments
The oldest current professional snooker tournament is the World Snooker Championship, which has taken place as an annual event most years since 1927. Hosted since 1977 at the Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's ...
in Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, England, the championship was sponsored by tobacco company Embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...
from 1976 to 2005, and has since been sponsored by various betting companies after the introduction of an EU-wide ban on advertising tobacco products. The Triple Crown tournaments are televised in the UK by the BBC, while most other tournaments are broadcast on the Eurosport network, or ITV Sport, as well as numerous other broadcasters internationally.
The World Championship is the most highly valued title in professional snooker, both in terms of financial reward (the tournament has carried a £500,000 winner's prize since 2019), ranking points, and prestige. The UK Championship
The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sullivan ...
, held annually since 1977, is considered to be the second most important ranking tournament, after the World Championship. These two events, and the annual non-ranking Masters tournament, make up the Triple Crown (snooker), Triple Crown Series; being some of the oldest competitions on the professional circuit, the Triple Crown events are valued by many players as the most prestigious. Only eleven players have won all three Triple Crown events, as of 2022.
Snooker has faced criticism for matches taking too long. In response, Matchroom Sport chairman Barry Hearn introduced a series of timed tournaments. The shot-timed Premier League Snooker was held between 1987 and 2012, with seven players invited to compete at regular United Kingdom venues, is televised on Sky Sports. Players had twenty-five seconds to take each shot, with five time-outs per player per match. Although some success was achieved with this format, it did not receive the same amount of press attention or status as the regular ranking tournaments. This event has been taken out of the tour since 2013, when the Champion of Champions (snooker), Champion of Champions was established. The event saw players qualify by virtue of winning other events in the season, with 16 champions competing.
In 2015, the WPBSA submitted an unsuccessful bid for snooker to be played at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Another bid has been put forward for the 2024 Summer Olympics through the World Snooker Federation, founded in 2017. A trial for the format for cue sports to be played at the 2024 games was put forward at the 2019 World Team Trophy (cue sports), 2019 World Team Trophy, also featuring nine-ball and carom billiards. Snooker has been contested at the World Games since Cue sports at the 2001 World Games, 2001, and was included as an event at the Snooker at the 2019 African Games, 2019 African Games.
Amateur
Non-professional snooker (including youth competition) is governed by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF). Events held specifically for seniors are handled by the WPBSA under the World Seniors Tour. World Disability Billiards and Snooker (WDBS) is a WPBSA subsidiary that organises events and playing aids in snooker and other cue sports for people with disabilities. Snooker is a mixed gender sport that affords men and women the same opportunities to progress at all levels of the game. While the main professional tour is open to female players, there is also a separate women's tour organised byWorld Women's Snooker
World Women's Snooker, founded as the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981, and known as World Ladies Billiards and Snooker (WLBS) from 2015 to 2018, is a subsidiary company of the World Professional Billiards and Snoo ...
(formerly the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association) that encourages female players to participate in the sport. The winner of the World Women's Snooker Championship
The World Women's Snooker Championship (formerly known as the Women's World Open Championship from 1976 to 1981 and the World Ladies Snooker Championship from 1983 to 2018) is the leading tournament on the World Women's Snooker Tour. The reigning ...
now receives a two-year tour card to the main professional tour.
The highest competition in the amateur sport is the IBSF World Snooker Championship, while the highest level of the senior sport is the World Seniors Championship. On the women's tour, the leading tournament is the World Women's Snooker Championship. The reigning champion is Reanne Evans who has held the women's world title twelve times since first winning the championship in 2005. Evans has also participated on the World Snooker Tour and has taken part in the qualifying rounds of the main world championship on five occasions, reaching the second round in 2017. The most prestigious amateur event in England is the English Amateur Championship; first held in 1916, this is the oldest snooker competition still being played in the world.
Criticism
Several players, such asRonnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
, Mark Allen (snooker player), Mark Allen and Steve Davis, have warned that there are too many tournaments during the season, and that players risk burnout. In 2012, O'Sullivan played fewer tournaments to spend more time with his children, and ended the 2012–13 season ranked 19th in the world; he played only one tournament in 2013, the 2013 World Snooker Championship, World Championship, which he won. He has suggested that a "breakaway tour" with fewer events would be beneficial to the sport, but as of 2018 no such tour has been organised.
Some leagues have allowed clubs to exclude female players from tournaments. League committee leadership has defended the practice: "If we lose two of these clubs [with the men-only policies] we would lose four teams and we can't afford to lose four teams otherwise we would have no league." A World Women's Snooker spokesperson commented, "It is disappointing and unacceptable that in 2019 that players such as Rebecca Kenna have been the victim of antiquated discriminatory practices." The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Snooker said, "The group believes that being prevented from playing in a club because of gender is archaic."
Important players
After the creation of the World Snooker Championship, snooker overcame billiards as the most popular cue sport in the United Kingdom. Joe Davis was world champion for twenty years, retiring unbeaten from the event after claiming his fifteenth world title in 1946 when the tournament was reinstated after the Second World War. He was only beaten on level terms by his brother Fred Davis (snooker player), Fred Davis, all coming after his retirement from the game. He did lose matches in Handicapping, handicapped tournaments, but on level terms these defeats were the only losses of his entire career.
By 1947, Fred Davis was deemed ready by his brother to become world champion, but lost the world final to Walter Donaldson (snooker player), Walter Donaldson. Fred Davis and Donaldson would contest the next four finals. After the abandonment of the World Championship in 1953, with the 1952 event boycotted by British professionals, the World Professional Match-play Championship became the unofficial world championship. Fred Davis won the tournament every year from 1952 to 1956, but did not enter the 1957 World Professional Match-play Championship, 1957 event. John Pulman won the 1957 event and was the most successful player of the 1960s, won the event seven times between April 1964 and March 1968 when the 1964–68 World Snooker Championships, World Championship was contested on a challenge basis. This winning streak ended when the tournament reverted to a Single-elimination tournament, knockout format in 1969. Ray Reardon
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (gra ...
was the dominant force in the 1970s, winning six world titles (1970 World Snooker Championship, 1970, 1973 World Snooker Championship, 1973–1976 World Snooker Championship, 1976, and 1978), and John Spencer (snooker player), John Spencer won three (1969 World Snooker Championship, 1969, 1971 World Snooker Championship, 1971 and 1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...
).
Steve Davis (no relation to Joe or Fred) won his first World Championship in 1981, becoming the 11th world champion since 1927. He won six world titles (1981 World Snooker Championship, 1981, 1983 World Snooker Championship, 1983, 1984 World Snooker Championship, 1984, and 1987 World Snooker Championship, 1987–1989 World Snooker Championship, 1989) and competed in the most-watched snooker match, the 1985 World Snooker Championship final, which he lost to Dennis Taylor. Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
became the 14th world champion in 1990 World Snooker Championship, 1990, aged 21 years and 106 days; he is the youngest player ever to have lifted the world title. Hendry dominated the sport through the 1990s, winning the World Championship seven times (1990, 1992 World Snooker Championship, 1992–1996 World Snooker Championship, 1996, and 1999 World Snooker Championship, 1999).
Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the most world titles since 2000, having done so on seven occasions (2001 World Snooker Championship, 2001, 2004 World Snooker Championship, 2004, 2008 World Snooker Championship, 2008, 2012 World Snooker Championship, 2012, 2013 World Snooker Championship, 2013, 2020 World Snooker Championship, 2020 and 2022 World Snooker Championship, 2022), while John Higgins and Selby have both won four times (Higgins in 1998 World Snooker Championship, 1998, 2007 World Snooker Championship, 2007, 2009 World Snooker Championship, 2009, and 2011 World Snooker Championship, 2011; Selby in 2014 World Snooker Championship, 2014, 2016 World Snooker Championship, 2016, 2017 World Snooker Championship, 2017, and 2021 World Snooker Championship, 2021), and Mark Williams (snooker player), Mark Williams three times (2000 World Snooker Championship, 2000, 2003, and 2018 World Snooker Championship, 2018). O'Sullivan is the only player to have made 1,000 career century breaks, and holds the record for the most maximum breaks compiled in professional competition, having achieved his 15th in October 2018. O'Sullivan also holds the record for the most ranking titles (39) and most Triple Crown titles (21) achieved in the sport.
Variants
Some versions of snooker, such as six-red snooker, six-red or ten-red snooker, are played with almost identical rules but with fewer object balls, reducing the time taken to play each frame. The Six-red World Championship, contested annually in Bangkok, Thailand, has been a regular fixture on the World Snooker Tour since 2012 Six-red World Championship, 2012. The ten-red game has had a World Women's 10-Red Championship held annually in Leeds, England, from 2017 to 2019. Geographic variations exist in the United States and Brazil, while speed versions of the standard game have been developed in the United Kingdom. American snooker is an amateur version of the game played almost exclusively in the United States. With simplified rules and generally played on smaller tables, this variant dates back to 1925. ''Sinuca brasileira'' (or "Brazilian snooker") is a variant of snooker played exclusively in Brazil, with fully divergent rules from the standard game, and using only one red ball instead of fifteen. At the start of the game, the single red is positioned halfway between the pink ball and the side cushion and the break-off shot cannot be used to pot the red or place the opponent in a snooker. The Snooker Shoot Out is a variant snooker tournament, first staged in 1990, featuring single-frame matches for an accelerated format. The idea was resurrected in 2011 with a modified version that was added to the professional tour in the 2010–11 snooker season, 2010–11 season and upgraded to a ranking event in 2017 Snooker Shoot Out, 2017. Other games were designed with an increased number of object balls in play. One example is "snooker plus", which included two additional colours: an orange ball worth eight points positioned between pink and blue, and a purple ball worth 10 points positioned between brown and blue, increasing the maximum possible break to 210. Introduced at the 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament, this variant failed to gain popularity and is no longer played. Power Snooker was a short-lived cue sport based on aspects of snooker and pool, which was first played competitively as the 2010 Power Snooker Masters Trophy and again in 2011 Power Snooker Masters Trophy, 2011, but the format failed to gain widespread appeal and was discontinued. Using nine red balls racked in a diamond-shaped pack at the start of the game, the matches were limited to a fixed game-play period of 30 minutes. Tenball was a snooker variant designed specifically for the television show of the same name, presented by Phillip Schofield, which lasted for one series. A yellow and black ball worth ten points was added between the blue and pink, and the game had a slightly revised set of rules. Snookerpool is a variant of snooker that is played with traditional snooker balls on an American pool table with the larger pockets (11ft x 5.5ft).See also
*Notes
References
Bibliography
* * * * * * * * * *External links
World Snooker Limited
World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association
International Billiards & Snooker Federation
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