Snooker might not be the most frenetic or energetic of sports, but it’s one of the most precise and technical. A true game of skill, there’s no fluke, no flat track bullying and no hiding place. It’s a frustrating game for anyone who’s never truly found out how to play snooker. But for those who’ve put the time in, it’s brilliantly rewarding.
But where does snooker come from? What’s its origin? How has it come to be what it is today? Well, never fear. Rileys are here. And we’re going to tell you. So settle into your seat, take a small, studied sip of water and chalk your brain tip. Let’s explore a potted history of the game of snooker…
All cue sports are derived from billiards. The ‘gentleman’s game’ of billiards has been about since the 16th Century and kept the middle classes busy in the evening for centuries. A relatively simple game, the first incarnation of it saw players knocking a ball around a table that had no cushions or pockets. The holes you aimed for were in the middle of the table and dropped onto the floor when potted. You’d have two players and three balls.
But soon, variations were created to allow more players to play at once
The British Army Adapts Things in India
To be able to entertain more men around a table at once, other games were invented for the billiards table. These games would go on to shape the table and eventually see both pockets and cushions introduced. British Armed Forces in India invented Life Pool and Pyramid pool, which would have 15 red balls on the table. Soon, these games and billiards were mixed together and a new pursuit emerged. But it had no name.
Not until high-ranking officer Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain came along, anyway. One day he goaded a rookie he beat by calling him ‘a real snooker’ after the kid played a particularly amateurish shot. ‘Snooker’ being a word for a wetback soldier of little experience. Somehow that word began to be associated with the game and eventually it became its name.
The game remained an upper class soldier’s hobby until the 1920’s when the Professional World Championship of Snooker was formed with the help of the new sport’s first champion and star, Joe Davis. He would go on to win the first 15 World Championships and record the first maximum break of 147 ever.
The impressive figure of Joe Davis dominated snooker, but it made little impact on the wider public. It was barely even the one of UK’s top cue sports at this point.
Television was to be the launchpad of the sport. The BBC were trialling colour TV and needed an easy-to-film sport to test and introduce colour television with. They settled on snooker. The programme Pot Black started airing in 1969 and it really pushed snooker onto the masses. It went from peripheral hobby of the rich to a game that anyone could enjoy.
Snooker clubs begun opening up across Britain, the game slowly started leaking out abroad and the World Championships started being broadcast on television in 1973
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