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The History of Snooker

Snooker was invented over the course of 1875 by Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain who was stationed at Jubbulpore, India. It is really a combination of 3 different games that were all played upon a Billiards Table at around this time.

The history and evolution of Billiards and the table that it is played upon is a long story that starts at least as early as the thirteenth century but by the early 1800s, the game of Billiards consisting of just 2 white balls and one red ball was an extremely popular game.The development of cue sports had not stopped with Billiards in England, however, and another popular game played on the same table was called ‘Life Pool’ known at the time simply as “Pool”. Life Pool is a game for up to 14 players each of which uses a different coloured ball as their own cue ball in order to pot the cue balls of the other players. Each time a player’s ball is potted, that player loses a life and the last player left in the game receives the pool of money that was bet at the start. The game was played with the white plus 6 coloured balls that later came to be used for Snooker.

An enhancement of regular Life Pool was ‘Black Pool’. In this version, once a player had potted his allocated ball, he could then attempt to pot the black, a successful shot resulting in additional winnings from the other players. From this game, the inventor of Snooker copied the important principle of being allowed to pot a colour after sinking the primary target ball.

The third English game that formed the origins of Snooker, was called ‘Pyramid’. 15 red balls were lined up in a triangle and players took turns to try to pot them with the white ball. This game is a key one in Billiards history since the triangle formation was copied in the creation of seminal later games – Snooker and the first American Pool game – Fifteen Ball Pool.

Snooker is actually a combination of Black Pool and Pyramids. The 15 red Pyramids balls are racked up in a triangle together with the balls from Life Pool, which are placed separately and the black is placed below the reds at the foot of the table. Originally, snooker featured yellow, green, pink and black only. Blue and brown were a later addition. The game spread within the British regiments posted to India, led apparently primarily by Chamberlain and was eventually brought back to England where it gradually increased in popularity. In the UK, Snooker enjoyed a huge increase in popularity from the late 1970s onwards and during the 1980s & 90s was a major television sport. In general, Snooker is most popular in the countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland together with Commonwealth countries such as South Africa, Australia and Canada and from the late 20th century, many countries in the Far East have also become heavily involved with Snooker, especially the Chinese.

You can learn more about the History of Snooker from The Online Guide to Traditional Games.