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The Unlikely Tale Of The Account Of The Game Snooker

By: Hobart Jenkins

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Imperialism and territorial expansion have historically fostered cultural exchanges. The Greeks exported their own peculiar brand of knowledge and logic. The Romans left roads and viaducts in Britain. The English occupation of India brought cities and irrigation canals, as well as the games of cricket and snooker. Though cricket was in existence long before England turned its imperialistic eye on the Asian sub-continent, by contrast snooker was invented during the English occupation. Despite that, the history of the game snooker is buried in the misty recesses of time.

The game itself was derived from earlier billiard-like games by the addition of colored or "pool" balls to the normal complement of fifteen black and red pyramid balls. One of its precursors, "Black Pool" pre-dated the game of snooker by almost sixty years, its rules having been set down and published by 1820.

The number of colored or "pool" balls in the early versions of snooker varied. The earliest version called for four "pool" balls. This eventually increased to five and finally settled at six. The game was generally called snooker, but occasionally it also was called "Snooker Pool" and "Snooker's Pool".

The name Snooker is believed to have its origins in British military slang. Snooker was a term applied to inexperienced, first year cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. While playing this new billiard-like game, Colonel Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain, who was no ancestor to the British Prime Minister by the same name, found himself without a shot. His opponent had missed his shot and failed to "pot" or hole a ball. Chamberlain called his opponent "a snooker" and somehow this name got attached to the game. Soldiers returning from India to England returned with both the game and the name.

This account of Snooker's origin may be true, however there is no description of the games invention prior to the 1930's, and no newspaper or historical accounts concerning Chamberlain refer to any role he might have had in the games creation. Nevertheless, the game became more popular and spread quickly to current and former British colonies. In 1887, Frank Smith Sr. Introduced the game to Australia, and the British Billiards Association published the first set of official rules in 1903.

Snooker's popularity sprouted over its first fifty years. For all of that, it remained primarily an amateur's game with the first amateur contest taking place in 1916. By 1923 the game had grown into one that professionals competed in, and in that year the Billiards Professional Association hosted the first professional tournament. Four years later the first World Snooker Competition was held, organized by Joe Davis. Davis played a major role in taking the game from its amateur origins to a more professional level. Davis would go on to win every Snooker World Championship for twenty-one consecutive years until his retirement in 1947.

Over the years, snooker has become a popular mainstream sport in the British Commonwealth. It has enjoyed widespread appreciation and success in the last thirty years, with the majority of the ranking tournaments televised. The recent spread of the game to the Far East and China with emerging new talents is a good sign for the future of the sport.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Hobart T. Jenkins has been an avid player of the wonderful game of snooker for several years. Find out more about the game of snooker, the fine art of creating a masterful snooker cue and the distinctive types of snooker cues available now at his blog.

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