Early beginnings

At the threshold of the 16th century, the game of billiards was the nobility's privilege. The game was played using ivory balls on a table which had no cushions, side rails or pockets. There were only crude holes and each time the ball was potted it fell on the ground making noise.

The man behind snooker

Billiards was also the favorite pastime of the British Armed Forces stationing in India in the 1800s. They mostly enjoyed life pool (playing with several colored balls) and pyramid pool (playing with 15 red balls) and later on black pool (life pool with a black ball). It was also at that time that the construction of billiard pool was considerably improved.

In 1875 in Jabalpur in India, the game of snooker was developed by a British Army Officer Sir Neville Chamberlain. It was a combination of pyramid pool and black pool, though without the the blue and brown balls which were added later on. The origin of the name "snooker" comes from the popular nickname of the first year cadets at Royal Military Academy. Whenever one of these officers missed a shot, Chamberlain would say: "Why, you're regular snooker!" thus referring to the officer's inexperience. The slang term became associated with the new game and after some time accepted as the official name of the game.

Soon, largely due to Chamberlain efforts, snooker experienced popularity in the Indian Army establishments throughout his postings. In 1882 in Ootacamund, for the first time the official rules of snooker were written down, and after 1900 these rules were accepted by the Billiards Association.

Snooker goes worldwide

The first decade of the 20th century witnessed snooker's blossoming on the British Isles. It took, however, a few years for the 1st official event to take place. In 1916, the English Amateur Championships and in 1927 Professional World Championship were organized. The winner of the later event was Joe Davis with the record break of 60. In the 1930s, he popularized the game which by that time started gaining global recognition. Joe Davis had no equals at that time as he won each of the World Championships until his retirement in 1946.

The sport is revived by TV

In the 1950s and the 60s, snooker experienced decline in popularity and for that reason there was no World Championship in the years 1958-1963. Thanks to the new snooker tournament Pot Black which in 1969 was launched by the BBC to celebrate the introduction of colour TV, the game experienced sudden revival. The TV audience was captivated by the exceptional commentary of "Whispering" Ted Lowe. The "voice of snooker" was involved in snooker commentary until 1996.

In 1977, the Sheffield's Crucible Theater became the venue for the World Championship, and in the year that followed this most important snooker tournament was for the first time televised. In the 1970s, a new breed of committed ambitious players appeared including Jimmy White and Alex Higgins. Steve Davis, who was most renowned representative of this generation, won six World Championships in the 1980s. In 1985, the Englishman played probably the most famous snooker match in the history. The World Championship final against Dennis Taylor, watched by 18.5 million viewers on BBC 2, was an exceptionally exciting game and it was the fated-to-lose Taylor who unexpectedly emerged victorious.

Snooker players today

The last decade of the 20th century was dominated by Stephen Hendry. In 1990, the 21-year-old Scot won, for the first time, World Championship as well as UK Championship, Dubai Classic, Asian Open, Scottish Masters, and Wembley Masters. He also won the World Championship title in the years 1992-1996 and in 1999, together with many other ranking tournament titles.

In the 21st century, the game of snooker has become somewhat stagnated. The only exception is China which boasts an ever growing base of active snooker players, both amateurs and professionals. One of them is the prodigious Ding Junhui who has already won UK Championship in 2005 and 2009, China Open in 2005 and Northern Ireland Trophy in 2006 and who also appears capable of challenging the recent supremacy of such players as Ronnie O'Sullivan (World Championships in 2001, 2004, 2008; UK Championship in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2007) and John Higgins (World Championship – 1998, 2007, 2009 UK Championship – 1998, 2000).