19 Facts About Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side.

Snooker gained its identity in 1875 when army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, stationed in Ootacamund, Madras, and Jubbulpore, devised a set of rules that combined black pool and pyramids.

Snooker featured in an 1887 issue of the Sporting Life newspaper in England, which led to a growth in popularity.

Snooker became increasingly popular across the Indian colonies of the British Raj, and in the United Kingdom, but it remained a game mainly for military officers and the gentry; many gentlemen's clubs that had a snooker table would not allow non-members inside to play.

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, which was discontinued in 1957.

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The World Snooker Championship moved in 1977 to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, where it has been staged ever since, and the 1978 World Snooker Championship was the first to receive daily television coverage.

Snooker quickly became a mainstream sport in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and much of the Commonwealth, and has remained consistently popular since the late 1970s, with most of the major tournaments being televised.

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, which is a timed, one- competition.

Snooker referees are an integral part of the sport, and some have become well-known personalities in their own right.

Global governing body for professional snooker is the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, founded as the Professional Billiard Players' Association.

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 seedings and the level of qualification each player requires for the tournaments on the professional circuit.

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.

Snooker has been contested at the World Games since 2001, and was included as an event at the 2019 African Games.

World Disability Billiards and Snooker 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.

Snooker 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.

Snooker was only beaten on level terms by his brother Fred Davis, all coming after his retirement from the game.

Snooker did lose matches in handicapped tournaments, but on level terms these defeats were the only losses of his entire career.

The Snooker Shoot Out is a variant snooker tournament, first staged in 1990, featuring single-frame matches for an accelerated format.