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Snooker, Pool and Billiards
The word ‘billiard’ is believed to be derived from ‘ball’ words such as pila, billa (Latin), and bille (French), as well as ‘stick’ words like bille, and, billette (French) and billart (Old French). In England, Shakespeare was one of the first recorded users of the word in his line: "Let’s to billiards, come Charmian," in Anthony and Cleopatra (act 11, scene v).
The game of Billiards began life in the 1340s as a lawn game similar to croquet before being brought indoors and onto a table by the aristocracy. Louis XI of France had a billiard table as early as the 1470s. At first two balls were pushed with a mace, a stick flattened and curved at one end, but in around 1670 players began to use the thin end of the mace more often. By about 1800, the transformation from mace to cue was complete.
During the 20th century, English billiards also became distinct from the continental version. The French, closely followed by the British, introduced a red ball into play and the British incorporated cannons (where one ball is struck off the other two) into their point scoring. The French took a different route and abandoned pockets altogether to concentrate solely on cannons. To this day continental billiards is still played on pocketless tables.
The European version of billiards, historically known as 'Carom' or "Carombole", but more popularly simply known as 'Biljarts' in the low countries, has remained truer to the original fifteenth century game, featuring pocketless tables and therefore cannons being the only scoring shot. The modern version of this game is very popular in Belgium and the Netherlands, where it is played in countless bars, with some small country bars being virtual shrines to the game. The balls tend to be larger and heavier than English billiard balls and the table smaller.
This pocket-less game is very different from the game of pool popularised in America and played widely in bars and clubs in Finland. The most commonly-played version of the game is eight-ball. The goal of eight-ball, which is played with a full rack of fifteen balls and the cue ball, is to claim a suit (usually stripes or solids) pocket all of them, then legally pocket the 8 ball, while denying one's opponent opportunities to do the same with their suit, and without sinking the 8 ball early by accident.
Although snooker’s origin is not recorded explicitly, it is generally held that a Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain (no relation to the World War II Prime Minister) conceived the game in the British Army Officer’s Mess in Jubbulpore, India, in 1875. Originally, the term “Snooker”, was slang for an inexperienced army cadets who had not completed their military training. Then, during a game of the new “Pool game”, when one of the young officers missed a pot, Chamberlain called him a “Snooker” referring to his lack of experience. Subsequently the name “Snooker” was adopted as the name of the game itself.
Snooker is played on a large baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regulation (full-size) table is 6ft × 12ft (1.8 m × 3.6). Contrast this with a regulation sized pool table of 4.5ft × 9ft (1.37 × 2.7).
Like pool and billiards, snooker is played using a cue, one white ball (the cue ball), 15 red balls (worth 1 point each) and 6 balls of different colours (worth 2 – 7 points each). A player wins a frame (individual game) of snooker by scoring more points than the opponent, using the cue ball to pot the red and coloured balls. A player wins a match when he wins a certain number of frames. The game is especially popular in many of the English-speaking and Commonwealth countries, and in China.
Originally, played in Gentlemen’s clubs the game was not very popular among the general public. However, with the advent of colour television and the 1969 BBC commissioned snooker tournament, Pot Black, the game expanded to a wider audience. Today the top professional players can earn as much as £200,000 for winning one of the major tournaments.
Born in Helsinki, Finland’s only professional snooker player is Robin Hull. As his name and accent suggest, he was largely raised in London, and his father is English. His career prize money was £239,995. This would have been considerably higher had it not been for a life threatening illness.
"I lost 80 per cent of my balance and the virus also affected my heart and lungs," he said. "I had to have similar physiotherapy to that given to stroke victims and I still have numbness on my right side. "There was a time when I couldn’t go out of a room. My confidence was badly damaged because I couldn’t do a simple thing like walking to a bus stop without feeling very ill and dizzy. My neurologist tried to keep me positive but it was very frightening as you tend to fear the worst.”
Sadly, in January of this year, the virus and irregular heart beat, forced Robin to retire from the professional game.
Mike Bangle is the owner of Talking English language consultancy and can be contacted at mike.bangle(at)phnet.fi
Word List
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