Snooker – A Brief History
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Snooker is a game that has become extremely popular in the UK. In addition to being a much watched and loved professional sport it is also one that is played by people of all ages and in a range of environments, from specialist snooker halls and clubs to bars and pubs, homes, and community centres amongst others.
The modern form of snooker, which is an offshoot 5 world snooker championship 2023 of billiards, stems from the late 19thcentury. At that time English billiards, which had been around since the 16thcentury, was popular but one of the problems with that game is that it was only a two player game. As a result of this offshoots of billiards were formed and combined to make a new game called snooker.
Up until 1875 the balls used to play the game came in just a few colours. However, in 1875 it was suggested by Colonel Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain that more colours were added to the new version of the game, which is when the game started to more closely resemble the modern form of snooker that we know today.
It was in 1916 when the first official competitions for snooker started taking place in the form of the English Amateur Championships. In the 1920s the Professional World Championships were established with the help of Joe Davis. He went on to win every world championship until 1946 when he retired. By the time the 1930s came around snooker had become amongst the most popular cue sports.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s there was a decline in the popularity of this game. However, in the late 1960s there was also a revival, fuelled by the launch of the Pot Black Tournament by the BBC. Since that time snooker has gone from strength to strength in the UK, going from a humble game that started as an offshoot of a popular sport to becoming a hugely popular sport in its own right.
Over recent years there are been many well known names that have come and gone in the world of snooker, such as Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, and Alex Higgins, to name but a few.