Snooker

History

Towards the end of the 19th century, billiards which goes back to the 15th century, was popular among the British officers stationed in India. This one knew many alternatives. According to the history most commonly allowed, in 1875 colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain - homonym of the future Prime Minister - had suggested with the mess of the Officier S of Jubbulpore adding balls coloured to traditional billiards.

Snooker being the Nickname allotted in the army to a one year recruit, it was used for the new followers of this play and extended to the play itself. The British champion of billiards John Roberts travelled to India in 1885 where it met Chamberlain which explained the new handset to him. Roberts introduced it thereafter with the the United Kingdom.

The championships of snooker go back to 1916. In 1927, Joe Davis, by far the best player of all times, ensured the fame of the first championship of the professional world and gained a price of £6.10s (equivalent with approximately 300 € In 2004). It gained each championship of the world thereafter until in 1946.

The snooker undergoes a decline in the Années 1950 and 60, so much so that no tournament took place between 1958 and 1963. In 1969 however, BBC had the idea of a tournament of snooker to launch its new programs color. It was the departure of the Pot Black whose success largely exceeded the forecasts.

A few years later, the championship of the world was retransmis on television and the snooker became a professional sport. World classification was introduced in 1977. The money invests the play and a new kind of player emerged, personified by Steve Davis, young person, serious and devoted. The first 147 in front of cameras was carried out by him in 1982. The most famous players became millionaires of pounds sterling. There was even a comic pop song on the snooker: Snooker Loopy by Eye & Dave.

The top of this golden age was perhaps the championship of the world of 1985, when more than 18 million televiewers, a third of the population of the the United Kingdom, looked at Dennis Taylor carrying the cut after a memorable combat which finished well after midnight.

The televisual popularity of the snooker to the the United Kingdom is exceeded only by that of the Football.

Structure

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), founded in 1968 like an association of professional players of billiards, is the official structure for the professional play. Its subsidiary company, World Snooker, organize the professional tournament. The organization is established with Bristol, England.

The play amateur east governs by the International federation of Billiards and Snooker (International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF)).

Play

Beginning of part

The snooker is played on a table of 1,83 m out of 3,66 m with six pockets, with each corner and one in the middle of each side length. With one of the ends of the table is a line called baulk . On this line, the yellow ball (2 points) is on the line, the green ball (3) on the left and the ball chestnut (4) in the medium. In the exact medium of the table is the blue ball (5), and even further is the pink (6), followed by the red balls, being touched enters they and placed a triangle in front of the pink, and finally the black ball (7). At the beginning of the part, the white ball can be placed anywhere in D (the half-circle in front of the baulk ), nevertheless it is usual for the players to start while placing the ball on the line, between the ball chestnut and is the green ball or the yellow ball.

Phases of play

The players, using a tail of billiards, can strike only the white ball, which must in its turn strike at least another ball. The play consists of two phases. During the first phase, the players must alternatively play a red ball and a ball of color, and this until the exhaustion of the red balls. When a color is empochée, it is replaced on the table - if possible on its original place, if not the site available of the most raised value, or, if all the sites are occupied, on the line of centers of the table, more close possible of its initial place. As soon as a player fails or makes a fault, its series ( station-wagon ) stops and it leaves its place to the other player, who initiates new a station-wagon , while always starting with a red ball.

When all the red balls were empochées, the players must play the balls of color in the order ascending of the points:

Yellow, 2 pts
Green, 3 pts
Maroon, 4 pts
Blue, 5 pts
Rose, 6 pts
Black, 7pts.

The balls then are not replaced any more on the table. The part finishes when the black ball is empochée, when one of the players gives up, or when the variation in points is too important to be reasonably caught up with.

Theoretically, the players are supposed to announce the color of the ball which they envisage to play. In practice, the choice is often obvious, and the color is announced only if two or several balls of color are close or close to the same line of sight.

Deduct points

Points are marked when a correct ball is empochée, a point for each red ball and the number of points corresponding for each ball of color. Points are also allotted if the adversary makes a fault:

not to touch balls with the white ball;
to touch in first a ball different from that awaited (to touch a color in first when a red ball should be touched, or a red ball when a color should be touched, or a bad color);
empocher a red ball when a color should be empochée, or a color when a red ball should be empochée, or a bad color;
empocher the white ball;
to make leave a ball the table;
to strike with the tail another ball that the white one;
to play a “thorough blow” - a blow where the tail, the white ball and another ball are in simultaneous contact.
to make jump its white ball above a ball to reach another

of it

The penalties are at least of 4 points, the value of the ball which should have been touched, the value of the ball which was in fault, or the highest value. If an illegal blow were played by not touching the white ball in first and that the referees think that the player did not make the best possible effort to play a legal blow, then a “lack” or “miss” is established and all the balls present before the illegal blow are given on the table. In the high level play, this is generally necessary when the white ball and a pair of another balls moved. When a player plays an illegal blow, it can be to him asked to return to the table for another blow if it is always difficult to play starting from this position.

The score highest possible in a station-wagon which can be finished without penalties is of 147 (15 series " red - noire" , more 27 points of the balls of color at the time of the second phase). This score is seldom reached during a match, and in general remains exceptional in the career of a player. A simple station-wagon can reach 155 points, if the 147 are preceded by the empochage of two balls (8 points) in compensation of a fault of the adversary.

Tournaments

The most important event in the world of the professional snooker is Embassy Championnat of the world, held each year since 1927. The tournament was established with the Crucible Theater with Sheffield (England) since 1977. In 2005 it was decided to prolong the contract with the Crucible Theater for 5 years.

The groups of following tournaments, by order of importance, are the tournaments of classification. The players in these tournaments mark points of world classification. An high ranking of classification ensures the qualification for the tournaments of the following year, the invitations for the tournaments of official reception and an advantageous position in the tournaments.

Then the tournaments come from official reception, in which the majority of the best classified players are invited. The most important tournament in this category is the Benson & Hedges Masters.

Notable players

Some of the most famous players are:

Joe Davis (England), gained the Championship of the World fifteen consecutive times of 1927 with 1946.
Steve Davis (England), gained six times the Championship of the World in the years 1980.
Ken Doherty (Irish Republic), gained the Championship of the World in 1997.
Tony Drago (Malta), one of the fastest players of snooker, known to have carried out the the maximum Station-wagon fastest of the history.
Stephen Hendry (Scotland), gained seven times the Championship of the World in the years 1990.
Alex Higgins (Northern Ireland), gained twice the Championship of the World in 1972 and 1982.
Shaun Murphy (England), victorious of the Championship of the World in 2005 at only 22 years.
Ronnie O' Sullivan (England), gained twice the Championship of the World: in 2001 and 2004; he is the holder of fastest the televised maximum Break.
John Pulman (England), large player of the years 1960.
Ray Reardon (Wales), gained six times the Championship of the World in the years 1970.
Refusals Taylor (Northern Ireland), gained the Championship of the World in 1985, so known to make spectacle.
Cliff Thorburn (Canada), only not British with Ken Doherty to have gained the Championship of the World.
Bill Werbeniuk (Canada), known for the quantity of alcohol which it consumed during its matches to control its trac.
Jimmy White (England), the “eternal second”, it was six times finalist of the Championship of the World without gaining it only once.

Accessories of the snooker

Rest rest : A stick with a head in the shape of X, which is used to support the tail when the arm of the player is too short.
Rest spider : Similar to the rest rest but it has a head in the shape of arch, which is used to raise (and support) the arrow of the tail above the height of the ball of shock.
Rest swan : Seldom used - the rest swan has a simple nose prolonged with a fork at the end to give an additional distance to the tops of the broad obstacles.
Chalk : The arrow of the tail is applied of a layer of “blue” to ensure a good contact between the tail and the ball.
Tail : The stick out of wooden, which is used to strike the ball of shock. It is made up of the heel, the barrel and the arrow.
Triangle : The triangular accessory used to place the balls in the necessary formation to begin the play.

Glossary

Baulk : The surface ranging between the line of baulk and the short band nearest.
Line of baulk (baulk line) : The line separating the table in the direction from the width. It is placed at 29 inches (737 mm) of the lower band.
Station-wagon : Series of empochages consecutive by the same player.
Canon : Strong blow towards another ball after the balls objects were touched. Can, for example, being used to disperse a group of balls.
Century : A station-wagon of 100 points or more.
Color : A ball not-red object.
thorough Blow : The tail maintains a contact with the ball of shock, when this one strikes another ball. This is a fault.
Obliteration or “" Clearance" ”: Station-wagon completed with empochage of the black ball in phase 2, and thus with an empty table (except for the ball of shock).
Empocher : To strike (a ball) in one of the pockets.
Frame : A sleeve of the part.
free Ball or “" Free ball" ”: If a faulty blow leaves the opponent snooké or in impossibility of touching a ball object on the 2 sides, the opponent can choose another ball in the place of the blocked ball. This is known like free ball .
Kick : A weak unexplainable contact between the ball of shock and a ball object (probably caused by a dust either on the balls, or or by static electricity).
KIS : Contact between two balls.
Mass : A blow played with the tail played in an almost vertical position - used to give an extreme variation on the ball of shock.
Maximum : The maximum score (without fault) possible of 147, reached in a simple station-wagon.
Miss : When player arrives not to touch ball red (or of color if it must play a color), the referee can declare a Miss if it estimates that the player did not make of sound to better touch the ball. Its adversary can then either play the following blow, or to let its adversary again play (as after a traditional fault), but it has in more the possibility of asking to the faulty player rejouer the blow, by replacant the white one on its initial position (like any other ball having also moved following the blow).
Pack : Red balls in their initial position, or, later in the play, the balls red remaining together with their initial position.
Seedling : Blow in a red ball, which striking another red ball which is empochée.
Black handing-over or “" Respoted black" ”: When the sleeve finishes and that the two players have the same number of points, the black ball is given on the table, like the ball of shock, the first player with the empocher gains the sleeve. If a faulty blow is made by a player, this player loses the back sleeve
Spin or Retro : A blow played by striking the white ball slightly in lower part of the center, thus, the ball of shock does not go very far after having struck another ball or fact step back.
Safety : A manner of playing a ball, not with the intention of empocher something, but of making difficult or impossible for the opponent of empocher at the time of his next blow.
Screw , Screw shot : A blow with a large back spin.
Side , Side spin : A blow played with the tail striking the white ball with dimensions center, used to change the angle with which the white ball rebounds on the cushion of the band.
Snooker : A snooker is a blow which leaves the opponent unable to strike a correct ball directly. The opponent is known as Snooké . If the empochage of all the remaining balls always leaves the player to the drag of his adversary, then it is known as needing snooker .
Stun shot : A blow with a light back spin, so that the ball of shock stops once in contact with the ball object.
Swerve : A blow played with an extreme spin, thus the ball of shock does not travel in straight line. Mainly used to escape a difficult snooker.
Signal spin or Cast : A blow played by striking the white ball largely above the center, thus the ball travels a little further after having struck another ball.
Touching ball or Ball in contact : Situation in which the ball of shock touches another ball. The ball of shock must be played variation of the ball in contact. If it is the ball which must be struck, the ball is counted as being struck.

See too

Internal bonds

Billiards
List of the players of snooker
World classification of the snooker 2004/2005

International external bonds

Official site of Snooker

French external bonds

Official site of the French federation of Billiards, Snooker section.
GTSNOOK: Free software on line allowing the management of the clubs of Snooker of all the French-speaking countries. GTSNOOK manages also an annual tournament between the players of the site, without displacement, the Championship of Paris, the internal championship of each club, and offers statistics to all the players registered.

Simple: Snooker

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