It took snooker a little more than a century to evolve from a game thought up at a British Army station in southern India to a national obsession which has enthralled colossal TV audiences.
It took snooker a little more than a century to evolve from a game thought up at a British Army station in southern India to a national obsession which has enthralled colossal TV audiences.
In 1875, a British colonel stationed in the Nilgiri Hills, Sir Neville Bowes Chamberlain, merged two games.
They were Pyramids – played with a triangle of 15 reds – and Life Pool – a multi-player game using a variety of coloured balls. The result was “Snooker’s Pool”.
The name derived from its popularity with new Army cadets – “snookers” in military slang.
The game soon caught on back home, with snooker sets produced by the John Roberts Billiard Supply Company.
The first rules were written by the Billiards Association in 1900 and by 1916 the first Amateur English Championship was under way.
The first professional championship was held in 1927.
Joe Davis beat Tom Dennis 20-11 in the final and went on to win every world championship until he retired in 1946.
He, more than anyone, popularised the game among players and spectators.
Joe’s younger brother Fred won the championship three times in 1948, 1949 and 1951.
Disputes between the players and the governing body – the Billiards Association and Control Council – led to the world championship not being staged between 1958-63.
But the introduction of colour TV in the late 1960s provided snooker with a much-needed shot in the arm.
The BBC launched the TV programme ‘Pot Black’, which proved hugely popular and snooker began to flourish.
Ray Reardon dominated the sport in the 1970s, winning six world titles.
In 1977, the world championship found a permanent home at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, which has staged it ever since.
Snooker audiences grew and grew in the 1980s, with Steve Davis equalling Reardon’s record of six world titles.
Canada’s Cliff Thorburn, who won the title in 1980, recorded the Crucible’s first 147 maximum break in 1983.
Flair players like Alex Higgins (two world titles) and Jimmy White (famously no world titles from six finals) did much to attract viewers.
Higgins’ masterful match-saving break of 69 against White in the 1982 world championship semi-final is one of snooker’s most memorable moments.
But it was the 1985 final that will always be remembered as the greatest match in world championship history.
Never were the whispered tones of veteran snooker commentator Ted Lowe heard by so many as more than 18.5 million viewers stayed up until 12.30am to watch Northern Ireland’s Dennis Taylor sink the final black and complete a match that had lasted nearly 15 hours.
Taylor had trailed the great Steve Davis 8-0 after the first session, but fought back to level the scores at 17 frames apiece before taking the electrifying decider.
Davis was devastated but continued to dominate the game until Scotland’s Stephen Hendry emerged.
So far Hendry has won a record seven world titles and compiled more than 700 competitive century breaks.
The game has recently seen an influx of highly talented young players, such that no one player has been able to dominate.
There have been five different world champions since 2000, with incredibly gifted Ronnie O’Sullivan emerging as the biggest draw.
