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Now for a potted history!
American Fifteen-Ball Pool or "Sixty-one Pool" is the predecessor of all modern 'Pocket Billiards' games. It was played with 15 object balls as in the English game Pyramid,but crucially, the balls are numbered 1 through 15.
For sinking a ball, the player received a number of points equal to the value of the ball. The sum of the ball values in a rack is 120, so the first player who received more than half the total, or 61, was the winner. The word "pool" means a collective bet and became a term for the game when it began to be played in 19th century "pool rooms" which were then places for betting on horse races.
Continuous Pool replaced Fifteen-Ball Pool as the championship game when, in 1888, it was thought more fair to count the number of balls pocketed by a player and not their numerical value.Thus, the player who sank the last ball of a rack would break the next rack and his point total would be kept "continuously" from one rack to the next.
Eight Ball Pool was invented shortly after 1900 and is one of the most widely played of all Billiards games today.
Straight Pool followed in 1910. Also known as 14.1 Continuous. The object is to pot 14 of the 15 balls one after the other and in any order leaving just one ball whereupon all the others are racked up and the break continues. One point is scored for each ball potted.
Nine-Ball Pool seems to have developed around 1920. This game is now more popular in Europe particularly in Sweden and Germany. Balls one to nine are racked up in a diamond with the nine balls in the middle and the one ball nearest the baulk line. Each shot must always hit the lowest numbered ball on the table first and then pocket a ball or make two balls reach a cushion. If this isn't achieved, it is a foul and the balls are re-racked for the opponent to play.
The World Pool-Billiards Association, which controls the various Pool (American Pocket Billiards) games, is one of the primary members of The World Confederation of Billiard Sports along with The World Snooker Federation and Union Mondiale de Billard.
Snooker is believed to have sprung from a combination of pyramid pool and life pool. It is thought that Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain (no relation to the World War II Prime Minister) conceived the game in the Bristish Army Officer’s Mess in Jubbulpore, India, in 1875. The name “Snooker”, it is said, was applied to the game, when a young subaltern visited Sir Neville’s Devonshire regiment and explained that first year cadets at the Royal Military Academy, where he had trained,were called “Snookers”.
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 for the game itself.
Chamberlain went on to promote the game in Army establishments throughout his postings in India and in 1882 in Ootacamund the first rules were drafted and recorded. The game of Snooker then spread widely,with the movement of Army personnel, throughout the British Empire.However, these rules were not recognised by the Governing Body of the time,“The Billiards Association” until 1900.
Snooker eventually took over from English Billiards as the dominant cue sport in the 1930’s when the legendary Joe Davis actively promoted the game throughout the World.
