HISTORY OF SNOOKER

Snooker, they say, began on a very wet and miserable day in Jubbulpore in India in 1875.

In those days, the officers of the Devonshire regiment would spend many hours around the billiard table as the monsoon lashed down. Boredom was the order of the day for those young men and one such officer, Sir Neville Chamberlain, started to experiment.

Various games, such as pyramids, life pool and black pool, were devised involving more than the traditional three billiard balls. These variations started to catch on and the inventive Chamberlain started to add various coloured balls until a basic form of Snooker was evolved.

That game included 15 reds, yellow, green, pink and black. Snooker was finally born when blue and brown were added in later years. Then, during the 1880's word filtered back to England about this new game. Top Billiard player, John Roberts, journeyed to India in 1885 and was introduced to Chamberlain, and snooker was on the way.

Snooker grew and grew, though Joe Davis earned just £6.10s.0d. for his initial first World Championship win in 1927.

That was a far cry from 2008 when Ronnie O'Sullivan banked £250,000 for capturing the World Championship trophy.

Snooker has come a very long way in a relatively short period of time, to a stage where it can rightly claim to be a major internationally televised and participation sport.

Times have changed from those early days and, if it had not rained in India, who knows what might have happened?