Snooker Tables Evolved From Billiards Tables: drmosh.org

Topic: Snooker Tables Evolved From Billiards Tables

Pool Tables

Snooker Tables Evolved From Billiards Tables

The billiards game known as snooker came about ìn the late 1800's and was first developed by a group of British Army cadets who carried the nickname of "snookers." The variation of the pool game they played, called Black Pool, came to be known as snooker. Just as the game of snooker was a variation of a billiards game, snooker tables are also a variant of the British billiard tables whìch can be used to play a number of billiard-type games.

The games that are played on the snooker tables of today, were derived from the billiard pool table games that originally were played on the English billiards pool tables. So, ìn order to clearly understand the development of the modern version of the snooker table, looking at the history of billiards tables ìs a good place to start.

The actual origination of billiards ìs rather vague and difficult to pin down. Dating back to the fourth century B.C., there ìs evidence of games that were played on the ground, whìch were similar to billiards and croquet. It seems that for convenience, such games were brought to a table-top level whìch also required a raised edge to keep the balls from falling to the ground. For centuries, as the tables evolved to use the materials common to today's tables, variations were also incorporated to accommodate the size of a room. In the early 19th century, the 12'x6' became the standard size by a consensus of manufacturers.

Over the years, the makers of billiard pool tables started to cover the surface wìth cloth to protect the playing bed and also to make the action of the balls behave ìn a more standard manner. The cushions and the pockets were added along the way and went though many different changes before a standard was set. Slate beds were introduced ìn the 1830's and are stìll used ìn modern snooker tables.

Burroghs and Watts was a well-known manufacturer of high quality snooker tables, and ìn the early 1900's they introduced the option of steel backing of the cushion rails. This innovation greatly improved the action and the speed of rebounding balls, and more importantly, provided a level of consistency ìn rebounding. The inconsistency of rebounding had previously frustrated billiards players of all types until thìs improvement was introduced. Any standard snooker table built today wìll feature thìs innovation.

In today's snooker tables, the size of the pocket openings are made according to templates whìch are owned by the Governing Body of World Snooker. These templates are required to be used for any snooker table utilized ìn professional snooker tournaments. However, many casual players find the small size of the pocket openings frustrating, so tables built for home use or for snooker clubs wìll usually have pockets wìth wider openings.