Beginning

All things have a beginning, they don't come out of nowhere, and the Snooker was not going to be less. If you have just landed in this "Snookerian" world, here we briefly tell you the story of its origins: how it came about and why is it called that.

In 2.015 have already been fulfilled 140 years since a young British Army officer came up with the game we know today as Snooker, while experimenting on a pool table.

The game was invented in 1875, by the british army, in the Indian city of Jubbulpore in the state of Madhya Pradesh (o Jabalpur, how is he known now) located more than 800 kilometers southeast of the capital, New Delhi.

According to author and essayist Compton MacKenzie, in his letter to the magazine "The Billiard Player" of 1939, it was the young lieutenant Neville Chamberlain who invented snooker while experimenting on the pool table in the officers' mess with the game "Black Pool".

The "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" describes the circumstances under which the game was born:

“While serving in Jubbulpore in 1875 Chamberlain developed a new variant of Black Pool by introducing colored balls into the game. It was called "snooker" - a derogatory nickname given to first-year cadets studying at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich and meaning "rookie."- and that Chamberlain had heard while visiting the dining room. Chamberlain, after a playmate failed to shoot a colored ball, Told him: Why? You are a "snooker" (novato). As he explained the expression to his fellow officers, and to appease the officer in question, he commented that they were all "Snookers in the game" and the name Snooker or Snooker’s Pool was immediately assigned from that moment on. "

And such was the young officer's enthusiasm for his new game that he even called his horse "Snooker"!!

His regiment, el Devonshire, which later became the Devonshire and Dorset and is now known as The Rifles, remains fiercely proud of this day and his role in the invention of snooker.

Chamberlain did various exhibitions throughout India and made the game known wherever he went. He was stationed in Madras between 1881-1885 and snooker there became very popular at the Ootacamund Club. It was at this club that the rules were first worked out in detail..

During a visit to India in 1885, Billiard World Champion John Roberts sought out Chamberlain in order to learn the new game of snooker. After their meeting, Roberts decided to introduce him to England when he returned.

For many years the game was known as “Snooker’s Pool” and it was played with fewer balls and other scoring rules., very different from today.

It wasn't until the early 20th century that snooker evolved into the game it is today.. Played by prominent army officers in India and by the aristocracy, it grew in complexity and in its parts and has remained more or less the same since then.

We hope the entry has been interesting for you.

Now we know a little more about this exciting game that unites us with millions of people throughout the world.