American Learns The Rules of Snooker - Explained
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Someone get him to watch Ronnie O'Sullivan's fastest ever 147!
He needs to see Ronnie clear the table faster than Top Gear's Stig drove Ronnie's Mercedes around the track. That was entertaining.
I want to see this as well! 😁
@Thunderhawk51 to be fair, it wasn't a full set of reds but it was still hugely impressive, considering the Stig did the lap in Ronnie's car in about one minute forty. It was 4 reds and all the colours. It's probably on UA-cam.
@Thunderhawk51 I've just checked and it is. Search Ronnie O'Sullivan Top Gear and it's the third video in the list.
I was thinking that myself. I think he would be impressed.
"For those of you watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green." Ted Lowe, BBC Commentator.
That's a 'Murray Walker-ism' if ever I heard one 🤣
😂
My favourite Murray Walkerism was "Excuse me while I interrupt myself".
pot black days
That reminds me of how they used to fill the whole Sunday afternoon on Belgian TV with black and white broadcasts of Snooker and bumper pool, in black & white. Usually these competitions were played in actual billiard bars, and the commentator tended to be drunk by the end of the afternoon.
What I love most about snooker, is that players are expected to be 100% fair, going as far as to report their own mistake (e.g. accidentially touching a ball) if the ref does not see it. I am so tired of players in other sports always trying to trick around. In snooker, players act in utmost respect for each other.
For the most part, you should see O'Sullivan and Ali Carter having beef, or Mark Allen in general 😆
@@Stephens_Rocket Ronnie is well renowned for his character, I'd say. 😂 I was talking about the general attitude of respect towards an opponent, which I like very much, and I think you'll grant to me, that snooker has a different level on that topic than any other sport, generally speaking. 😉
Golf is supposed to be the same but at casual levels there’s some despicable people who lie and cheat all the time. But at competitive level it’s usually very honest.
Cricket used to be the same, but these days some players will claim catches they haven't taken, or not walk off when they know they've edged it...
And also apologizing for a fluke. That'd be crazy in any other sport
A snooker table looks absolutely massive in person... those long pots are far more impressive in person than what it looks like on a screen.
Yeah the tables are genuinely about the size of my room during my first year at Uni 😂
When I first saw one in person I had an urge to climb up on it and start kicking a ball around.
Combined with the smaller dimensions of the balls and rounded corners.. I compare it to marksman style shooting compared to shooting clay disks with a shotgun.
Playing billiards after snooker feels like shooting boulders on a coffee table.
The first time I played snooker I thought to myself what is this aircraft carrier of a table?
Yeah it’s basically pool x10 difficulty bigger table white ball a lot more reactive to spin a lot less room for error etc, it’s great game honestly while having a few beers in snooker halls with mates
"What is snooker?" Played all over the world since 1875. A development of billiards played since the 15th CENTURY.
POOL is on US tv because a game lasts 3 mins and they can do adverts - US tv runs sports
And pool supports short attention spans 😂
@@ileana8360 chemicals and sugars in all food, mass ADHD and autism
@@papalaz4444244 OK Mr tinfoil hat man it's time to take your meds
Is it "Played all over the world", though? Coming from Norway, who generally loves the UK and absorbs your culture, it's not a thing here at all. I've never seen a snooker table, no game has ever been aired on tv as far as I know, no one ever talks about it. Out of the million things we where thought about the UK and history of Britain at school, it was never mentioned.
@@basstrammel1322 Well me locale pool hall hasn't any snooker tables anymore either. Wich is a shame casue it was nice to play it every now and then. Doing acouple of hours practising on a snooker table makes playing on a pool one like you are doing a kids game.
One of the greatest skills in snooker is not just potting the ball but positioning the cue ball ready for the next shot.
That's called shape, and I always sucked at it.
That's why it's so difficult. The size if the table also makes a long pot fom corner to corner seam like a sniper shot.
@GWNorth-db8vn me too. Hence my highest break of 14.
The table is huge, much bigger than pool. The pockets are smaller than in pool and the edges are rounded, so it is harder to pot the ball in corners.
I was just going to say that, indeed the pockets are much smaller than on a pool table and need very high accuracy.
You're absolutely right.
Not many people have a full size table at home, so you would generally play at a club. Reduced size tables are also available for home use. The game was started by British Army officers in India, where space in the Officers' Mess wouldn't have been such a problem.
After a few drinks it is really hard to see the balls at the other end... A frame could go on for hours then.
Yeah comparing snooker to pool is like comparing chess to noughts and crosses.
@@nbartlett6538 actually 0&X gets extremely complex once you increase needed length and the size of the playing field.
I have been playing snooker since the 1960s. I first learned in the small town of Fremont, Nebraska, around 1967. One of the local bars had a snooker table and after watching a few games I became very interested in learning how to play the game. No matter where I lived since 1967, from St. Paul, MN, to Los Angeles, CA, to Anchorage, AK, I have always found a snooker table to play on. Besides being on a much bigger table, the pockets are smaller than standard pool tables. So if you become good at snooker, then you will clean-up on any standard pool table.
I have always said that, a good snooker player is a good pool player by default.
this is like saying every drummer in metal genre is a good drummer
@@autohmae no it isn't.
12ft x 6ft table
@@autohmae you could say that, if indeed you know little or nothing about drum kits or playing the drums
The 1985 World Snooker Championship final, aka The Black Ball final, between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor. 18.5million people(over ¼ of the UK population)* stayed up until 1am to watch the final play out live on TV. After 2 days and 34 out of a possible 35(first to 18) frames, it all came down to the final black ball of the final frame.
*still a record high audience for BBC2 and the highest ever audience for an after midnight broadcast on any UK TV channel.
In england we as each other ,...where were ya wen taylor v Davis happened
I'm blown away that snooker isn't a thing in the US, it's such a well known game worldwide.
So is football 😂
How is that surprising lol.
I’d like if it was bigger here.. it looks so intriguing 🎉
To be fair though it's only really been well known globally in nations with a colonial link until recent decades, and after America kicked our arses and sent us packing they tried to eradicate as many British influences as possible, as is natural, but in recent decades with it's popularity in China and Thailand it may appear to be a more global sprot than it actually is, I'd say it's popular in specific areas but still largely unknown in many counties of the world.
@@markjones127 Rubbish. The British influence over America is still vast. Snooker has only been around for a century and a half, and just didn't get to the US.
Ronnie O'Sullivann holds the world record for the fastet Maximum Break in history (He has done it in 5:08min an for the most in professional competition(15). Hde is also a 7times wolrd champions and for many the greatest of all time.
I remember when he was on Top Gear and had to clear the table faster than the Stig could drive Ronnie's Mercedes around the track, and he did it, just.
@@paulgee1355it was 6 or 10 red tho
@Loczek531 yeh, I've just had a look and it was 4 reds plus all the colours. Still impressive, considering he had to try not to take much notice of his car getting hammered round the track at the same time.
Ronnie's a legend. 😀🇦🇺
Look up the Aussie Walter Lindrom, they had to change the rules to stop him.
Always nice when reactors actually pay attention to the video
Thanks.
I go more in depth with all my videos (even more so than this one usually) I’m not one of those “wow, cool, ok like sub and by my merch” UA-camrs.
Note that it’s SNOOOKER like Snoopy and not snooker like Snookie
Snooker is like combining the skill from American 9ball/British 8Ball with chess. Most of the greatest pool players that ever existed get royally screwed over by snooker. It's not about potting all your balls as fast as you can - it's more about messing your opponent up> making it harder for them while making it easier for yourself. It's a very intricate dance of defence and attack.
TL:DR - It's tactical and strategic af :P
It is very British i.e. it's perfidious rather than brutish.😝
In many ways it's like chess.
RoS tried US 9 ball and got smashed.
@@DaveByrdUK How come? Did they tase him there in the US or something?😂
@@DaveByrdUK the pure potting ability of a snooker player far outweighs that of any pool player. Snooker tables are larger with much smaller pockets compared to ball size.
9 ball is incredibly dependent on the initial break which is it's biggest differentiator to snooker as the snooker break is a defensive tactical shot not an aggressive whack trying to keep the cue ball open & central.
snooker matches is OG ASMR... it's very quiet, calm and commentary is almost whispered
And the sequence of a well-struck cueball, cueball contacting object ball, object ball hitting pocket. and after a while, you realize the sound of the ball hitting the pocket is different depending on the player.
My grandad used to fall asleep regularly on a Sunday watching snooker and I happily carry on the tradition!
"Ohh and that's a bad miss."
Pool for the grown ups 😂 lol
Peace from England
@@wsmith101 both cricket and baseball are based on rounders
Happy that us Aussies were gifted cricket, rugby and snooker by the Poms 😉
All great games.
@@waggafletcher- You're welcome, we just wish you'd stop taking the Cricket so seriously though...😊
8:00 The player you see here is Ronnie O'Sullivan. He completed the fastest Maximum ever taking a mere 5 minutes and 8 seconds to clear the table. That feat usually takes 20 to 30 minutes or more. Ronnie is ambidextrous playing to a world class level either left- or right-handed.
unless your name is peter ebdon, than you go on for 15 minutes on 2 balls :P
He has won world championships many times.
Played snooker and a bit of billiards as a young boy long before I ever saw my first "pool" table. We had a program called "Pot Black" on something called television here in Australia back in the 1970s and it was one of our favourite shows. Eddie Charlton (AM) was the man to beat. He was an Australian professional snooker and English billiards player and remains the only player to have been world championship runner-up in both snooker and billiards without winning either title. Raymond Reardon (MBE) from Wales was also another famous player from that era, winning the World Snooker Championship six times and more than a dozen other tournaments.
Yes pot black & Eddie Charlton what a legend.
🙂👍
Pot Black was a fascinating show. I became absorbed in it and I know next to nothing about snooker. I wonder if it is on You tube.
In the UK Pot Black was huge in the 70's, pool was already very popular here then though, I had a 6' table in my bedroom with both snooker and pool balls, and a dotted white for billiards of course, Eddie was a great player as was Ray Reardon my fellow countryman who is still considered one of the all time greats.
Ray Reardon, a great player, often referred to as "Dracula" because of the widow's peak hair and the slightly demonic smile. I'm sure he used to play up to the name on occasion just to try and put his opponents off.
Steady Eddie.
Conceding frames isn't unusual, it's perfectly normal and common. In fact I'd guess the majority of snooker frames end in a concession.
If the amount of points left on the table (plus a couple of fouls) isn't enough to catch your opponent, it's expected that you will concede.
Obviously you don't concede if your opponent is on for a 147 break as there is often separate prize money for that.
@@paulmidsussex3409 You wouldn't have any chance to concede during a 147 break. You can only concede when it's your turn at the table.
@@paulmidsussex3409 pretty sure you can only concede on your turn.
I grew up (in the 70s and 80s) playing snooker as my great uncle and aunty had a table. It was a great family activity. It's been a long time!
I also remember we used to watch the show "Pot Black", which was a UK tournament, on the television. Most of the game was silent, so I can't image it would be riveting viewing these days, but we enjoyed it back then.
Playing snooker was a right of passage for young men in Australia up until the proliferation of poker machines (pokies).
Turning 18 meant you could drink beer in clubs (RSL, Ex-Serviceman's, Sports clubs etc) and play snooker. It's a game of great skill that takes many years to master.
Sadly it's getting hard to find billiard tables and most clubs (at least in NSW) have cleared them out to make way for culture and family destroying pokies.
Idid what you did and watched pot black
@@kevinwall8893 In the UK pretty much all social and ex-serviceman clubs still have a full size snooker table, but I fear the social clubs at least aren't as popular as they were for my parents generations and many are struggling to keep afloat.
Most people tend to call it snooooker, not snuka
It's an American trend I have found.
They are taught phonetics, not learning the words. I hear things like sWord and paLm all the time nowadays. They are just sounding out all the letters.
except for 'herb'
@@572Btriode Have realised that myself. Funny, They pronounce pool correct but not snooker. Why?
SUPERFLY
The narrator claims the maximum point break possible is 147, this is incorrect as if you start your break in the free ball position the maximum break is 155, only one player has achieved a video recorded 155
Female Brit here….I love watching snooker! On the mornings of my driving test and my wedding day I watched snooker as I find it so relaxing. It’s so popular here that we often say “I was completely snookered” when we have a tricky situation to deal with. 😂🇬🇧
Yeah my mum got me into it 😅 there's always loads of ladies in a snooker audience 👍
@@Camberwell86 - glad I’m not alone! 😂👌🏻
😂I would say completely snookered is not only a tricky situation but impossible to get out of
@@thomasflaherty3959 - ah, well…I did say “a tricky situation to deal with” ….I never said that you could’ve ever got out of that situation! 😜
Please watch the fastest maximum break by Ronnie O'Sullivan. I'm not a snooker fan but this man is incredible.
I've played pool on an American table, the pockets are fckin huge. An average player cannot miss.
Correct. I am a pretty average club snooker player (not particularly good or bad, but I play regularly). I went to live in the U.S. a couple of years ago. Walked in to the local town's pool hall, pulled a cue pretty much at random out of the rack on the wall, and could easily beat every other player in the place at 8 ball. I never lost a match in 2 years. 9 ball is a different matter because there's more to it as a game, but I still won way more matches than I lost.
8 ball though, nobody could touch me or even get close the whole two years I was there. By the end I struggled ti get a game because nibody wanted to play me. I repeat, I'm someine who pkays a fair bit of snooker but don't consider myself a good player. Not even top 10 at my club.
A good way to think of it is, pool is like checkers & snooker is like chess.
Yep, I noticed that too when I was over there, the balls are slightly larger too.
@@finbarrsaunders Do average American players understand sidespin? I think they call it english, but snooker is so much more complex than pool.
@@judithrowe8065 To be honest, the balls are so large & there are so many of them compared to the size of the table, there's not really much scope for using side. More so in 9 ball, becausr there are fewer balls on the table, and just one object ball (so a safety game is more of a factor).
They do call it 'English' tho 🤣 and generally most players don't understand it. Asymmetric shots off the rail, mild swerve shots & using side to adjust potting angles were things most American players had never come across. Oddly enough pots along the rail were the same. Many American players would never take them on unless right behind them. I'd be knocking in long balls down the rail from wide angles, easy 9/10 shots for any competent snooker player (even more so with the huge balls and even huger pockets), and they thought it was some sort of witchcraft.
I'd put a ball on the centre line tight on the top cushion, then put the white in the centre of the baulk line. Play up the table with pace & pot the ball along the top cushion by catching it fine off the rail with side. They'd never seen anything like it.
@@finbarrsaunders Did you see Judd Trump play Jayson Shaw in the US Open? Shaw destroyed him 11-1, I'm sorry but as a Snooker and Pool player myself I think you're being a little disrespectful and feel you've never ever actually played a half decent American pool player, I can go to my local pub and stay unbeaten on the pool table all night, but I once entered the Golden Cue Pool comp in England and had to play Mark Selby in the first round, that didn't go so well but was a great experience, beating people in random games in pubs or bars really means nothing.
Ronnie O'Sullivan has apparently done 15 "perfect games" (147 points) during his career. This is the world record.
At my high school, there was a tradition for the senior year students to raise money & buy something for the school. The year of 1968 ( 6 years before me) bought a full size snooker table. I used to play before or after school
One of the rules they didn't mention is that the player always has to have contact with the floor. That is why therei s a set of attributes you can use for cueing.
This is the rule I hate the most since it is unfair towards smaller guys like myself.
1 foot must touch
😊😅 Just like the old b/w films which had married couples in bed together - the husband had to be laying so that he had one foot on the floor and the wife was completely covered up by a buttoned to the neck nightdress, or bedsheet, whilst the husband could show a partly bared chest - but nothing more !! Husband was always "snookered" in his bedroom scenes that way!!😊😅 Poor bugger!!😂
@@fawkesmorque wait until you find out about basketball.
@@24magiccarrot Actually I played basketball for some time and my size (1,7m) wasn't that bad. Sure, I wasn't that good in the defense, but very nimble during attacks. ;)
And a big difference to pool is that the holes are much smaller, what it makes pot success very difficult
As well as the table itself being bigger than a pool table, the pockets on a snooker table are also tighter, meaning that a successful pot requires more thought, and more precise cueing
So many happy memories from watching Snooker with my dad. And playing at one of Melbourne's many Pool Halls. Thanks Ian.
as a snooker player, playing pool feels like going from F1 to indy🤣
more like dtm , or some national turing champ XDDDD indy more like 3 ball billar .. snooker is in another level . just the size of the table, and the size of the pockets... insane :P
@@sidekick4 indy is more dificult thant dtm , but not as F1... in billars... in my opinion the most dificult is snooker, then spanish billar ( 3 bands) , then the others.. thats the analogy
@@duduoverburn1777 i play snooker but do not even attempt driebanden=spanish billiards. the weight of the ball(possible momentum) the wear and tear of the table in driebanden are circumstances next level
@@josvercaemer264 im friends with one of the best in my country... is just amazing watch these guys play..
Pool may feel easy but it has its own difficulties, just look at Judd Trump at US Open 9-ball a few years back (2021 I think). He did alright against amateurs, but the moment he played a pro he lost quite spectacularly
In Czech Republic we also play something called carom billiard…definitely look it up…similar table to snooker, but with NO HOLES and only 3 balls
It's played all over the world. It's just not as popular as pool or snooker. ❤
50% more balls than in my love life, same amount of holes though.
@@Covenantt666 In Sweden it is called Carambole, the French name I think.
3-cusshion billiards or dreiband.
In English it's just called billiards, it's a difficult game to play.
To really get an understanding of the game I advise that you find somewhere that has a table and actually play the game. The difference between pool and snooker table sizes really becomes obvious once you play.
Also, the cues are more slender, with finer tips, the balls are also small and so are the pockets when compared with American pool... this makes snooker so much harder. This is seen not only in potting balls (this has to be really accurate) but also in mastering the white ball (this is really really really important as it allows you to plan your next 1/2/3 shots and build higher breaks a la Ronnie O'Sullivan etc)... over- or under running the while ball and losing position really becomes noticable on a snooker table... the game can be very unforgiving in this respect... but it is such a brilliant game to play... I would also say that if you play regularly (and become competent) on a snooker table you will notice a marked improvement when you back to playing pool... Enjoy!!!
Snooker isn’t particularly popular where I’m at, but 20 years ago or so, one of the small sports channels got the snooker TV rights on the cheap and it became sort of a cult thing among my generation. Nobody played the sport but tons of people would watch it. It’s really fascinating, particularly the defensive plays.
You have to check out some o'Sullivan 147 games =D
...and his intentional 146, where he took a pink just to avoid getting the 147 and make a point.
I believe there is a governing body called
Snooker USA and it might be worth
searching for their website
I suspect Chicago will have Snooker tables somewhere.
Love this video. Americans are virtually unaware of Snooker.
A few translations for you:
Shape - Position
Make - Pot
English - Side
Rack - Frame
Draw - Screw
Follow - Topspin
Bank - Double
Rake - Rest
Rail - Cushion
I am sure there are many more lol
I love Pool though!
A top quality full sized snooker table is a beautiful thing.
Snooker was favoured more than eight-ball with the Boston ball set, in Eastern Canada, when I was young 50 years ago.
It was the advent of coin operated tables in bars that made eight ball more common.
In the UK more people play pool than snooker, but more people watch snooker on tv than pool.
Ronnie o'sullivan 147 break in 5 minutes, is the fastest ever
I'd be surprised if that is ever beaten, Ronnie was sublime.
Loved this game growing up in NZ. Used to go to the snooker hall with the boys on a Sunday arvo. The top pros have the most amazing control over the cue ball and are always thinking 3-4 or more shots ahead
Technically, the maximum break in snooker is actually 155, if the break starts from a free ball position and the designated 16th red is followed by the black but this has only ever been officially achieved once.
And something it doesn't mention, though you may have realised, is the highest score is actually infinite because you can be awarded an endless number of penalty points. What you will see players do is, when there is not enough points on the table to win a frame, they will still return to the table on their turn to try to snooker their opponent and so earn penalty points to get them into a position to be able to win. Just another layer in this truly exciting sport!
the rocket did a 147 in 5 minutes
The first time i stood next to a Snooker table: large and green - is this a Football pitch?
Break from life is a great snooker channel that will show you how hard it is to play. He does a lot of POV stuff and replicating "best shots" from certain competitions.
That's a great channel, not least because it shows just how brilliant an amateur can be while still being a million miles short of professional standard.
@@john_michael_white haha yeah, I long to be half as good as the guy that is nowhere near as good as the top players.
Popular in Australia and New Zealand too.
A few of my school friends had full size tables in their homes.
Most UK pool tables in pubs are only 6-7 foot long, not 8-9 foot like US pool tables so the 12 foot snooker tables seem even bigger to Brits who play pool, they are massive! I used to play a lot of pool and even played Mark Selby once who has won the snooker world championship. You would find UK 8 ball a little strange but more and more people do play US rules these days, main difference is UK pool doesn't have a rack or rail rule so you can play boring roll up shots in UK pool. Snooker is insanely hard though, even for good pool players at first the table is just so damn big, the balls are a fraction smaller and the pockets are much tighter on a snooker table, the cues are thinner and tips much smaller, it's actually very different to play and can be extremely tactical which I love about it, it's a little more like chess than pool.
I always used to refer to a table as full size, 1/2 size or 3/4 size. The poor man's table was the 1/2 size at 6' x 3', 3/4 size 8' x 4' and full 12' x 6'. I didn't realise the American pool table was 9' x 4.5' though, I just assumed it was 8x4.
Rail rules have been In force in English pool since 2000.
@@mattf9406 Came in late 90's really
@@markjones127 came Im with world rules, which while was released late 90s, they didn't get taken up in English pool (league/pro play) until 2000.
@@mattf9406 I know man, I was playing right through that period 👍
Americans really are living in a bubble.
Not by choice.. I hate it. I absolutely love finding out about awesome things I never knew of from across the world 🎉
@@IWrocker great answer my friend 👍
Maybe they are bit in fairness it’s a big bubble
"you have to breathe to live"
"Oh okay"
"the sky is blue"
"Oh wow I didn't know that"
Kidding brother, subbed
Playing on a full size table a few times and realising how difficult it is to even pot a ball makes watching it so much better. These players are legitimately amazing at how they pot balls, control the cue ball and strategise their way round the table.
Look into darts too. Darts is an insanely huge sport worldwide, its the every mans kind of game especially in england where pup and dart culture goes hand in hand.
Yes even tiny dogs play it
@@papalaz4444244 This is true, I have a pup who adores playing darts.
Sorry to tell you this (as it's a lot of fun in english pubs!) but darts is actually pretty small time in most countries.
@@suicidalbanananana Suicidal Banana the sad wanker
it is possible to win even if you are losing by more points then there are points on table if you can put white ball in rerally hard position for oponent to not faul
also there are situations where you intentionally dont score because position of balls on table would make continuation hard for you and you would open easy points for oponent
That rarely happens on big games because of the unwritten rules where you're supposed to give up.
@@XtreeM_FaiL Tell that to John Spencer who cam back from requiring 6 snookers against Jimmy White in 1987 (I've never heard of this unwritten rule, if you have the ability to come from behind requiring a snooker or two you take it, the only unwritten rule around that that I know of is you dont concede until you require snookers to win the frame)
There used to be an English snooker show on TV called Pot Black, seems to be a few of these (or parts of the games) available on UA-cam, which would be worth watching. A few seems to have fairly big break scores. Keep up the great vids
I was looking for someone to comment this. Pot Black was also shown in New Zealand and was for many years. I remember watching it with my family regularly. I think it ran from 1969 to 1986.
When I was about 16ish I started frequenting our local snooker hall on a regular basis, I got fairly good, not enough to win any prizes but good enough to give someone a bit of a challenge. When I turned 18-19 is when pool tables started turning up in pubs and clubs and moving from a snooker table to a pool table was like moving from playing against professionals to playing against children, bearing in mind that UK bar pool tables were much smaller than 9x4.5, more like 6x3, literally 1/4 the size of a snooker table. Pretty much overnight I turned from an OK snooker player to a wizard at pool, the 20 to 50p side bets paid for lot of drinks, a pint of lager cost just 17p when I started going to pubs.
Check Ronnie O Sullivan historical 147 and then the Master Efren Reyes .. the best ever
Efren played pool.
@@darkiee69 yeah, forgot to add that :)
Yeah, the snooker table is huge compared to a pool table. And also the balls are smaller.. :P
Indeed, but even though the balls are smaller, the pockets are much smaller relative to the balls than in pool.
@@kimmern999 That, too, so tripple the difficulty factor. 😅
The tables are even bigger in person than on tv . It’s quite a popular pass time here in Scotland to go to a snooker hall . There are loads of them doted about here .
there was a british show called Pot Black it was very popular in australia i use to watch it because a snooker player named eddie charlton who was an australian came from Newcastle NSW use to play on it
A gentlemans game, very Brittish.
English 😉
British. First played by British army officers in India in the 1870s. Many professional players and champions have been Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish.
Other champions have been Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, South African, Irish and Belgian.
He forgot to mention one rule: O'Sullivan wins
He's the guvnor
It is actually possible to score more than 147 at one visit to the table. The highest possible break is 155. Thus can be accomplished if your opponent plays a foul shot on all the reds, and leaves you a free shot. You can nominate a colour as a red, pot it followed by a black to score 8, and then go on to clear the table; 147+8=155. I should add that that has never been done in a competitive/tournament match but it was done in a 'private' game, I think in 2021.
You need to check out 'Indoor League' from Yorkshire in the UK. 1970s programme fronted by Freddie Trueman with 'sports' like arm-wrestling, table skittle, shove ha'penny, spin football...
Comparing snooker and pool cues, snooker cue has a slight thinner tip than pool cue, so you can make your play and add effects to the cue ball.
Basically, this mean that you can use four cardinal points in the cue ball: top, right, down and left. All points of contact make the cue ball spin faster after hitting any of the other balls on the table. The down contact point from the cue makes the cue ball hit any other ball on the table and returns it back to where it was before the play was done (or close by).
Some very large Pool clubs in the US will sometimes have a snooker table too.
Iowa boy who moved to Yorkshire three years ago. I laugh every time you say "snooker" like we would in the Midwest. Brits say it "snooooooker" (the long oo as in pool). It is a LOT of fun, especially after a few pints at your local pub :)
Apparently the reason snooker got televised in the UK in the 1970s was, BBC2 channel started up and was the first channel in colour. The BBC was looking for cheap content to exploit the new technology. The "Pot Black" series came to our screens. My mum was hooked.
I love how respectful you are of the game.
The UK BBC2 channel used to have a show called Pot Black. I think a pool table is about 1/3rd the size of a full size snooker or billiards table. Tables are made from solid pieces of 1/3in thickslate slabs which are joined together withe putty or epoxy resin, and sanded to a smooth perfectly flat finish and covered by a heavy grade cloth called Baize. A full size snooker table is one expensive item and here in Oz could set you back as much as A$27K.
You’re honest and bright your comments are spot on! I’m 73 and used to play snooker as a 16 year old and for years and competition, also when i was a fireman, I know all the rules and you would love to play, I can tell from your response! People to watch, you saw Ronnie O’Sullivan considered the greatest of all time, Rock and Roll friends include Ron Wood Rolling Stones, but old players of repute with similar kudos! Jimmy whirlwind White, Alex Hurricane Higgins, and others of different age groups or history, Steve Boring Davis, A good one to watch is A welsh player so good! Mark Williams has hi s own club in Wales and is a natural! Stephen Hendry all of these except Jimmy white have won the world championship! Jimmy revered and respected by everyone, never won the world, every other championship but not the world, five finals! But his brilliance in skill! Wow! If you want to know any more, let me know! Regards DG
For many years, snooker was only played in Britain, Ireland and Commonwealth countries, but since BBC TV can be received in European countries near the UK coast there has been expanding interest in Belgium, the Netherlands etc., and in recent years there's been an explosion of interest in China, where there are now millions of players, and in the Middle East.
Since the first World Championship was played in 1927, it has been won 57 times by English players, 14 by Scots, 10 by Welshmen, three by Northern Irishmen, two by Australians, one by Ken Doherty from Ireland, one by Cliff Thorburn from Canada, and the 2023 title was won by a Belgian player, Luca Brecel. Coincidentally, three of the English winners have shared the same surname: 15 wins for Joe Davis from 1927 onwards, eight for his brother Fred, and six more by the unrelated Steve Davis in the 1980s.
Nah, it's Eurosport that made it popular because its free channel.
i remember being in my late teens in Wollongong and going to the local snooker hall (Jacks) and playing for hours. After that we'd head to the pub around the corner (The Illawarra) and clean up playing pool on the smaller tables. Ian, billiards is another game altogether and specialist tables have no pockets - very rare to see though.
Oh snooker, one of my first loves. When i was a kid (i'm 34 now) i always watched snooker on Eurosport, it had something that even now i can't explain why i loved it so much.
Hello from Switzerland, I'm not a snooker rule professional either, but it's an extremely exciting game.
First of all, snokker is a gentleman's sport (of course also for women), where you also say when you have made a foul (especially accidentally touching the balls).
About 30 years ago I saw Steven Davis (including 6-time snooker world champion) while flicking through the TV channels and was fascinated by the way he controlled the game and his tactics.
Since then, the way the game is played (particularly the long shots) has changed, but the fascination has remained.
Regarding the table, you should take a look at a table like this when you get the chance, it's absolutely huge, which makes the long shots all the more difficult.
Maximum break, Ronnie O'Sullivan (7-time world champion) inevitably comes to mind, he seems (I assume with great certainty) to be the record holder for maximum breaks and also the one who achieves it in the shortest possible time ( The referees often have to hurry to keep up with him when they have to put the colored balls back in their position😂).
We used to have a pool hall in my hometown, and while most of their tables were regular pool tables for playing 8/9 ball, they did have one or two Snooker tables and they were indeed gigantic compared to the regular pool tables!
Probably been said, but in the 80s in the UK, snooker was absolutely huge. We only had three or four channels, but snooker would regularly pull 18m+ viewers - a third of the population.
In high school, I had Snooker lessons in PE. We even had excursions to the local pool hall in order to play. A good Pool Hall is likely to have at least one snooker table..
I can remember seeing the greatest Snooker player ever a long time ago that was the late Eddie Charlton from Australia. I have also seen him get 147 a few times as well...Pete from Tasmania here in Australia.
he was a cheat
That's what I like ,a man with a sense of humour🤣 unfortunately I also remember Charlton and along with the rest of the players of his era almost killed the game as a spectator sport and did not become watchable until players like Spencer and Higgins and then Davis came along.there were still players who did their best to drag it back to the dark ages like Thorburn and Griffiths but thankfully over the years it evolved into a more fluid game.
1) Not only is the table bigger than a pool table, but the balls are smaller, and the pockets are narrower, so the margin for error is tiny. That's one reason that players from snooker counties adapt well to American style pool. They're very accurate shot makers.
2) Note the pronunciation. The oo is snooker is like the oo room or boom, not cook or book. I've been sternly corrected by some Brits.
3) Now look for the other world billiard game, 3-cushion billiards. The kind with no pockets and only three balls. That will really blow your mind.
4) Some of the better poolrooms often have one snooker table and one billiard table along with all the pool tables.
UK Pool Table Size - 90% of pool tables supplied in the UK are 7' x 4' overall size - giving you a playing area of 6' x 3', this is the size you would play on in a pub. Snooker Tables are almost always slightly larger than 12' by 6'.
Back in the day when BBC2 was a new channel a very popular programme was Pot Black (snooker) when most people still only had a black & white TV!
He didn't mention use of bridges: the bridge, the spider and the long butt. Many players now prefer to use their own screw-in extension to their regular cue to using the unwieldy long butt
Yes, I recall how tricky it was telling the brown ball apart from the reds in those b&w days. Colour broadcasting began on BBC2 in 1967 and the _Pot Black_ show was launched to promote the new technology. Controller of BBC2 at that point was the famous naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.
I remember watching live when Cliff Thorburn, a Canadian, became the first person to score a televised 147; they stopped the game on the other table and raised the screen so those players and the fans watching that game could watch him complete it. Think that was in the late 80s if I remember correctly; don't know of that is on You Tube, but it's worth checking out. kerk
There are exceptions to some of the mentioned rules:
Conceding is usually done at a stage called “snookers required”. This is where there are fewer points remaining than what you need to catch up.
For example: your opponent is leading 73-0, and there are 67 points remaining. Even if you pot all remaining reds, and follow each red with a potted black, and then all 6 colours, you would still be 6 points behind. This would be classed as “2 snookers required”. More accurately it would be 2 fouls required, but fouls are more common whilst you are snookered.
2 snookers are required because a typical foul would be worth 4 points, which would still not be enough, so a 2nd one is also needed.
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The “miss rule” does not apply if, after the shot is played and fouled, the player who benefited from the foul still requires a snooker to be able to win the frame.
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After potting a red, you must declare which colour ball you will be aiming for. Although, this is often not done when it is obvious which colour is your target. Hitting the wrong colour first, or hitting the right ball but somehow potting the wrong colour, are both not allowed
It’s making sure you position the white ball for your next shot, snooker players are generally thinking 5 or 6 shots ahead, the key to winning a lot of frames or getting a 147 is position, that’s the most difficult aspect of snooker
Actually, the maximum possible break is 155 (extremely rare)
If the opponent fouls and gives you a free ball, you could potentially that for 1 point followed by a black for 7 points then pot all the reds with blacks then the colours in order.
So, just recently a player made the 200th maximum 147. Snooker is a great game to watch. It has the ability to be really chilled and relaxing but on a spin of a sixpence/dime it can put you on the edge of your seat. It great when players are making big century breaks (a break is multiple shots in one visit), but the tactical side is also great to watch. Someone once called snooker “chess with balls” and it’s so true, though more fun to watch.
Besides being played on a large bigger table than pool billiard: the pockets are shaped differently, they have curved sides opposed to the straight cuts on a pool table. That makes it much harder to pot a ball. If you don't hit the pocket very accurately the ball will pop back on the table.
As a Brit living in Southern California I would visit a pool bar that had a snooker table. The marines from Camp Pendleton would frequent and I would spend many a night teaching them snooker. Within a few weeks the place would be packed,great nights they were.
Not only is the table huge, the holes are also tiny.
In the UK, snooker is infamous for being the boring sport that always bumped your favourite shows such as Star Trek or Top Gear into next week because of some tournament.
I actually didn't mind watching it. I'd never go out of my way to do so, but it's quite relaxing. There's a calm environment, kind of like golf, but you can actually see the entire playing field at once. I actually remember watching a tense game, and some of the crowd started cheering, and the ref turned to the crowd and told them to quiet down.
Snooker is a long game. Frames typically last 20-30mins, sometimes over an hour. Sometime a few mins. But x11 frames (or more) ends up running over several sessions or even days.
147 is the max normal score, but it is theroetically possible to get more if an opponent fouled at the begining. I think the max max is 155. I have never seen that
I believe world championship final lasts up to 35 frames (18 required to win).
@@FlankerB3 They do - you are right. I don't think the US gets the concept of long games (test cricket, snooker etc) because TV & Adveristers rule the roost. It's a shame, because long game format bring out very different tacktics.
A snooker pro table is 12 feet long and just over 6 feet wide, with smaller pockets. Believe me when I say, its extremely difficult. Potting the balls is harder because of the size of the table and pockets-you have to be far more accurate than pool. Then the most important thing, is where your white ball finishes, so that you can pocket a colour. To get a maximum score, you have to pocket a red then black a red a black. red a black until all the reds are pocketed with a final black. The black is put back on the table and you now have to pot all the colours in sequence. Watch Ronnie O'Sullivan do the fastest max break in 5mins 8 secs.(you tube) Then you realise why he has been world champion on and off for so long.
The full-size, tournament-spec table is 12ft in length, and just over 6ft wide, and the pockets are much tighter than on a pool table.
Jimmy White's 'Whirlwind' Snooker. Was a classic back in the day.
There use to be a programme called Pot Black on TV in the UK, which was just watching people play snooker.
The 2024 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2024 Cazoo World Snooker Championship) is an upcoming professional snooker tournament that will be held from 20 April to 6 May 2024 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
Coming up soon. My Grandma and Great Aunt felt in love with the in their 70s and were staying up late after 12 midnight (for them). As you summarise the game is strategic. One of the few games that your opponent as to watch as you play and possibly dominate the game.
Get yourself an Amiga (or emulator!) and Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker. Old, but gold!
I used to watch snooker all day on Eurosport... such a chill and skilful sport... also played it for half a year
Eurosport TV channel shows snooker all the time whenever there is no other live sports event to show and I have to admit, it's really hypnotic.
A big difference between a snooker table and an American pool table is the pockets. Snooker pockets are much tighter and less accessible. A standard pool shot where you run a ball along the rail into a corner pocket is extremely difficult in snooker, as the pocket is set further back.
my ganny watched snooker on TV all the time and I tried it ones. I was going to a pool hall in berlin with maybe 20 tables. maybe 2-3 of them snooker-tables. yes the tables are much lager and the snooker balls are much smaller as the balls from pool. It's so difficult to hit a colored ball at the other side.
My grandfather had a table and used to love playing snooker as a kid.