Although there has been much debate over the years, it is now commonly accepted that the game of snooker was invented by Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain in 1875 in Jubbulpore, India. 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. He and the other officers had plenty of time on their hands, as it was the monsoon season and not much else to do. Not a bad life really, sitting around playing snooker, or at least the precursor to the modern game, smoking their pipes and generally having a jolly old time of it. The game was often played for money in rounds of four-handed snooker, where each ball you sank you were paid a certain amount by the other players. Adding coloured balls of higher value only added to the game’s appeal. The game quickly took off and the rules slowly evolved until the first rule book appeared at the turn of the century. The first world championships were held in 1927 where Joe Davis won just ?6.10 prize money. Compare that with the winnings of the 2004 champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, who walked away with ?250,000 for capturing the Embassy World Championship title.

The rules and regulations of world snooker have been refined to a fine degree. The table must measure There are six pockets, two in each corner of the spot end, known as the top pockets, and two at each corner of the baulk end, known as the bottom pockets, and the final two in the middle of the longer sides, known as the centre pockets. Various "spots" are marked on the table for the positioning of the various coloured balls. The correct values of the balls are red-1, yellow-2, green-3, brown-4, blue-5, pink-6, and black-7. The cue must be no less than 914mm long. Snooker may be played by two or more players, either independently or as sides. Each player uses the same white cue-ball and there are twenty-one object balls, fifteen reds and six colours, with the values mentioned above. Scoring strokes in a player's turn are made by potting reds and colours alternately until all the reds are off the table and then the colours in the ascending order of their value. Penalty points from fouls and misses are added to the opponent's score, and this becomes a tactic in the latter part of a frame when a player can no longer win by potting balls and instead deliberately "snookers" their opponent, where they play a shot that is likely to cause their opponent to make foul. The winner of a frame is the player or side who either gains the highest score or to whom a frame is conceded, while the winner of a game is the person who wins the most or the required amount of frames. Finally, the winner of a match is the person who wins the most games.

Following are some definitions of the terminology used in playing snooker: The person about to play, or in play, is the striker and remains so until the referee has decided he has left the table at the end of his turn. A stroke is made when the striker strikes the cue-ball with the tip of the cue, and stroke is not completed until all balls have come to rest. A pot is when an object ball, after contact with another ball enters a pocket. Causing a ball to be potted is known as potting. A break is a number of pots in successive strokes made in any one turn by a player during a frame. A nominated ball is the object ball which the striker declares, or indicates to the satisfaction of the referee, he undertakes to hit with the first impact of the cue-ball. A free ball is the ball that the striker nominates as the ball on when snookered after a foul. The cue-ball is said to be snookered when a direct stroke in a straight line to every ball on is wholly or partially obstructed by a ballor balls not on. If one or more balls on can be struck at both extreme edges, free of obstruction by any ball not on, the cue ball isnot snookered. Any ball that may be lawfully struck by the first impact of the cue ball, or any ball which may not be struck, but which may be potted, is said to be "on." A push stroke is made when the tip of the cue remains in contact with the cue-ball. A jump shot is made when the cue-ball passes over any part of an object ball, whether touching it in the process or not A miss is when the cue-ball fails to first contact a ball on and the referee considers that the striker has not made a good enough attempt to hit a ball on.

There are a myriad of other games related to snooker and played in a similar fashion. One of the most popular games is pool, the standard game played in pubs across Australia. The table is often smaller than a full sized snooker table to facilitate faster games and to compensate for the drunkenness of the players, who get progressively more off aim as the night wears on. There's one white cue ball and a set of coloured balls and a black ball. The coloured balls are divided into "bigs" and "smalls." Balls that have a large circle of white or cream on them are referred to as "bigs," while the balls that are predominantly the same colour are referred to as "smalls." Whoever sinks the first ball, usually as a result of the break, then checks to see what type it is and proceeds to pot all the similar balls before going for the black. The other player must target the other balls. Players continue to take shots until they fail to sink a ball, then it is their opponents turn. Once a player has sank all their balls they then go for the black ball. The first person to sink the black ball wins the game. It's much simpler than snooker which makes it perfect for pubs for a bit of fun, while others look down on it as a lesser version of the only real game, which of course is snooker. Each to their own!