Sunday Observer Online
http://www.liyathabara.com/   Ad Space Available Here  

Home

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Untitled-1

observer
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

How billiards and snooker came to be known

Billiards has a long and rich history stretching from its inception in the 15th century, to the wrapping of the body of Mary-Queen of Scots, in her billiard table cover in 1586, through its many mentions in the words of Shakespeare, including the famous line "let's to billiards" in Antony and Cleopatra (1606-07), and through the many famous enthusiasts of the sport: Mozart, Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, French president Jules Grévy, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll, W.C.Fields, Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, and many others.

The word "billiard" may have evolved from the French word billart or billette, meaning "stick" in reference to the mace, an implement similar to a golf club, which was the forerunner to the modern cue; the term's origin may have also been from French bille, meaning "ball".The modern term "cue sports" can be used to encompass the ancestral mace games, and even the modern cueless variants, such as finger billiards, for historical reasons. "Cue" itself came from queue, the French word for a tail. This refers to the early practice of using the tail of the mace to strike the ball when it lay against a rail cushion.

A recognizable form of billiards was played outdoors in the 1340s, and was reminiscent of croquet. King Louis XI of France(1461-1483) had the first known indoor billiard table. Louis XIV further refined and popularized the game, and it swiftly spread amongst the French nobility. While the game had long been played on the ground, this version appears to have died out in the 17th century, in favour of croquet, golf and bowling games, while table billiards had grown in popularity as an indoor activity. Mary, Queen of Scots, claimed that her "table de billiard" had been taken away by what would eventually become her executioners (who covered her body with the table's cloth). In 1588, the Duke of Norfolk, owned a "billyard bord coered with a greene cloth... three billyard sticks and 11 balls of Ivery" Billiards grew to the extent that by 1727, it was being played in almost every Paris cafe. In England, the game was developing into a popular activity for members of the gentry.

Cue sports (sometimes written cuesports) also known as billiard and snooker is a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick, which is used to strike the balls, moving around a cloth-covered table bounded by rubber cushions.

Historically, the umbrella term was billiards. While that familiar name is still employed by some as a generic label for all such games, the word's usage has splintered into more exclusive competing meanings in various parts of the world. For example, in British and Australia, "billiards" usually refers exclusively to the game of English billiards, while in America and Canada, it is sometimes used to refer to a particular game or class of games, or to all cue games in general, depending upon dialect and context.

There are three major subdivisions of the games within cue sports:

Snooker and English billiards, games played on a billiards table with six pockets called a snooker table (which has dimensions just under 12ft by 6ft) that are classified entirely separately from pool based on a separate historical development, as well as a separate culture and terminology that characterises their play.

More obscurely, there are games that make use of obstacles and targets, and table-top games played with disks instead of balls.

A brief history of Billairds - The origins of several sports have been lost in history while others have been surrounded by fantasy and billiards is no exception. In the early 15th century, the gardens of the rich and laned gentry throughout the world played host to a number of lawn games. The game 'croquets' played in France being among them is said to be the origin of billiards. Louis XI of France was given credit for switching the game onto a table in the 15th century. Another tale, says that Mary Queen of Scots and her "table de billard' was confiscated before she was executed. Then we are told that they wrapped her headless corpse in the billiard cloth.

History of Snooker in brief - The sport it is said really came of on a wet day at Jubbulpore in India in 1875. The officers of the Devonshire Regiment used to spend hours playing billiards while waiting for the monsoon rains to abate. The men, understandably were often bored until a young officer later Sir Neville Chamberlain began to experiment. Different variations of billiards; were devised - games with name like pyramids, life pool and black p. The new games proved popular and the clever Chamberlain began to add various coloured balls until a native but playable form of snooker was conceived. History says that the early dorm of snooker included 15 reds but only one white, yellow, green pink and black. A few years later the brown and blue were added, giving us the same set-up as modern day snooker. In 1885, John Roberts then a top billiards ace was introduced to Chamberlain who was in India. The game was introduced to Britain by Roberts and the World plays it today.

Today snooker is the boom sport of the Whites, also it seem tailor-made for television for one can see all the actions in a compact space and these are vivid close-ups for star performers.

 

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

ANCL TENDER for CTP PLATES
Casons Rent-A-Car
KAPRUKA - Valentine's Day Gift Delivery in Sri Lanka
Destiny Mall & Residency
www.army.lk
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
 

| News | Editorial | Finance | Features | Political | Security | Sports | Spectrum | Montage | Impact | World | Obituaries | Junior |

 
 

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2013 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor