In 1969, David Attenborough, then the controller of BBC2, commissioned the snooker tournament television series Pot Black, primarily to showcase the potential of the BBC's new colour television service, as the green table and multi-coloured balls provided an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the new broadcasting technology. UK-the BBC dedicated 400 hours to snooker in 2007, compared to just 14 minutes 40 years earlier. In 1985, an estimated 18.5 million viewers stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch the conclusion of the World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, a record viewership in the UK for any broadcast on BBC Two or any broadcast after midnight. The World Snooker Championship first took place in 1927, and Joe Davis-a key figure and pioneer in the early growth of the sport-won fifteen successive world championships between 1927 and 1946. The "modern era" of snooker began in 1969 after the broadcaster BBC commissioned the television series Pot Black, later airing daily coverage of the World Championship which was first televised in 1978. The most prominent players of the modern era are Ray Reardon (1970s), Steve Davis (1980s) and Stephen Hendry (1990s), each winning at least six world titles.

First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls and six other balls-a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black-collectively called 'the colours'. Davis won all fifteen tournaments held until 1946, when he retired from the championships. Played in 1926 and 1927, the first World Snooker Championship-then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker-was won by Joe Davis. Tenball was a snooker variant designed specifically for the television show of the same name, presented by Phillip Schofield, which lasted for one series. The World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters together make up the Triple Crown Series and are considered by many players to be the most highly valued titles. The series became a ratings success and was, for a time, the second-most popular show on BBC2 behind Morecambe and Wise. The word snooker was, at the time, a slang term used in the British Army to describe new recruits and inexperienced military personnel; Chamberlain used it to deride the inferior performance of a young fellow officer at the table. A standard full-size snooker table measures 12 ft × 6 ft (365.8 cm × 182.9 cm), with a rectangular playing surface measuring 11 ft 8.5 in × 5 ft 10.0 in (356.9 cm × 177.8 cm).

While standard CFL bulbs are not dimmable, but you can find dimmable versions on the market, which may be important to create a nice pool playing ambiance. Buy our pool tables with confidence and save! Transform your leisure area with our top-rated game tables. While pool tables are common to many pubs, snooker tends to be played either in private settings or in public snooker halls. In the early 20th century, snooker was predominantly played in the United Kingdom, where it was considered a "gentleman's sport" until the early 1960s before growing in popularity as a national pastime and eventually spreading overseas. As a professional English billiards and snooker player himself, Davis raised the game from a recreational pastime to a professional sporting activity. The popularity of snooker has led to the creation of many variations based on the standard game but with different rules or equipment, including six-red snooker, the short-lived "snooker plus" and the more recent Snooker Shoot Out version. In almost every version of 8-ball pool, scratching is considered a foul when shooting at object balls other than the 8 ball.

Using a snooker cue, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player or team. As a professional sport, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. In April 2013, Reg Bamford of South Africa beat Ahmed Nasr of Egypt in the final of the Golf Croquet World Championship in Cairo, becoming the first person to simultaneously hold the title in both association croquet and golf croquet. The standard rules of the game were first established in 1919 when the Billiards Association and Control Club was formed. In 1875, army officer Neville Chamberlain, stationed in India, devised a set of rules that combined black pool and pyramids. In the 1870s, billiards was popular among British Army officers stationed in Jubbulpore, India, and several variations of the game were devised during this time. However, the British public's interest in snooker had waned significantly by the late 2000s. Warning that the sport was "lurching into terminal crisis", The Guardian newspaper predicted in 2010 that snooker would cease to exist as a professional sport within ten years.

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