At the head of the cue

THE maximum break in snooker is a score of 147. It is achieved by potting all 15 red balls with 15 blacks for 120 points, followed by all six colours for a further 27 points.

Due to extensive BBC TV coverage, it’s often thought Cliff Thorburn made the first competition 147 or the first televised 147, but this is not the case.

Another misconception is that former BBC commentator Willie Thorne has the most maximums. His nickname is The Maximum Man, but this is based on his claim that he has made more 147s in practice than any other player. In fact, he has made only one in tournament play, at the 1987 UK Championship.

Joe Davis was the first person to achieve an accredited 147 break, playing in an exhibition match against Willie Smith in 1955 at Leicester Hall in London.

The first 147 in a professional competitive ranking tournament was in 1979 by John Spencer. However, this accreditation was later revoked as the pockets of the table were wider than the regulation size.

The first competition accredited maximum was made by Steve Davis against John Spencer in the Lada Classic at Oldham on January 11, 1982. This was also the first televised maximum.

There have been 132 officially recognised maximums in tournament play. Ronnie O’Sullivan holds the record with 13, and also for the fastest competitive maximum break, at five minutes and 20 seconds, set at the 1997 World Championship.

Stephen Hendry has 11, John Higgins eight, Ding Junhui six and Shaun Murphy five. Perhaps surprisingly, six-time world champion Steve Davis has only the one competition maximum to his name.

Frank Oliver, Liverpool.

QUESTION Did any of the Eastern Roman Emperors ever visit Rome?

In 663, Constans II became the first Byzantine emperor to visit Rome since Constantine The Great had moved his Playing to the max: Ronnie O’Sullivan and (above) Joe Davis capital to Constantinople in 330AD and founded the Byzantine Empire.

For 12 days, Constans was received with great honour by Pope Vitalian. But he managed to annoy the city by stripping everything of value, including the bronze from the roof of the Pantheon, to fund his war against the Arabs.

It was said that Constans II’s tax collectors were so severe that husbands were sold into slavery and wives were forced into prostitution. He was murdered in 668 or 669, according to 10th-century historian Agapius.

It was not until 1423 that John VIII Palaiologos became the next Byzantine Emperor to visit the city — to beg for help against the Ottoman Turks, a project that ultimately proved fruitless.

Renaissance artists, impressed by his exotic dress, left several realistic portraits of John VIII to posterity.

Eleanor Gower, Reading, Berks.

QUESTION If Harvey Weinstein was only the second man to be stripped of his membership to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who was the first and why?

THIS was the actor Carmine Caridi. Born in Manhattan in 1936, he took up acting at a boys club, which he believed saved him from the clutches of the Mob.

Aged 18, he had joined the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War. On returning home at 21, he told his father he wished to be an actor.

Following a spell on Broadway, he was screen-tested by Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather and given the major role of Sonny Corleone.

However, studio executive Robert Evans ordered the part recast because Caridi was too tall to play opposite Al Pacino. James Caan was given the role.

This led to Caridi falling off the rails, and he was arrested and jailed after selling cocaine to an undercover agent. On his release, he was cast by a repentant Coppola in Godfather II, as mobster Carmine Rosato.

Caridi appeared in several TV shows and films such as Brewster’s Millions (1985) and Bugsy (1991), usually typecast as an Italian mobster. An appearance in Sidney Lumet’s 1981 film Prince Of The City led to an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Despite warnings, Caridi freely shared with his family and friends advance copies of films — known as VHS screeners — he was given because of his membership. These included Russell Sprague, a notorious video pirate who had once fixed Caridi’s video recorder.

When the Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai appeared on the web before the official release, the FBI linked this with Caridi. They raided him and reportedly offered him immunity in exchange for Sprague’s name.

Sprague was arrested and prosecuted for creating and uploading digital copies of the VHS screeners. Caridi was ordered to pay $300,000 each to Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros — and banned for life from the Academy.

Thomas Eddington, Cheltenham, Glos.