Snooker loopy
Potty history of our green baize craze
BAIZE barmy snooker fans are looking forward to the climax of the Betfred World Championships today. But as the final between Mark Williams and John Higgins continues in Sheffield, we’ve taken a break to reveal some fascinating facts about the sport. Here JAMES MOORE cues up our guide…
A SNOOKER was invented in 1875 by a British Army officer Neville Chamberlain (not the future Prime Minister) serving in India, after tweaking the game of billiards.
B THE name snooker came from a term for rookie Army cadets.
C The original game featured 15 reds, yellow, green, pink and black.
D BROWN and blue were added later. The first official rules were drawn up in 1884.
E THE first World Championships were held in 1927.
The title was won by Joe Davis who scooped £6. He triumphed at the next 15 tournaments.
F SNOOKER hit TV when BBC bosses took advantage of the introduction of colour, launching Pot Black in 1969 with its commentator “whispering” Ted Lowe.
G THE famous Crucible, which has a capacity of 980, has staged snooker’s top event since 1977.
H CANADIAN Cliff Thorburn recorded the Crucible’s first 147 maximum break in 1983.
I IN 1980, his fellow Canadian star Bill Werbeniuk, left below, who drank 40 pints of beer a day, famously split his trousers while playing on live TV.
J ALEX “The Hurricane” Higgins, left, was known as the People’s Champion and famed for his quick-fire potting, but he got a reputation as the sport’s bad boy.
In 1986, he head-butted an official who asked him to take a drugs test. He battled booze and gambling addictions and died aged 61.
K DURING the 1980s, snooker was booming. The top players became famous for unusual nicknames including Ray “Dracula” Reardon and Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White. L A WHOPPING telly audience of 18.5million people watched Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis in the final black in the 1985 final.
M DESPITE getting the ironic nickname “Interesting”, Davis was one of the so-called Matchroom
Mob who took part in
Chas & Dave’s 1986 hit Snooker Loopy.
N THE youngest world champion, at 21, was Stephen Hendry in
1990. He has a record seven world titles. Steve Davis and Ray Reardon managed six.
O IN 1997 snooker got its first streaker in a match, Lianne Crofts.
P ALSO in the same year, Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan, above, set the record for the fastest 147 maximum break in the game’s history – five minutes and 20 seconds. The five-time world champ became one of the game’s most colourful figures and is now reckoned to be worth
£32million. He has become a novelist and dates actress Laila Rouass.
Q CELEBRITY snooker fans include everyone from TV’s Joey Essex and Richard Osman to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and the band Iron Maiden.
R SNOOKER has become a big hit in Asia. In 2016 a massive
210million watched in China as their countryman Ding Junhui played in the World Championship final.
S REIGNING champ, England’s Mark Selby, was knocked out on day one this year by Joe Perry.
The world No1 defeated Scotland’s four-time champ John Higgins in last year’s final.
T THE winner of this year’s trophy can expect to pick up a prize of £425,000.
The final will be broadcast on BBC Two from
2-6pm and 7-11pm today.