The history of snooker (supposedly) from The World Snooker Association.
The equipment:
The table: 11'8-1/2" by 5'10" felt covered playing surface with 6 pockets in the standard billiards layout, pocket in each corner and two halfway down the long sides. The regulation billiard table is 3 1/2' x 7', 4' x 8', or 4 1/2' x 9', whatever, as long as it is twice as long as it is wide.
The balls: 52.5 mm (standard billiard balls are ~57mm), numbering twenty-one - fifteen red valued as 1 point, and six colors: yellow valued as 2, green as 3, brown as 4, blue as 5, pink as 6 and black as 7.
So, as you can see, the snooker table is fucking huge by comparison and the balls relatively small. Adds much challenge to the game, but the way the game is played adds even more.
snooker -
v
1. To lead (another) into a situation in which all possible choices are undesirable; trap.
Without looking at the actual rules, IIRC, I think a player must make a red ball before striking a colored ball, starting with yellow, then a red ball again, then green, another red, then brown, and so on in sequence, all points added up for the player's score. If the player does not strike a red ball first, fails to strike the appropriate colored ball when it is the next to be shot, pockets a colored ball out of sequence, or scratches the cue ball, points are added to the opponents score and the balls respotted.
I always thought of the game as leaving my opponent with no shot, thus snookered. Damn, I wish I had a snooker table. A long time ago, in a land far far away, I had the chance to buy an antique snooker table for a meager sum of money, when Bertha died; her bar and all it's contents went up for auction. Bertha used to make the best damn cheeseburgers in the world too. Damn, I miss big old Bertha. I miss her snooker table more. I miss her cheeseburgers the most.
Warren