The game of billiards was first played in the 16th century; it was conceived as an indoor version of croquet to be played during spells of inclement weather. In these early years the game was not widely played as tables were expensive and so were generally found in palaces and stately homes. This gave the sport a reputation of being a 'gentleman's game'. These early tables did not have of any pockets or cushions, instead they had holes within the table surface into which the balls had to be potted; this meant that every time that a ball was potted it would fall to the floor.



Later, in the 19th century the sport become popular among the British army stationed in India. However as billiards was only played with 3 balls at the time, including a cue ball for each player, it was unsuitable for any more than 2 players. The solution was to create a version of the game for more than 2 players. These new versions of the game included, life pool and pyramid pool.

Life pool was a version of the game where several coloured balls were used as both cue balls and object balls. In pyramid pool 15 red object balls were setup in a pyramid and were used in conjunction with a single cue ball. Each player received one point per red ball potted. In addition to changes in the game rules the tables being used were also changing, cushions and pockets had all been added over the years as the players were fed up of balls falling to the floor. The tables now roughly resembled those used today.

The next version of billiards to be created was called black pool. This game was a variation on pyramid pool, the difference being that the black balled used in life pool was added, this ball could be potted for more points.

The first version of the game that truly resembled the modern game of snooker was invented by Sir Neville Chamberlin in 1875. In his version of the game the other coloured balls from life pool were added to the black pool game. The name for the new version came from Sir Neville calling one of his opponents 'a real snooker', when he missed a shot, a 'Snooker' was a slang term for a first year cadet. This word became associated with the game and so snooker was born.

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