UK Billiards
Billiards is a group of games played with balls on a rectangular table. In carom billiards, players score points by knocking a ball into another using a long, tapered cue stick. In the other general form, players score when they drive balls into any of six pockets in a table by first hitting them with the cue ball,which the player strikes with the cue. Games played on pocket billiards tables include English billiards, snooker, and pocket billiards, also known as pool. Each game, especially pool and carom billiards, varies by country or region. Local differences in rules and game etiquette are common. Billiards are played for recreation and in competition.
History
Billiards probably developed from one of the late-14thor early-15th-century outdoor lawn games in which players hit balls at targets with sticks. It was first played on the ground, often on measured plots that were dug out to provide boundaries. The earliest mention of pool as an indoor table game is in a 1470 inventory list of the accounts of King Louis XI of France (reigned 1461–1483). The word billiards probably descends from Latin terms for ball and from the Old French word bille (a piece of wood), which refers to the stick. The term “cue” is derived from the French queue, meaning “tail,” and probably refers to the practice of striking a ball with the small, or tail, end of the billiard mace.
France’s Louis XIII (reigned 1610–1643) and Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1710) were avid pool players. The latter is generally credited with spreading the game through Europe. Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, was an early patron of billiards. In 1586, while imprisoned in the castle at Fotheringay, her playing table was taken away, apparently as part of her punishment. A few months later she was beheaded and, according to some sources, her body was wrapped in the cloth stripped from the table.
Billiards arrived in the Americas some time before 1709. The game flourished in 18th-century America, and most towns had public billiards tables.By the mid-1830s, billiards tables were to be found as far west as Bent’s Fort outpost on the Santa Fe Trail in Colorado.
Rules and Play
Modern billiards are played on three basic table types: the pocketless carom table, the English table, and the pocket billiards, or pool, table. The first billiards tables were constructed of wood and subject to warping. Substituting slate, easy to smooth and nonwarping, proved the single most important improvement in tables.Uniformly resilient rails around the table became possible with Goodyear’s 1839 development of vulcanizing. Skilled play also requires a good cloth covering, but by the middle of the 19th century improved textile technology had made good cloth (often felted) universally available.
Billiard balls were initially turned from wood, in the late 19th century from celluloid and later from cast phenolic resin. Modern balls range in diameter from 21/16 to 2 27/64 inches (roughly 5 centimeters), depending on the game. Larger balls are used in carom games while snooker and English billiards require small balls. The cue probably appeared between 1679 and 1734 and had replaced other sticks by the second half of the 18th century. Throughout the 18th century, players adapted various practices and techniques to improve their control; these included angled and oblong tips, the roughening of tips, chalking cues, leather-tipped cues, and the horizontal spin, still used today. This is commonly called “English” in the United States, although the English refer to it as “side.”Modern cues are tapered, wooden rods about 1.4 meters (57 inches) long and weighing between 397 and 624 grams (14 and 22 ounces). Aluminum and fiberglass are also used. Four types of billiards are played today: carom, or French billiards; English billiards; snooker; and pocket billiards, or pool.
