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A potted history of snooker

The origin of snooker dates back to the latter half of the 19th century. In the
1870s, billiards was a popular activity among British Army officers stationed in
India, and several variations of the game were devised during this time. One
variation that originated at the officers' mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment
in 1875 combined the rules of two pocket billiards games: pyramid and black
pool. The former was played with fifteen red coloured balls positioned in a
triangle, while the latter involved the potting of designated balls. The game was
developed in 1884 when its first set of rules was finalised by Sir Neville
Chamberlain, an English army officer who helped develop and popularise the
game at Stone House in Ooty (Ootacamund) on a table built by Burroughes &
Watts that was brought over by boat.

The word snooker was a slang term for first-year cadets and inexperienced
military personnel, but Chamberlain would often use it for the performance of
one of his fellow officers at the table. In 1887, snooker was given its first
definite reference in England in a copy of Sporting Life which caused a growth
in popularity. Chamberlain came out as the game's inventor in a letter to The
Field published on 19 March 1938, 63 years after the fact.

In 1927 the first World Snooker Championship was organised by Joe Davis.
Davis, as a professional English billiards and snooker player, moved the game
from a pastime to a professional activity. Davis won every world championship
until 1946, when he retired from the championships. The game went into a
decline through the 1950s and 1960s with little interest generated outside of
those who played. In 1959, Davis introduced a variation of the game known as
"Snooker Plus" to try to improve the game's popularity by adding two extra
colours, but this failed to gain interest. In 1969, David Attenborough
commissioned the snooker television series Pot Black to demonstrate the
potential of colour television, with the green table and multi-coloured balls
being ideal for showing off the advantages of colour broadcasting. The series
became a ratings success and was for a time the second-most popular show on
BBC2. Interest in the game increased and the 1978 World Snooker
Championship was the first to be fully televised. The game quickly became a
mainstream game in the United Kingdom, Ireland and much of the
Commonwealth, and has enjoyed much success since the late 1970s, with most
of the ranking tournaments being televised. By the 1985 World Snooker
Championship, a total of 18.5 million viewers watched the concluding frame of
the final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, a record viewership for the
United Kingdom for any broadcast after midnight. In the early 2000s, a ban on
tobacco advertising led to a

decrease in the number of professional tournaments, with professional

tournaments being cut to only 15 events in 2003, from 22 in 1999. However, the
increasing popularity of the game in Asia, with exciting emerging talents such
as Liang Wenbo and more established players such as Ding Junhui and Marco
Fu, boosted the sport in the Far East. By 2007, the BBC dedicated 400 hours to
snooker coverage, compared to just 14 minutes 40 years earlier.
In 2010, promoter Barry Hearn gained a controlling interest in World Snooker
Ltd. and the World Snooker Tour, pledging to revitalise the "moribund"
professional game. Since this time, the number of professional tournaments has
increased, with 44 events in the 2019/20 season. Events have also been made to
be more suitable for television broadcasts, such as the Snooker Shoot-Out, a
timed, one-frame tournament. Prize money for professional events has also
increased, with top players making several million pounds during their careers.

In the professional era that began with Joe Davis in the 1930s and continues
until the present day, a relatively small number of players have succeeded at the
top level. Joe Davis was world champion for twenty years, retiring unbeaten
after claiming his fifteenth world title in 1946 when the tournament was
reinstated after the Second World War. Davis was unbeaten in World
Championship play, and was only ever beaten four times in his entire life, with
all four defeats coming after his World Championship retirement and inflicted
by his own brother Fred Davis. He did lose matches in handicapped
tournaments, but on level terms these four defeats were the only losses of his
entire career. He was also world billiards champion. It is regarded as highly
unlikely that anyone will ever dominate the game to this level again.

After Davis retired from World Championship play, the next dominant force
was his younger brother Fred Davis, who had lost the 1940 final to Joe. By
1947, Fred Davis was deemed ready by his brother to take over the mantle, but
lost the world final to the Scotsman Walter Donaldson. Davis and Donaldson
would contest the next four finals. After the abandonment of the World
Championship in 1953, with the 1952 final boycotted by British professionals,
the World Professional Match-play Championship became the unofficial world
championship. Fred Davis won the event every year until its penultimate one, in
1957, which he did not enter.
John Pulman was the most successful player of the 1960s, when the world
championship was contested on a challenge basis. However, when the
tournament reverted to a knockout formula in 1969, he did not prosper. Ray
Reardon became the dominant force in the 1970s, winning six titles (1970,
1973–1976 and 1978), with John Spencer winning three.

Steve Davis' first world title in 1981 made him only the 11th world champion
since 1927, including the winner of the boycotted 1952 title, Horace Lindrum.
Davis would win six World Championships (1981, 1983, 1984 and 1987–1989),
and competed in the most watched snooker match ever, the 1985 World
Snooker Championship final with Dennis Taylor. Stephen Hendry became the
14th in 1990 and dominated through the 1990s, winning seven titles (1990,
1992–1996 and 1999). Ronnie O'Sullivan has achieved most dominance in the
modern era, having won the title on five occasions in the 21st century (2001,
2004, 2008, 2012 and 2013).