Portal:Cue sports

The Cue Sports Portal

Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports are also collectively referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some varieties of English.

There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:

Carom billiards, played on tables without pockets, typically ten feet in length, including straight rail, balkline, one-cushion carom, three-cushion billiards, artistic billiards, and four-ball
Pocket billiards (or pool), played on six-pocket tables of seven, eight, nine, or ten-foot length, including among others eight-ball (the world's most widely played cue sport), nine-ball (the dominant professional game), ten-ball, straight pool (the formerly dominant pro game), one-pocket, and bank pool
Snooker, English billiards, and Russian pyramid, played on a large, six-pocket table (dimensions just under 12 ft by 6 ft), all of which are classified separately from pool based on distinct development histories, player culture, rules, and terminology.

Billiards has a long history from its inception in the 15th century, with many mentions in the works of Shakespeare, including the line "let's to billiards" in Antony and Cleopatra (1606–07). Enthusiasts of the sport have included Mozart, Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, Jules Grévy, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll, W. C. Fields, Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, and Jackie Gleason. (Full article...)

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The 1989 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 1989 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the eighth and final ranking event of the 1988–89 snooker season and the thirteenth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament at this location having taken place in 1977. There were 142 entrants to the competition.

The defending champion was Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship five times. He met John Parrott in the final, which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis won the match 18–3, which remains the biggest winning margin in the sport's modern era, and meant that the final, scheduled for four sessions, finished with a session to spare. This was Davis's sixth and last world title, and his last appearance in a World Championship final. Stephen Hendry scored the championship's highest break, a 141, in his quarter-final match. There were 19 century breaks compiled during the championship. (Full article...)
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The 2002 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2002 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May 2002 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the final ranking event of the 2001–02 snooker season. This was the 26th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, marking the 25th anniversary of the first staging of the event at this venue. The championship was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Peter Ebdon won his only world title by defeating seven-time winner Stephen Hendry 18–17 in the final. Ebdon defeated Matthew Stevens 17–16 in the semi-finals, and Hendry defeated the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17–13 to reach the final. This was Hendry's ninth and last appearance in a World Championship final. There were 65 century breaks during the tournament. The highest break of the tournament was by Stevens, who achieved 145 in his quarter-final match. Hendry made 16 centuries during the event, a record for any individual tournament, equalled by Mark Williams in 2022. A total prize fund of £1,615,770 was awarded at the event, the winner receiving £260,000 (Full article...)
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The 1983 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1983 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1983 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. This was the third and final world ranking event of the 1982–83 snooker season following the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. Sixteen seeded players qualified directly for the event, with an additional sixteen players progressing through a two-round qualification round held at the Romiley Forum in Stockport, and Redwood Lodge in Bristol. The winner of the event received £30,000, and the tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy.

Alex Higgins was the defending champion, having won the 1982 championship, but he lost 5–16 to Steve Davis in the semi-finals. Davis, the 1981 champion, won the event for the second time, defeating Cliff Thorburn 18–6 in the final. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament. The highest was made by Thorburn in the fourth frame of his second round match against Terry Griffiths, where he compiled a maximum break of 147 points, becoming the first player to make such a break in a World Championship match. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Tour Championship (officially the 2019 Coral Tour Championship) was a professional snooker ranking tournament that took place from 19 to 24 March 2019 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales. Organised by World Snooker, it was the first edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the inaugural Coral Cup. It was the eighteenth ranking event of the 2018–19 snooker season.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list, taking part in a single elimination tournament. Each match was played over a minimum of two sessions, the final as best-of-25-frames over two days. The winner of the tournament won £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £375,000. The event was sponsored by betting company Coral. (Full article...)
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The 2021 Tour Championship (officially the 2021 Cazoo Tour Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 22 to 28 March 2021 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it was the third edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the third season of the Cazoo Cup. It was the 14th and penultimate ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season, following the conclusion of the WST Pro Series and preceding the World Championship.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list. The event was contested as a single-elimination tournament, each match being played over two sessions. The winner of the tournament received £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £380,000. The event was sponsored by car retailer Cazoo. The defending champion was Stephen Maguire, but as a result of reduced earnings during the season he was unable to qualify and defend the title. In a repeat of the 2019 final Australian Neil Robertson played Englishman Ronnie O'Sullivan. Robertson won the event defeating O'Sullivan 10–4 in the final. There were 26 century breaks made during the event, Barry Hawkins making the highest break, a 138. (Full article...)
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The 2014 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2014 Dafabet World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 19 April to 5 May 2014 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 38th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible. The tournament was also the last ranking event of the 2013–14 snooker season. The event was sponsored by Dafabet for the first time. A qualifying tournament was held from 8 to 16 April 2014 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield for 16 players, who met 16 seeded participants at the main championships.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won the previous year's event by defeating Barry Hawkins in the final. Mark Selby won the 2014 event to capture his first world title by defeating O'Sullivan 18–14 in the final. This was Selby's fourth ranking title, also completing the Triple Crown of World Championship, UK Championship, and Masters titles. Neil Robertson compiled the highest break of the tournament, a 140, and scored his 100th century break of the season in his quarter-final win over Judd Trump. The event featured a prize fund of £1,214,000, the winner receiving £300,000. (Full article...)
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The 2020 Tour Championship (officially the 2020 Coral Tour Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 to 26 June 2020, at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it was the second edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the second season of the Coral Cup. It was the 16th and penultimate ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season following the Gibraltar Open and preceding the World Championship. The tournament was originally scheduled for 17 to 22 March 2020, but on the morning of 17 March the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following advice from the UK government, it had been decided that no spectators would be permitted at the event.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list. The event was contested as a single-elimination tournament, with each match played over a minimum of two sessions and the final being a best-of-19-frames match. The winner of the tournament won £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £380,000. The event was sponsored by betting company Coral. (Full article...)
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Four-time world champion Mark Selby playing at a practice table during the 2012 Masters tournament

Snooker (pronounced UK: /ˈsnuːkər/ SNOO-kər, US: /ˈsnʊkər/ SNUUK-ər) is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets: one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with 22 balls, comprising a white cue ball, 15 red balls and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black—collectively called 'the colours'. Using a snooker cue, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player or team. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points, and a snooker match ends when a player wins a predetermined number of frames.

In 1875, army officer Neville Chamberlain, stationed in India, devised a set of rules that combined black pool and pyramids. The word snooker was a well-established derogatory term used to describe inexperienced or first-year military personnel. In the early 20th century, snooker was predominantly played in the United Kingdom, where it was considered a "gentleman's sport" until the early 1960s before growing in popularity as a national pastime and eventually spreading overseas. The standard rules of the game were first established in 1919 when the Billiards Association and Control Club was formed. As a professional sport, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. (Full article...)
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The 2021 Masters (officially the 2021 Betfred Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 10 and 17 January 2021 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. It was the 47th staging of the Masters tournament, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2020–21 season, following the 2020 UK Championship and preceding the 2021 World Snooker Championship. The top sixteen players from the snooker world rankings were invited to compete in a knockout tournament. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association organised the tournament, which was broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport in Europe. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. It was played behind closed doors because of COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom. Two players, world number one Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski, withdrew from the event after testing positive for COVID-19.

The defending champion, Stuart Bingham, had defeated Ali Carter 10–8 in the previous year's final. Bingham lost 6–5 to Yan Bingtao in the semi-finals. Yan (one of three debutants at the event, alongside Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Gary Wilson) met John Higgins in the final. Yan completed a 10–8 victory to win his first Triple Crown tournament. As the winner of the event, Yan was awarded £250,000 from the total prize pool of £725,000. The highest break of the event was a 145 made by Higgins in his quarter-final win over Ronnie O'Sullivan which earned him £15,000. (Full article...)
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Judd Trump is the current world number one.

The sport of snooker has utilised a world rankings system since 1975, used to seed players on the World Snooker Tour for tournaments. Originally, rankings were published once a year at the conclusion of a season. Since 2010, however, the rankings were changed so that they would be updated after every ranking tournament. The number one ranking has been held by twelve players; Ray Reardon was the first to hold the position, and was followed by Cliff Thorburn, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins, Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Mark Allen.

Hendry held the number one position for the longest time under the annual format, holding it for nine years in total. Since it changed to a rolling format in 2010, Selby has held the rank longer than anyone else. (Full article...)

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O'Brien at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic

Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish retired professional snooker player who competed on the World Snooker Tour from 1991 to 2024. He won one ranking title during his career, defeating Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final of the 1999 British Open. He was runner-up at the 2001 Masters, where he lost the final 9–10 to Paul Hunter. His best performance at the World Snooker Championship was reaching the quarter-finals of the 2000 event, where he lost 5–13 to eventual champion Mark Williams. He reached his highest world ranking of ninth in the 2000–01 season, but spent only three seasons of his 33-year career ranked inside the top 16. He retired from professional competition at the end of the 2023–24 season, intending to remain active in the sport as a coach and a commentator for Eurosport. (Full article...)
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Cisero Murphy (1935–1996) was an American professional pool player. Murphy was the first African-American professional pocket billiards player to ever win world and U.S. national titles. He is also one of two players to win the World Straight Pool Championship on his first attempt, the other being Ray Martin who won the title in 1971.

Murphy was capable of running 200 balls, missing a shot, then running another 200. He would do it with one of the more unusual strokes in billiards history, coming to a dead stop at the back of his stroke. Murphy described it as "a one- or two-second hiccup," which allowed him to take a picture of the shot before committing to it. It was so uncommon that billiards fans gave it a name: the "hesitation stroke." (Full article...)
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Morton Goldberg (December 17, 1916 – February 22, 1996), also known as Larry Johnson was an American professional pool player. Born in Rochester, New York, Goldberg beat such famous pool players as Minnesota Fats, Irving Crane, and Willie Munson (Full article...)
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Alexander Kazakis (Born July 16, 1991) is a Greek professional pool player. Kazakis is a former European 10-ball champion, and regular 9-ball player. In 2018, he was the number one ranked player by the World Pool-Billiard Association. (Full article...)
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William Joseph Mosconi (/mɒˈskoʊni/; June 27, 1913 – September 17, 1993) was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the pocket billiards game most often played in competition was called straight pool, or 14.1 continuous, a form of pool considered by most top players to be more difficult than today's fast tournament game nine-ball. Mosconi set the officially-recognized straight pool high run world record of 526 consecutive balls in 1954. (Full article...)
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Jones at the 2013 Paul Hunter Classic

Jamie Jones (born 14 February 1988) is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath. At the age of 14 he was the youngest ever player to make a maximum 147 break in competition, a record that has since been beaten by Judd Trump. At the 2012 World Snooker Championship, Jones reached his first ranking quarter-final. He made his second appearance in the quarter-finals of a Triple Crown tournament at the 2016 UK Championship.

Jones made his first official maximum break in the third frame of his last-64 match against Lee Walker at the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic. It was his first professional maximum break.

In October 2018, Jones was suspended from the snooker tour pending a match-fixing investigation. The match in question was a 2016 International Championship qualifier between former world champion Graeme Dott and Jones's good friend and compatriot David John. (Full article...)
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Kelly Teresa Fisher (born 25 August 1978) is an English professional pool, snooker and English billiards player. (Full article...)
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Allison Fisher (born 24 February 1968) is an English American professional pool and former professional snooker player. She is considered one of the greatest female snooker players & widely regarded as the greatest female pool player of all time. (Full article...)
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Dale in 2016

Dominic Dale (born 29 December 1971) is a Welsh retired snooker player, as well as a current snooker commentator, pundit and presenter for BBC Cymru Wales and TNT Sports (formerly Eurosport) in the United Kingdom. (Full article...)
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Sigel at the 2003 US Open

Michael Sigel (born July 11, 1953) is an American professional pool player nicknamed "Captain Hook." He earned the nickname from his ability to hook his opponents with safety plays. Sigel was dominant during the 1980s in 9-Ball and Straight Pool and has a high run of 339 balls in Straight Pool. Mike Sigel is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. In the year 2000, Sigel was voted "Greatest Living Player of the Century" by Billiards Digest Magazine. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Mark Williams travelled for more than 13 hours to be a last-minute replacement at the 2022 Hong Kong Masters?
... that John Spencer won a World Snooker Championship on his first attempt in 1969?
... that the final of the 2009 IBSF women's snooker championship was interrupted so that drug tests could be conducted on the players?
... that Turkish carom billiards champion Güzin Müjde Karakaşlı grew up playing volleyball for about 12 years?
... that Gary Wilson threw his snooker cue to the floor in anger at the 2022 UK Championship?
... that at the 1978 World Snooker Championship, Fred Davis reached the semi-finals at the age of 64?
... that after winning the 2024 Masters, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan is both the youngest and oldest winner of the tournament?
... that Kyren Wilson won the first four frames in all of his snooker matches at the 2023 Tour Championship?

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These are Good articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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Cahill at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic

James Cahill (born 27 December 1995) is an English former professional snooker player from Blackpool. Cahill first turned professional in 2013, aged 17, after winning the European Under 21 Championships, but returned to amateur status in 2017.

As an amateur, Cahill reached the main stage of the 2019 World Snooker Championship, becoming the first amateur player ever to qualify for the event. At the tournament, he defeated world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–8 in their first round match. O'Sullivan was the second former world number one Cahill had defeated in the 2018–19 snooker season, after his victory over Mark Selby at the 2018 UK Championship. Cahill qualified for a new two-year tour card as the second highest ranked player on the one year list who was not in the top 64 in the world after the 2018–19 season. He rejoined the professional tour in June 2019, only to be relegated again in June 2021, and rejoin June 2022. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Riga Masters (also known as the 2019 Kaspersky Riga Masters due to sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament held from 26 to 28 July 2019 at the Arēna Rīga in Riga, Latvia. It was the sixth Riga Masters event, with the first being held in 2013, and the first ranking event of the 2019/2020 snooker season. The defending champion, Neil Robertson, previously defeated Jack Lisowski in the 2018 final. However, Robertson and several other players were forced to withdraw from qualifying round matches due to flight cancellations, and therefore could not compete in the event.

Yan Bingtao defeated Mark Joyce 5–2 in the final, winning the event and earning his first career ranking title. Yan became the first teenager to win a ranking event in 13 years since Ding Junhui won the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy aged 19. No players from the top 20 in the world reached the quarter-finals. Lisowski scored the highest break of the tournament, a 145. The event had a total prize fund of £278,000 with the winner receiving £50,000. Qualifying for the event was held between 10 and 13 June 2019 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. (Full article...)
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Wii Play is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released as a launch game for the console in Japan, Europe, and Australia in December 2006, and was released in North America in February 2007. The game features nine minigames, including a Duck Hunt-esque shooting range, a fishing game, and a billiards game, each of which are designed to showcase the features of the Wii Remote controller.

Developed as a compilation of prototype games originally shown off at the E3 expo in 2006, Wii Play was developed by Nintendo EAD simultaneously with Wii Sports, which also contained tech demos from E3. The featured games make use of several aspects of the Wii Remote, such as its detection of rotation and depth movement through motion sensing and its infrared pointer. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Antalya Open (also known as the 2019 Dynamic Billiard Antalya Open) was a professional nine-ball pool tournament held from 7 to 10 November 2019 in the Limak Atlantis Resort in Antalya, Turkey. The event was the sixth and final Euro Tour event of 2019, following the Klagenfurt Open. The men's event was won by Estonia's Denis Grabe, who won his third Tour win, defeating Eklent Kaçi 9–2. The women's event was won by Poland's Oliwia Zalewska, who won her first Tour event. She defeated Tina Vogelmann in the final 7–6. (Full article...)
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The 1934 World Snooker Championship, known at the time as the Professional Championship of Snooker, was a snooker tournament held partly at the Lounge Hall in Nottingham and then at the Central Hall in Kettering, from 2 to 6 April 1934. Joe Davis won the title for the eighth time by defeating Tom Newman, the only other entrant, by 25 frames to 22. At one stage Newman led 14–13, but Davis then pulled ahead to lead 24–18 and, although Newman won the next four frames, Davis took the 47th frame to secure the title. Davis compiled a break of 70 in the third frame. (Full article...)
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Amee Kamani (born 3 June 1992) is an Indian snooker player. She was runner-up in the 2016 International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Snooker championship, losing 0–5 in the final to the defending champion Wendy Jans. Kamani was the 2018 Asian Billiards Sports Championships Ladies (ACBS Asian Snooker Championship) Champion after defeating Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan 3–0 in the final, and was runner-up at the 2014 Australian Open (0–3 to Jessica Woods) and the 2019 International Billiards and Snooker Federation Women's six-reds snooker championship (2–4 against Nutcharut Wongharuthai).

After a sporting focus on table tennis for ten years until she was 17, Kamani then took up cue sports competitively. She has won three Indian national titles at snooker and two at English billiards, and was a member of the victorious Asia women's team at the 2019 World Team Trophy, a test event for the 2024 Summer Olympics. (Full article...)
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The 2020 World Grand Prix (officially the 2020 Coral World Grand Prix) was a professional snooker tournament which took place from 3 to 9 February 2020 in the Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, England. It was the eleventh ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, and the first of three Coral Cup tournaments. The 2020 edition of the World Grand Prix was sponsored by the betting company Coral. The event had 32 participants, with players qualifying by virtue of their ranking points during the 2019–20 season. It had a prize fund of £380,000, with £100,000 going to the winner.

The defending champion was Judd Trump, who had beaten Ali Carter 10–6 in the 2019 final. Trump was defeated, 3–4, in the second round by Kyren Wilson. Neil Robertson won the tournament for the first time (his 18th ranking title) with a 10–8 victory against Graeme Dott in the final. It was the third consecutive final in the season for Robertson, who lost just one match in the event. It had 32 century breaks, with the highest a 142 by Robertson in the final. (Full article...)
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The 1928 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament held at various venues from 28 December 1927 to 17 May 1928. It was the second staging of the World Snooker Championship. It was played on a challenge basis with the other six entrants playing off for the right to challenge defending champion Joe Davis in the final. The final was held at the Camkin's Hall in Birmingham, England, with three of the other matches contested there, and one each played in Leamington Spa and Nottingham.

Davis won 16–13 in the final against Fred Lawrence, and retained the title. Davis had won the professional billiards championship earlier in May, and became the first person to hold the professional titles in billiards and snooker titles concurrently, and then the first person to win them both in the same season. The highest break of the snooker tournament was 46, compiled by Alec Mann in the third frame of his first round match against Albert Cope. (Full article...)
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Nations that hosted an event in the snooker calendar during the 2019–20 season

The 2019–20 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 9 May 2019 and 22 August 2020. In total, 47 events were held during the season: however, the ending of the season was highly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 18 world ranking tournaments were planned to take place, but only 17 were played. An event was held in Austria, the first time in any snooker season, while the 2020 China Open was cancelled. The Tour Championship and the World Snooker Championship were postponed, and the Gibraltar Open played with no audience. The season contained 128 professional tour players, 35 of which had been given new two-year places on the tour from a combination of invitations and qualifying events.

Judd Trump, the reigning world champion, won a record six ranking titles for a season. Trump also became the second player ever to compile over 100 century breaks in a season. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the 2020 World Snooker Championship, defeating Kyren Wilson with a score of 18–8. By doing so O'Sullivan also won his 37th ranking title, the most of any player. The other Triple Crown championships were the 2019 UK Championship, won by Ding Junhui, and the 2020 Masters, won by Stuart Bingham. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Shanghai Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Regal International East Asia Hotel in Shanghai, China from 9 to 15 September 2019. It was the 12th edition of the Shanghai Masters, which was first held in 2007. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Barry Hawkins 11–9 in the 2018 final, and also having won the tournament in 2017. O'Sullivan successfully defended his title for a second consecutive year, defeating Shaun Murphy 11–9 in the final. This was the third consecutive title for O'Sullivan in this tournament.

The prize fund was £751,000 with the winner receiving £200,000. The event was broadcast by Great Sports Channel, Superstars Online, Youku and Zhibo.tv in China, as well as NowTV in Hong Kong and Eurosport in Europe. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various cue sports-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1alt=Yellow snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 2Illustration A: Aerial view of a snooker table with the 22 balls in their starting positions. The cue ball (white) may be placed anywhere in the semicircle (known as the "D") at the start of the game. (from Snooker)
Image 3alt=Green snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 4Balkline table with standard markings (from Carom billiards)
Image 5Jerome Keogh invented the game in 1910. (from Straight pool)
Image 6Joe Davis, founder of the World Snooker Championship, won 15 consecutive world titles from 1927 to 1946. (from Snooker)
Image 7Louis XIV playing billiards (1694) (from Carom billiards)
Image 8The Family Remy by Januarius Zick, c. 1776, featuring billiards among other parlour activities (from Carom billiards)
Image 9Cigarette card, c. 1911, showing George Sutton playing balkline (from Carom billiards)
Image 10alt=Black snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 11A sliding scoreboard, some blocks of cue-tip chalk, white chalk-board chalk and two cues (from Snooker)
Image 12The World Snooker Championship trophy (from Snooker)
Image 13A close-up view of a cue tip about to strike the cue ball, the aim being to pot the red ball into a corner pocket (from Snooker)
Image 14Paul Gauguin's 1888 painting Night Café at Arles includes a depiction of French billiards (from Carom billiards)
Image 15alt=Red snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 16A Game of Billiards by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1807 (from Carom billiards)
Image 17A massé shot around a pin (from Carom billiards)
Image 18A full-size snooker table set up for a game (from Snooker)
Image 19alt=Pink snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 20Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon located at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, 1 January 1859 (from Carom billiards)
Image 21A set of standard carom billiard balls, comprising a red object ball, one plain white cue ball, and one dotted white cue ball (replaced in modern three-cushion billiards by a yellow ball) for the opponent (from Carom billiards)
Image 22A player racking the balls (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 23alt=Brown snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 24alt=Blue snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 25Dutch pool player Niels Feijen at the 2008 European Pool Championship (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 26A shot using a rest, allowing the player to reach farther down the table (from Snooker)
Image 27A complete set of snooker balls (from Snooker)
Image 28A pool table diagram (from Pool (cue sports))

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v t e Cue sports
Pool games	Eight-ball British eight-ball Nine-ball Straight pool Ten-ball Artistic pool and trick shots Bank pool Baseball Bottle pool Bowlliards Chicago Cowboy pool Cribbage Cutthroat Fifteen-ball Golf Honolulu Kelly pool Killer One-pocket Pyramid pool Rotation Seven-ball Speed pool Three-ball
Carom billiards	Three-cushion One-cushion Balkline Straight rail Five-pins Artistic billiards Four-ball Goriziana
Snooker	Snooker Six-red snooker Snooker plus American snooker Brazilian snooker Shoot Out
Other games	English billiards Russian pyramid Kaisa Danish pin billiards Bumper pool Bagatelle Boccette Bar billiards Novuss Ground billiards Slosh
Resources	Glossary Techniques Billiard table Billiard ball Billiard hall Cue stick Rack Comparison of cue sports
Major international tournaments	Artistic Billiards World Championship UMB World Three-cushion Championship World Snooker Championship champions Six-red World Championship World Women's Snooker Championship WPA World Nine-ball Championship Women's champions WPA World Ten-ball Championship World Straight Pool Championship WPA World Eight-ball Championship champions World Cup of Pool Mosconi Cup World Pool Masters Cue sports at the World Games
Other events	Euro Tour events European Pool Championships U.S. Open Straight Pool 8-Ball 9-Ball
Governing bodies	World Confederation of Billiards Sports Union Mondiale de Billard World Pool Association International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
Categories	Cue sports Players Organizations Competitions
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v t e World pool champions
Nine-ball (men's)	1990: Earl Strickland 1991: Earl Strickland 1992: Johnny Archer 1993: Chao Fong-pang 1994: Takeshi Okumura 1995: Oliver Ortmann 1996: Ralf Souquet 1997: Johnny Archer 1998: Kunihiko Takahashi 1999: Efren Reyes & Nick Varner 2000: Chao Fong-pang 2001: Mika Immonen 2002: Earl Strickland 2003: Thorsten Hohmann 2004: Alex Pagulayan 2005: Wu Jia-qing 2006: Ronato Alcano 2007: Daryl Peach 2010: Francisco Bustamante 2011: Yukio Akakariyama 2012: Darren Appleton 2013: Thorsten Hohmann 2014: Niels Feijen 2015: Ko Pin-yi 2016: Albin Ouschan 2017: Carlo Biado 2018: Joshua Filler 2019: Fedor Gorst 2021: Albin Ouschan 2022: Shane Van Boening 2023: Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 2024: Fedor Gorst
Nine-ball (women's)	1990: Robin Bell 1991: Robin Bell 1992: Franziska Stark 1993: Loree Jon Jones 1994: Ewa Laurance 1995: Gerda Hofstätter 1996: Allison Fisher 1997: Allison Fisher 1998: Allison Fisher 1999: Liu Hsin-mei 2000: Julie Kelly 2001: Allison Fisher 2002: Liu Hsin-mei 2004: Kim Ga-young 2006: Kim Ga-young 2007: Pan Xiaoting 2008: Lin Yuan-chun 2009: Liu Shasha 2010: Fu Xiaofang 2011: Bi Zhu Qing 2012: Kelly Fisher 2013: Han Yu 2014: Liu Shasha 2015: Liu Shasha 2016: Han Yu 2017: Chen Siming 2018: Han Yu 2019: Kelly Fisher 2023: Chou Chieh-yu 2024: Rubilen Amit
Eight-ball (champions)	2004: Efren Reyes 2005: Wu Jia-qing 2007: Ronato Alcano 2008: Ralf Souquet 2010: Karl Boyes 2011: Dennis Orcollo 2012: Chang Jung-Lin 2022: Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 2023: Shane Van Boening 2024: Joshua Filler
Ten-ball	2008: Darren Appleton 2009: Mika Immonen 2011: Huidji See 2015: Ko Pin-yi 2019: Ko Ping-chung 2021: Eklent Kaçi 2022: Wojciech Szewczyk 2023: Eklent Kaçi 2024: Carlo Biado
Straight pool	2006: Thorsten Hohmann 2007: Oliver Ortmann 2008: Niels Feijen 2009: Stephan Cohen 2010: Oliver Ortmann 2011: Thorsten Hohmann 2012: John Schmidt 2013: Thorsten Hohmann 2014: Darren Appleton 2015: Thorsten Hohmann 2016: Mika Immonen 2017: Lee Vann Corteza 2018: Thorsten Hohmann 2019: Shane Van Boening
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v t e World Snooker Championship
Early events	1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952
Match-play	1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957
Challenges	Apr 1964 Oct 1964 Mar 1965 Nov 1965 Dec 1965 Apr 1966 Mar 1968
Knock-outs	1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976
Crucible era	1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Related articles	List of winners List of players Triple Crown Crucible Theatre Crucible curse World Professional Match-play Championship Black ball final (1985)
Cue sports portal

v t e World snooker champions
Early events	1927: Joe Davis (ENG) 1928: Joe Davis (ENG) 1929: Joe Davis (ENG) 1930: Joe Davis (ENG) 1931: Joe Davis (ENG) 1932: Joe Davis (ENG) 1933: Joe Davis (ENG) 1934: Joe Davis (ENG) 1935: Joe Davis (ENG) 1936: Joe Davis (ENG) 1937: Joe Davis (ENG) 1938: Joe Davis (ENG) 1939: Joe Davis (ENG) 1940: Joe Davis (ENG) 1946: Joe Davis (ENG) 1947: Walter Donaldson (SCO) 1948: Fred Davis (ENG) 1949: Fred Davis (ENG) 1950: Walter Donaldson (SCO) 1951: Fred Davis (ENG) 1952: Horace Lindrum (AUS)
Match-play	1952: Fred Davis (ENG) 1953: Fred Davis (ENG) 1954: Fred Davis (ENG) 1955: Fred Davis (ENG) 1956: Fred Davis (ENG) 1957: John Pulman (ENG)
Challenges	1964 (Apr): John Pulman (ENG) 1964 (Oct): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Mar): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Sep–Dec): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Dec): John Pulman (ENG) 1966: John Pulman (ENG) 1968: John Pulman (ENG)
Knock-outs	1969: John Spencer (ENG) 1970: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1971: John Spencer (ENG) 1972: Alex Higgins (NIR) 1973: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1974: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1975: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1976: Ray Reardon (WAL)
Crucible era	1977: John Spencer (ENG) 1978: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1979: Terry Griffiths (WAL) 1980: Cliff Thorburn (CAN) 1981: Steve Davis (ENG) 1982: Alex Higgins (NIR) 1983: Steve Davis (ENG) 1984: Steve Davis (ENG) 1985: Dennis Taylor (NIR) 1986: Joe Johnson (ENG) 1987: Steve Davis (ENG) 1988: Steve Davis (ENG) 1989: Steve Davis (ENG) 1990: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1991: John Parrott (ENG) 1992: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1993: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1994: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1995: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1996: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1997: Ken Doherty (IRL) 1998: John Higgins (SCO) 1999: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 2000: Mark Williams (WAL) 2001: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2002: Peter Ebdon (ENG) 2003: Mark Williams (WAL) 2004: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2005: Shaun Murphy (ENG) 2006: Graeme Dott (SCO) 2007: John Higgins (SCO) 2008: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2009: John Higgins (SCO) 2010: Neil Robertson (AUS) 2011: John Higgins (SCO) 2012: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2013: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2014: Mark Selby (ENG) 2015: Stuart Bingham (ENG) 2016: Mark Selby (ENG) 2017: Mark Selby (ENG) 2018: Mark Williams (WAL) 2019: Judd Trump (ENG) 2020: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2021: Mark Selby (ENG) 2022: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2023: Luca Brecel (BEL) 2024: Kyren Wilson (ENG)
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v t e Snooker world rankings
World rankings	1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Ranking points	2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Cue sports portal List of world number one snooker players