万丽

Snooker is British billiard， although billiards date from the 15th century， but the invention of the snooker is much later than that. There is a saying about the origin of snooker which is widely acceptable， says that snooker is invented in the late 19th century.

At that time， billiards is very popular among the British Army， they play Black Pool at that time， this kind of sport includes one white ball， 15 red balls and a black one. One day in 1875， Neville Chamberlain， the colonel in the British army found this kind of sport is a little bit simple and boring， so they added yellow， green and pink ball in it. Later， they added brown and blue. This new way of play the billiards spread quickly and led to the birth of snooker. And snooker is the popular way of calling the freshman in the army， then it used to call the new learner of this new game and became the name of the game at last.

In 1885， the British billiard champion John Roberts brought this new billiard into England， and Joe Davis， a very great player flourished the sport， and later on， snooker became popular worldwide.

There is a series of equipments in snooker such as chalk， cue and so on. Snooker includes 22 balls in 8 colors， they are 15 red balls represents for one point each and one yellow for two points， a green for three points， and brown， blue， pink， black represents one point increment each. White ball is the main ball.

Snooker has many strict and complicated rules and requires highly professional and gentlemanly spirit for the players， thats why billiard is always full of charms.

（浙江杭州  萬  丽）