Portal:Cue sports
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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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Image 1The 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...) -
Image 2The 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 2020 Masters (officially the 2020 Dafabet Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place at Alexandra Palace in London, England, from 12 to 19 January 2020. It was the 46th staging of the Masters tournament, which was first held in 1975, and the second of three Triple Crown events in the 2019–20 season, following the 2019 UK Championship and preceding the 2020 World Snooker Championship. The event invites the top sixteen players from the snooker world rankings in a knockout tournament. It was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and was broadcast by the BBC and Eurosport in Europe.
Judd Trump was the defending champion, having defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–4 in the final of the previous year's event. Trump lost to Shaun Murphy 3–6 in the first round. O'Sullivan was eligible to compete, but chose not to participate, so his entry was given to Ali Carter, next on the world ranking list. Carter reached the final, where he played Stuart Bingham; recovering from 5–7 behind, Bingham won the final 10–8 to claim his first Masters title. He became the oldest Masters champion at the age of 43 years and 243 days, beating the previous record set by Ray Reardon in 1976; Bingham remained the tournament's oldest winner until 2024, when O'Sullivan won the title aged 48 years and 40 days. (Full article...) -
Image 4The 1984 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1984 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a ranking professional snooker tournament that took place between 21 April and 7 May 1984 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The event was organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and was the eighth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible since the 1977 event. The event featured 94 participants, of which 78 players competed in a qualifying event held at the Redwood Lodge in Bristol from 1 to 13 April. Of these, 16 players qualified for the main stage in Sheffield, where they met 16 invited seeds. The total prize fund for the event was £200,000, the highest total pool for any snooker tournament at that time; the winner received £44,000.
The defending champion was English player Steve Davis, who had won the title twice previously. He met fellow-countryman Jimmy White in the final, which was played as a best-of-35-frames match. Davis took a significant lead of 12–4 after the first two sessions; although White battled back into the match, Davis eventually won 18–16, becoming the first player to retain the title at the Crucible. Rex Williams secured the championship's highest break, scoring a 138 in the 12th frame of his first-round loss to White. Eight century breaks were made during the competition, the fewest since the 1978 event. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy, and broadcast by BBC. (Full article...) -
Image 5The 2021 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2021 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 17 April to 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 45th consecutive year the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible Theatre and the 15th and final ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season. It was organised by the World Snooker Tour. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred and broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. It featured a total prize fund of £2,395,000 of which the winner received £500,000.
Qualifying for the tournament took place between 5 and 14 April 2021 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, consisting of a mix of professional and invited amateur players. The main stage of the tournament featured 32 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and an additional 16 players from the qualifying rounds. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won his sixth world title at the previous year's event, where he defeated Kyren Wilson 18–8 in the final. O'Sullivan lost in the second round to Anthony McGill 12–13. Mark Selby defeated Shaun Murphy 18–15 in the final to win his fourth world title and the 20th ranking title of his career. There were a record 108 century breaks made at the Crucible, with an additional 106 made in qualifying rounds. The tournament's highest break was 144 by Murphy in the second round. (Full article...) -
Image 6The 1987 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1987 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 18 April and 4 May 1987 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1986–87 snooker season. The championship was the 1987 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927, and had 32 participants. The highest ranked 16 players were awarded a place in the first round draw, whilst a pre-tournament qualification event for 104 professionals was held between 26 March and 4 April at the Preston Guild Hall for the remaining places. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy and had a prize fund of £400,000 with the winner receiving £80,000.
Since his 1986 victory, Joe Johnson had experienced a disappointing season leading up to the 1987 Championship, and bookmakers considered it unlikely that he would retain the title. Johnson did reach the final, a rematch of the previous year's final against Steve Davis. Davis won his fourth championship by defeating Johnson 18 frames to 14. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament, the highest of which was 127 made by Davis in first frame of the final. Stephen Hendry, aged 18, became the youngest player to win a match in the tournament's history since it moved to the Crucible in 1977, whilst it was the last time that six-times champion Ray Reardon appeared. (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...) -
Image 8The 1988 World Snooker Championship, also known as the 1988 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 1988 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), it was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1987–88 snooker season and the twelfth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament there having taken place in 1977.
A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988 for 113 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The winner received £95,000 from the total prize fund of £475,000. (Full article...) -
Image 9The 1985 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1985 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional ranking tournament in snooker that took place from 12 to 28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the event was the ninth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament having taken place in 1977. A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 29 March to 5 April for 87 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The total prize fund for the event was £250,000, the highest prize pool for any snooker tournament to that date. The winner received £60,000, which was the highest amount ever received by the winner of a snooker event at that time.
The defending champion was Englishman Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship three times. He met Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor in the final which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis took an early 9–1 lead, but Taylor battled back into the match and drew level at 17–17, forcing a deciding frame. The 35th frame was contested over the final black ball, with the player able to pot the ball winning the world title. After Taylor missed three attempts to pot the black, Davis missed his only attempt to leave Taylor a relatively simple pot to win his sole World Championship. The match, often referred to as the "black ball final", is commonly considered to be the best-known match in the history of snooker and a reason for the surge in the sport's popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. (Full article...) -
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The 2018 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2018 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament held from 21 April to 7 May 2018 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Hosted by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the 20th and final ranking event of the 2017–18 snooker season and the 42nd consecutive time the World Snooker Championship had been held at the venue. The tournament was broadcast by BBC Sport and Eurosport in Europe, and sponsored by betting company Betfred.
Welsh left-hander Mark Williams won his third world championship and 21st ranking title, defeating Scottish professional John Higgins 18–16 in the final. Williams' victory came 15 years after his second world title in 2003; before the start of the season, he had not won a ranking event in the previous six years. In winning the event, Williams received the highest prize money awarded for a snooker event, £425,000 of a total pool of £1,968,000. Aged 43, he was the third oldest winner at the crucible after Ronnie O'Sullivan who was 44 when he won the 2020 World Snooker Championship and Ray Reardon who was 45 when he won the title in 1978. Defending and three-time world champion Mark Selby had won the world title for the previous two years, but lost in the first round 4–10 to Joe Perry. (Full article...)
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Image 1Dott at the 2014 German Masters
Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship and the 2007 China Open, and was runner-up in the World Championships of 2004 and 2010. He reached number 2 in the world rankings in 2007, but a subsequent episode of clinical depression seriously affected his form, causing him to drop to number 28 for the 2009–10 season. He then recovered his form, regained his top-16 ranking, and reached a third World Championship final. In 2011, he published his autobiography, Frame of Mind: The Autobiography of the World Snooker Champion.
In 2025, Dott was charged with sexually abusing two children. Prosecutors alleged that he abused a girl between 1993 and 1996, beginning when she was around 10 years old, and a boy between 2006 and 2010, beginning when he was around 7 years old. On 9 April, two days before he was scheduled to compete in the 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifying rounds, the WPBSA announced that it had suspended him from competition. The case will be heard at Scotland's High Court of Justiciary. (Full article...) -
Image 2Niels Feijen at the Mosconi Cup in 2008.
Niels Feijen (born 3 February 1977, The Hague) is a Dutch professional pool player, from the Hague. His nickname is "the Terminator". In 2014 he won the WPA World 9-ball championship. (Full article...) -
Image 3Sigel 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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Artistic billiards final at the 2013 European Carom Billiards Championship
Artistic billiards is a cue sport played on a billiard table. A discipline of carom billiards, players aim to recreate a portion of 76 pre-set shots of varying difficulty against an opponent. Each of the 76 shots has a maximum point value assigned for perfect execution, ranging from a four-point maximum for lowest level difficulty shots, and climbing to an eleven-point maximum. There are a total of 500 points available to a player, representing the combined value of a perfect score on all 76 shots, although not all games are played with the full shot catalogue. The governing body of the sport is the Confédération International de Billard Artistique.
A version of the game, played on a pocket billiards table known as artistic pool began in the 1970s, with official competitions starting in 1993. These events are run and organised by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). (Full article...) -
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Earl Strickland (born June 8, 1961) is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He has won over 100 championship titles and three world titles. In 2006 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. In 1996, Strickland won the largest cash prize to date winning the PCA $1,000,000 Challenge by being the first player to run 10 consecutive racks in a tournament. (Full article...) -
Image 6Immonen at the 2008 Mosconi Cup
Mika Immonen (born 17 December 1972) is a Finnish professional Hall of Fame pool player, nicknamed "The Iceman." (Full article...) -
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Cigarette card, c. 1911, showing George Sutton playing balkline
Balkline is the overarching title of a group of carom billiards games generally played with two cue balls and a red object ball on a cloth-covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, pocketless billiard table. The object of the game is to score points, also called counts, by a player striking their cue ball so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball on a single stroke. A player wins the game by reaching a predetermined number of points. The table is divided by lines drawn on the surface, called balklines, into marked regions called balk spaces. Balk spaces define areas of the table surface in which a player may only score up to a threshold number of points while the opponent's cue ball and the object ball are within that region.
The balkline games were developed to be more difficult to play and less tedious for spectators than the precursor game, straight rail. The top players of straight rail became so skillful that they would score a seemingly endless series of points, with the balls barely moving in a confined area of the table. Straight rail, unlike the balkline games, had no balk space restrictions, although one was later added. According to Mike Shamos, curator of the U.S. Billiard Archive, "the skill of dedicated players [of straight rail] was so great that they could essentially score at will." The development of balkline is characterized by a series of back and forth developments, where new rules would be implemented to make the game more difficult and to decrease high runs to keep spectators interested, countered by skill development to account for each new rule. (Full article...) -
Image 8Arthur Leslie Cranfield (19 June 1892 – 9 October 1957) was a British newspaper editor.
Born in St Ives, then in Huntingdonshire, Cranfield attended St Ives Grammar School. During World War I, he served in the Essex Regiment as a captain and a brigade signalling officer. After the war, he became a journalist, working on a variety of local papers before, in 1922, becoming chief sub-editor for the Evening News.
In 1926, Cranfield was appointed as the first editor-in-chief of the Press Association. Two years later, he returned to the Evening News as assistant editor, then held the same post at the Daily Mail from 1930 to 1935, when he was chosen as the paper's editor. In 1939, he instead became managing editor of the Evening Standard, then in 1941 moved to become editor of The Star. (Full article...) -
Image 9Pinches at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic
Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English former professional snooker player, recognisable for his bright and flamboyant waistcoats, which usually feature the yellow and green colours of Norwich City F.C. He is a former top 32 player and ranking-event quarter-finalist. He has compiled over 100 century breaks in his career. He has also made one maximum break. (Full article...) -
Image 10Frank Taberski (1889–1941) was a professional pocket billiards player from Schenectady, New York. Nicknamed "The Gray Fox," he won 14 world titles. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

- ... that after winning the 2024 Masters, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan is both the youngest and oldest winner of the tournament?
- ... that Gary Wilson threw his snooker cue to the floor in anger at the 2022 UK Championship?
- ... 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 the 1947 World Snooker Championship was the first world snooker championship where the winner wasn't Joe Davis?
- ... that at the 1978 World Snooker Championship, Fred Davis reached the semi-finals at the age of 64?
- ... that Kyren Wilson won the first four frames in all of his snooker matches at the 2023 Tour Championship?
- ... that John Spencer won a World Snooker Championship on his first attempt in 1969?
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Image 1Rudolf Walter Wanderone (né Rudolf Walter Wanderon Jr.; January 19, 1913 – January 15, 1996), commonly known as Minnesota Fats, was an American professional pool player. Although he never won a major pool tournament as "Fats", he was at one time perhaps the most publicly recognized pool player in the United States—not only as a player, but also as an entertainer. Wanderone was inducted in 1984 into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame for his decades-long public promotion of pool.
Wanderone began playing at a young age in New York City. As a teenager, he became a traveling pool hustler. Later, in his thirties, he moved to Du Quoin, Illinois, where he met and married his first wife, Evelyn. She was a waitress at a steakhouse, The Perfection Club. They married two months after they met. During World War II, he hustled servicemen in Norfolk, Virginia. With the end of the war, Wanderone returned to Illinois and entered semi-retirement. (Full article...) -
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Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record for the highest number of maximum breaks achieved in professional competition (15), and also the fastest ever recorded (5 minutes and 8 seconds, at the 1997 World Championship).
A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a one‑four‑seven) is the highest possible break in snooker in normal circumstances and is a special type of total clearance. A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 reds with 15 blacks for 120 points, followed by all six colours for a further 27 points. Compiling a maximum break is regarded as a highly significant achievement in the game of snooker, and may be compared to a nine‑dart finish in darts, a hole‑in‑one in golf, or a 300 game in ten‑pin bowling.
Joe Davis made the first officially recognised maximum break in a 1955 exhibition match in London. At the Classic in January 1982, Steve Davis achieved the first recognised maximum in professional competition, which was also the first in a televised match. The following year, Cliff Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum at the World Snooker Championship. As of April 2025, over 200 officially recognised maximum breaks have been made in professional tournament play. Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record for the most maximum breaks in professional competition, with 15, and also holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest competitive maximum break, which he made at the 1997 World Championship in a time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds. (Full article...) -
Image 3The 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...) -
Image 4The 2001 Champions Cup was a professional invitational snooker tournament held at the Brighton Centre in Brighton, England, from 11 to 19 August. It was the seventh and final edition of the eight-player Champions Cup, and was the first of four World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) invitational events of the 2001–02 season following the 2001 World Snooker Championship. It preceded the season's second invitational tournament, the 2001 Scottish Masters.
John Higgins, the world number three, won the tournament, defeating two-time Champions Cup runner-up Mark Williams seven frames to four (7–4) in the final. It was the first and only Champions Cup success in the career of Higgins. In the semi-finals, Higgins defeated Ken Doherty, the 1997 world champion, 5–2 and Williams won against the 2001 Scottish Open victor Peter Ebdon by the same scoreline. Ebdon made the highest break of 130 in the third frame of his group match over Ronnie O'Sullivan, the 2001 world champion. (Full article...) -
Image 5The 1932 World Snooker Championship, known at the time as the Professional Championship of Snooker, was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 14 to 20 April 1932, with the final being held at Thurston's Hall in London, England. It is recognised as the sixth edition of the World Snooker Championship. The defending champion, Joe Davis from England, won the title for the sixth time by defeating New Zealander Clark McConachy by 30 frames to 19 in the final. The score when Davis achieved a winning margin was 25–18, with dead frames played afterwards. Davis set a new Championship record break of 99 in the 36th frame of the final. McConachy had become the first player from outside the British Isles to enter the championship. The only other participant was Tom Dennis, who was defeated 11–13 by McConachy in the semi-final at Skegness. (Full article...)
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Image 6The 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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Image 7The 1929 World Snooker Championship, known at the time as the Professional Championship of Snooker, was a snooker tournament held between 17 December 1928 and 7 March 1929 at various venues in England, with the final taking place from 4 to 7 March 1929 at the Lounge Hall, Nottingham. Defending champion Joe Davis won the title for the third time by defeating Tom Dennis by 19 frames to 14 in the final, after securing a winning margin at 17–12.
It was the third edition of the World Snooker Championship. The first round match was held at Loughborough Town Hall, and the venue for the semi-finals was Camkin's Hall, Birmingham. The highest break of the tournament was 61, a new championship record, compiled by Davis in the 23rd frame of the final. (Full article...) -
Image 8Irving Crane (November 13, 1913 – November 17, 2001), nicknamed "the Deacon", was an American pool player from Livonia, New York, and ranks among the stellar players in the history of the sport. Widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time, and a member of the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame, he is best known for his mastery in the game of straight pool (14.1 continuous) at which he won numerous championships, including six World Straight Pool Championship titles. (Full article...)
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Image 9Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle is a 2015 action video game developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. A part of the Danganronpa series, it was released in Japan for Android and iOS before ceasing operations later in 2015. The gameplay involved using the touchscreen to shoot the characters from the player's team, as with billiards, towards enemies in a confined arena-like area. The game was free to play and was supported by microtransactions.
Video game journalists questioned the choice to use the Danganronpa series to create a touchscreen-based action game, but still felt that it should be given a chance; one noted however that the game retained the style of the previous games in the series, and one called it unusually good for its genre. Over 700,000 players had registered for the game. (Full article...) -
Image 10The 2019 Veldhoven Open, officially known as the 2019 Dynamic Billard Veldhoven Open, was a professional nine-ball pool tournament and the fourth Euro Tour event of 2019. It was held at the NH Koningshof in Veldhoven, Netherlands. The men's event was held from 1 to 3 August, and the women's event was held from 2 to 4 August. The event followed the Austria Open and preceded the Klagenfurt Open.
The men's defending champion was Austria's Mario He, who won the 2018 Veldhoven Open after defeating Albania's Eklent Kaçi 9–8 in the final. He defended his championship, defeating Kaçi in the first knockout round, Germany's Joshua Filler in the semi-finals and Estonia's Denis Grabe in the final 9–2. In the women's event, the defending champion was Austria's Jasmin Ouschan, who defeated Oliwia Czupryńska 7–3 in the final of the previous year's event. Ouschan also successfully defended her championship, defeating Germany's Melanie Suessenguth 7–4 in the final. The event's total prize fund was €38,000, with the winner receiving €4,500. (Full article...)
General images - load new batch
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Image 1A full-size snooker table set up for a game (from Snooker)
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Image 2alt=Blue snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 3A 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)
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Image 4A pool table diagram (from Pool (cue sports))
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Image 5alt=Yellow snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 6Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon located at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, 1 January 1859 (from Carom billiards)
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Image 9alt=Green snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 10alt=Black snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 11Illustration 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)
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Image 12alt=Red snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 13A complete set of snooker balls (from Snooker)
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Image 14The World Snooker Championship trophy (from Snooker)
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Image 15Paul Gauguin's 1888 painting Night Café at Arles includes a depiction of French billiards (from Carom billiards)
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Image 16alt=Pink snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 17Joe Davis, founder of the World Snooker Championship, won 15 consecutive world titles from 1927 to 1946. (from Snooker)
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Image 19Balkline table with standard markings (from Carom billiards)
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Image 20A 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)
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Image 21The Family Remy by Januarius Zick, c. 1776, featuring billiards among other parlour activities (from Carom billiards)
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Image 22alt=Brown snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 24A sliding scoreboard, some blocks of cue-tip chalk, white chalk-board chalk and two cues (from Snooker)
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Image 25Dutch pool player Niels Feijen at the 2008 European Pool Championship (from Pool (cue sports))
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Image 28A player racking the balls (from Pool (cue sports))
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Early events | |
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Match-play | |
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Crucible era | |
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Tournaments | |
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Active professional snooker tournaments | |
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