In this case, the shooter can only aim at object balls that are directly on or on the opposite side of the head string. Even if the cue ball is struck in precisely the same manner, the effect of the nap will differ according to whether the ball is directed towards the baulk line or towards the opposite end of the table. In 1868, the first croquet all-comers meet was held at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, and in the same year, the All England Croquet Club was formed at Wimbledon, London. In the same year, the 1969 World Snooker Championship reverted to a knockout tournament format, with eight players competing. The game is played with 7 solid red balls, 7 solid yellow balls, and a black eight ball. A snooker ball set consists of twenty-two unmarked balls: fifteen reds, six colour balls, and one white cue ball. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls-a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black-collectively called the colours. Snooker originated in the second half of the 19th century in India during the British Raj.

Stone House in Ootacamund on a table built by Burroughes & Watts that had been brought to India by boat. In 1969, David Attenborough, then the controller of BBC2, commissioned the snooker tournament television series Pot Black, primarily to showcase the potential of the BBC's new colour television service, what is billiards as the green table and multi-coloured balls provided an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the new broadcasting technology. The series became a ratings success and was, for a time, the second-most popular show on BBC2 behind Morecambe and Wise. The word snooker was, at the time, a slang term used in the British Army to describe new recruits and inexperienced military personnel; Chamberlain used it to deride the inferior performance of a young fellow officer at the table. Cigarette brand Embassy sponsored the World Snooker Championship for 30 consecutive years from 1976 to 2005, one of the longest-running deals in British sports sponsorship. However, the British public's interest in snooker had waned significantly by the late 2000s. Warning that the sport was "lurching into terminal crisis", The Guardian newspaper predicted in 2010 that snooker would cease to exist as a professional sport within ten years.

Snooker featured in an 1887 issue of the Sporting Life newspaper in England, which led to a growth in popularity. For casual players that only play a few times a week and don’t spend more than an hour or so at the table, eye comfort and fatigue likely won’t be much of an issue. The two most important reasons are eye comfort and playability - some colors are easier on the eyes than others and make the balls and pockets easier to see clearly. It has no number and no markings at all, therefore its easily distinguishable from the other balls on the table. The various markings tell you where to hit the cue to get a specific type of English or sidespin. As a professional English billiards and snooker player himself, Davis raised the game from a recreational pastime to a professional sporting activity. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points.

Using a cue stick, 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 time the opposing player or team commits a foul. Each player has a cue stick (or simply a "cue"), not less than 3 ft (91.4 cm) in length, which is used to strike the cue ball. A player wins a frame by scoring more points than their opponent. When black is the only object ball remaining on the table, the striker can claim the frame if more than seven points ahead of the opponent. The object of the game is to reach a certain number of points, typically seven, earned by being the first to run a hoop. At the start of a frame, the object balls are positioned on the table as shown in illustration A. Starting with the cue ball in the "D", the first player executes a break-off shot by striking the cue ball with the tip of their cue, aiming to hit any of the red balls in the triangular pack. The game ends when a player or team reaches a predetermined number of points.