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 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 2020 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2020 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 31 July to 16 August 2020 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 44th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible. The final ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, the tournament was originally scheduled to take place from 18 April to 4 May 2020, but both the qualifying stage and the main rounds were postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was one of the first to allow live audiences since the onset of the pandemic, but on the first day it was announced that the event would be played behind closed doors for subsequent days. A limited number of spectators were allowed in for the final two days of the championship.
The tournament was organised by the World Snooker Tour, a subsidiary of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and was broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. The event had a total prize fund of £2,395,000, with the winner receiving £500,000. Qualifying for the tournament was due to be held between 8 and 15 April 2020 but instead took place from 21 to 28 July at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, with a mix of professional and invited amateur players, 16 of whom reached the main stage of the tournament where they played the top 16 players in the snooker world rankings. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. (Full article...) -
Image 3The 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...) -
Image 4The 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 5The 1986 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1986 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 1986 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1985–86 snooker season and the 1986 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927. The total prize fund was £350,000 with £70,000 awarded to the winner and was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
The defending champion was Dennis Taylor, who had defeated Steve Davis 18–17 in the 1985 World Snooker Championship final to win his first world title. In defence of his title, Taylor lost in the first round of the event 6–10 to Mike Hallett. Joe Johnson the world number 16 defeated Davis 18–12 in the final to win his sole ranking event. Prior to the competition, the bookmakers' odds for a Johnson victory were 150/1. There were 20 century breaks compiled in total during the tournament, the highest of which was a 134 made by Davis in the opening frame of his quarter-final win. (Full article...) -
Image 6The 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship was a professional pool tournament for the discipline of ten-ball organised by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and CueSports International. It was the fifth WPA World Ten-ball Championship; the previous championship was held in 2015. After plans for an event in both 2016 and 2018 to be held in Manila fell through, a 2019 event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as part of a three-year deal for the event to be played in the United States was agreed. The event was held concurrently with the Billiard Congress of America's National Ten-ball event from July 22 to 26. The event was sponsored by cue manufacturer Predator Group.
The competition featured 64 participants, selected according to world and continental pool rankings as well as qualifying events. The tournament was played as a double-elimination bracket until 16 players remained, at which point it changed to a single-elimination format. Ko Ping-chung, representing Chinese Taipei, won the event, defeating German player Joshua Filler 10–7 in the final. Ko's brother Ko Pin-yi, who was the defending champion, lost to Filler 10–8 in the semi-final. The event featured a prize fund of $132,000, the winner receiving $30,000. (Full article...) -
Image 7The 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...) -
Image 8The 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...) -
Image 9The 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...) -
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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 culmination of the season, however, since 2010, the rankings have been changed to be updated after every ranking tournament. The number one rank has been held by eleven 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 and Ding Junhui.
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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Five-pin billiards or simply five-pins or 5-pins (Italian: [biliardo dei] cinque birilli; Spanish: [billar de] cinco quillas), is today usually a carom billiards form of cue sport, though sometimes still played on a pocket table. In addition to the customary three balls of most carom games, it makes use of a set of five upright pins (skittles) arranged in a "+" pattern at the center of the table. The game is popular especially in Italy (where it originated) and Argentina, but also in some other parts of Latin America and Europe, with international, televised professional tournaments (for the carom version only). It is sometimes referred to as Italian five-pins or Italian billiards (Italian: biliardo all'italiana), or as simply italiana (in Italian and Spanish). A variant of the game, goriziana or nine-pins, adds additional skittles to the formation. A related pocket game, with larger pins, is played in Scandinavia and is referred to in English as Danish pin billiards, with a Swedish variant that has some rules more similar to the Italian game. (Full article...) -
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Minnesota Fats, or George Hegerman, is a fictional pool hustler created by American novelist Walter Tevis.
The character appears in Tevis' novels The Hustler (1959) and The Color of Money (1984). Jackie Gleason portrayed him in the 1961 film adaptation of The Hustler. Though a real pool hustler, Rudolf Wanderone, who began calling himself "Minnesota Fats" in 1961, claimed to be the inspiration, Tevis denied that claim and insisted that "Minnesota Fats" was fictional. (Full article...) -
Image 3Erwin Rudolph (December 30, 1893 – May 19, 1957) was an American pocket billiards player from Cleveland, Ohio and a five-time world champion. One of his great feats was running 125 points in 32 minutes (now eclipsed). (Full article...)
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Image 4Cowboy pool (or simply cowboy) is a hybrid pool game combining elements of English billiards through an intermediary game, with more standard pocket billiards characteristics. The game employs four balls, the cue ball and three others, numbered one, three, and five. A game of Cowboy pool is contested as a race to 101 points, with those points being awarded for a host of different shot types. Dating back to 1908, the game is a strictly amateur pastime. (Full article...)
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William Frederick Hoppe (October 11, 1887 – February 1, 1959) (surname rhymes with "poppy"), was an internationally renowned American professional carom billiards champion. Hoppe is widely considered one of the greatest billiards players of all time and was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1966. (Full article...) -
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Raymond Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 European titles (23 in three-cushion) and 61 national titles. His nickname is "Mr 100". He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2001, one of the first non-Americans to receive the honour.
In October 2003, King Albert II of Belgium honoured Raymond Ceulemans by awarding him a knighthood (Ridderschap) in recognition of his lifetime achievements. (Full article...) -
Image 7Joseph (Joe) Balsis (born 1921, Minersville, Pennsylvania, died January 2, 1995, Minersville), nicknamed "the Meatman", was an American professional pool player, who was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1982. (Full article...)
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Dominic Dale (born 29 December 1971) is a Welsh professional snooker player, as well as snooker commentator and presenter for the BBC and Eurosport. (Full article...) -
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Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been a World Championship finalist, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won five ranking titles and briefly reached number two in the world rankings in 2010. His nickname, "The Captain", comes from his hobby of piloting aeroplanes. (Full article...) -
Image 10Brunswick Bowling & Billiards was the business segment of Brunswick Corporation that historically encompassed the following three divisions:
- Billiards was the company's original product line. The segment expanded to include other table games such as table tennis, air hockey, and foosball. The billiard operations were placed in the fitness equipment division, which was spun-off into Life Fitness in 2019. In 2022, the Brunswick Billiards line was sold to Escalade Sports
- Bowling equipment and products, which Brunswick began manufacturing in the 1880s. The bowling equipment line was sold to BlueArc Capital Management in 2015, which continues to use the Brunswick name among other brands.
- Bowling centers, which Brunswick began to directly operate in the mid 1960s. In 2014 they were sold to Bowlero Corporation, which phased out the Brunswick name by 2020.
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch
- ... that at the 1978 World Snooker Championship, Fred Davis reached the semi-finals at the age of 64?
- ... that Mark Williams travelled for more than 13 hours to be a last-minute replacement at the 2022 Hong Kong Masters?
- ... that John Spencer "exploded two myths" by winning the 1977 World Snooker Championship with a two-piece cue that he had only been using for a couple of months?
- ... that referee Jan Verhaas was informed of an error he made at the 2022 Masters by a member of the crowd?
- ... that the 1810s reign of Ioan Caragea introduced Wallachia to carom billiards, sugar sculptures, and an eponymous plague?
- ... that Kyren Wilson won the first four frames in all of his snooker matches at the 2023 Tour Championship?
- ... that during a match at the snooker 2021 UK Championship, player Mark Williams fell asleep?
- ... that Gary Wilson threw his snooker cue to the floor in anger at the 2022 UK Championship?
Related portals and projects
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Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to pocket as many object balls as possible without playing a foul. The game was the primary version of pool played in professional competition until it was superseded by faster-playing games like nine-ball and eight-ball in the 1980s.
In straight pool, the player may call and attempt to pocket any object ball on the table regardless of its number or color until only one object ball and the cue ball remain, at which point the other fourteen balls are re-racked. At this point, play resumes with the objective of pocketing the remaining ball in a manner that causes the cue ball to carom into the rack, spreading out the balls and allowing the player to continue the run. The goal is to reach a set number of points that is determined by agreement before the game begins; traditionally 100 points is needed for a win, though professional matches may go higher. One point is scored by pocketing an object ball without a foul, while a point is deducted on a foul. (Full article...) -
Image 2The 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...) -
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Jasmin Ouschan (German pronunciation: [ˈjasmɪn ˈɔʊʃan]; born 10 January 1986) is an Austrian professional pool player from Klagenfurt, Carinthia. Her first professional competition occurred in 2002, but she did not officially become a professional member of the Women's Professional Billiards Association (WPBA) until 2007. She is currently one of the top-ranked women in the world according to the 2010 prize money list and by the WPBA rankings. At times, she has been ranked as the number one female player in the world. Since 2006, she has been listed among the top-ten women in the annual prize money rankings. Ouschan competes regularly with men on the Euro Tour and in 2008 became the first woman to earn a medal in an open world pool championship.
In international competition she has earned the World Games 2005 gold medal and World Games 2009 silver medal in nine-ball. , she has earned a total of twenty-nine individual European Pool Championships gold medals (ten in eight-ball, ten in nine-ball, six in straight pool and three in ten-ball) since 1999, including eighteen (four in eight-ball, five in nine-ball, six in straight pool and three in ten-ball) since joining the open Women's division in 2005. She was the Youth European Champion in eight-ball six consecutive years from 1999–2004. (Full article...) -
Image 4Rudolf 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. 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...) -
Image 5The 2019 European Pool Championships (also known as the 2019 Dynamic Billiards European Pool Championships) was a series of professional pool championships that took place at the Best Western Premier in Treviso, Italy. The event was played between 26 April and 8 May 2019 and was the 39th edition of the European Pool Championships that were first held in 1980. The championships saw events for men, women, under 23s and wheelchairs across five disciplines; straight pool, eight-ball, nine-ball, ten-ball and a team event.
Russian players won the most medals over the course of the series, with seven – winning three events. Russia's Kristina Tkach was the most successful female player, winning two events, losing only once in the final of the ten-ball event. Jasmin Ouschan won the nine-ball event, with a whitewash over Nataliya Seroshtan. Finland's Jouni Tähti was the most successful wheelchair player, winning two of the three handicapped events. (Full article...) -
Image 6The 2020 Treviso Open (sometimes known as the 2020 Dynamic Billard Italian Open) was a professional nine-ball pool event, the only Euro Tour tournament held in 2020. The event was played from 20 to 22 February 2020 at the BHR Treviso Hotel in Treviso, Italy. The event had a total prize pool of €38,000, with the winner of each event receiving €4,500.
The defending champion was Konrad Juszczyszyn, who had defeated Ivar Saris in the previous year's final, but was eliminated in the double-elimination round. The men's event was won by Jayson Shaw, who defeated Eklent Kaçi in the final 9–8. Kristina Tkach was the defending champion of the women's event, having defeated Marharyta Fefilava in the previous year's final. Tkach, however, lost in the quarter-finals to Aleksandra Guleikova. Jasmin Ouschan met Guleikova in the final, and won 7–1. Planned future Euro Tour tournaments in 2020 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Full article...) -
Image 7The 2006 UK Championship (officially the 2006 Maplin UK Championship) was the 2006 edition of the UK Championship, a professional snooker tournament that is one of the sport's three Triple Crown events. It was held from 4 to 17 December 2006 at the Barbican Centre in York, North Yorkshire. The competition was the third of seven World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) ranking events in the 2006/2007 season and the 30th edition of the tournament. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom and Europe on the BBC and Eurosport.
Peter Ebdon won the tournament, defeating the five-time UK champion Stephen Hendry 10 frames to 6 in the final. It was Ebdon's first UK Championship win and his seventh career ranking title. He was the ninth player in history to win both the UK Championship and the World Snooker Championship. In the semi-finals Ebdon beat John Higgins 9–7 and Hendry defeated fellow Scot Graeme Dott by the same scoreline. David Gray and Mark King both achieved the tournament's highest breaks with individual breaks of 146. The tournament followed the Grand Prix and preceded the Malta Cup. (Full article...) -
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The 2019 UK Championship (officially the 2019 Betway UK Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 26 November to 8 December 2019 in the Barbican Centre, York, England. The 43rd edition of the UK Championship, it was the seventh ranking tournament and the first Triple Crown event of the 2019–20 season. The event was broadcast on BBC Sport in the United Kingdom and on Eurosport throughout Europe. The tournament was sponsored by betting company Betway.
The defending champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan, had won the previous two championships, defeating Shaun Murphy 10–5 in the 2017 final, and Mark Allen 10–6 in the 2018 final. O'Sullivan was eliminated in the last 16 by Ding Junhui, who won the match 6–4 and proceeded to reach the final of the event, defeating compatriots Liang Wenbo and Yan Bingtao, both 6–2, in the two intervening rounds. Ding's opponent in the final was Stephen Maguire, who had won his semi-final 6–0 against Mark Allen. Ding defeated Maguire 10–6 to win his third UK championship. (Full article...) -
Image 9The 2019 Treviso Open (sometimes known as the 2019 Dynamic Billard Italian Open) was a nine-ball pool tournament, and the second Euro Tour event of the 2019 season. The event was held from 8 to 11 May 2019, at the Best Western Premier BHR Treviso Hotel in Treviso, Italy. The event had a total prize pool of €38,000 with the winner of each event receiving €4,500. The event followed the Leende Open, and preceded the Austria Open.
The event was won by Polish player Konrad Juszczyszyn who defeated the Netherlands' Ivar Saris in the final 9–6. The defending champion was Fedor Gorst from the Netherlands, who defeated Mateusz Śniegocki 9–7 in the 2018 Treviso Open final. However, Gorst failed to progress to the knockout round. Russia's Kristina Tkach was the defending champion of the women's event, having defeated Oliwia Czupryńska in the 2018 final 7–0. Tkach successfully defended the championship, defeating Marharyta Fefilava in the final 7–5. (Full article...) -
Image 10Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle is an action video game in the Danganronpa series, developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. It was released in Japan for iOS and Android platforms in early 2015, and ceased operations later that year. 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 is free to play, and features in-game currency purchased through microtransactions, used to gain access to new content or get advantages in gameplay.
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. By May 2015, over 700,000 user accounts had been registered for the game. (Full article...)
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Image 1A sliding scoreboard, some blocks of cue-tip chalk, white chalk-board chalk, and two cue sticks (from Snooker)
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Image 2The Family Remy by Januarius Zick, c. 1776, featuring billiards among other parlour activities (from Carom billiards)
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Image 3Historic 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 4A complete set of snooker balls (from Snooker)
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Image 5A 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 6A player racking the balls (from Pool (cue sports))
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Image 8alt=Green snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 9A full-size snooker table set up for the start of a game (from Snooker)
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Image 10alt=Brown snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 11alt=Blue snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 12A pool table diagram (from Pool (cue sports))
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Image 14Paul Gauguin's 1888 painting Night Café at Arles includes a depiction of French billiards (from Carom billiards)
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Image 15alt=Red snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 16alt=Black snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 18alt=Yellow snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 19Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the World Championship seven times in the 21st century. (from Snooker)
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Image 23alt=Pink snooker ball (from Snooker)
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Image 24Dutch pool player Niels Feijen at the 2008 European Pool Championship (from Pool (cue sports))
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Image 25Balkline table with standard markings (from Carom billiards)
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Image 26Illustration A: Aerial view of a snooker table with the 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 28A 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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