Snooker 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 6 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.
A maximum break 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 or a 300 game in ten-pin bowling.
Desmond Rex Williams is an English retired professional billiards and snooker player. He was the second player to make an official maximum break in snooker, achieving this in an exhibition match in December 1965. Williams won the World Professional Billiards Championship from Clark McConachy in 1968, the first time that the title had been contested since 1951. Williams retained the title in several challenge matches in the 1970s and, after losing it to Fred Davis in 1980, regained it from 1982 to 1983.
Clive Harold Everton was an English-born Welsh sports commentator, journalist, author and professional snooker and English billiards player. He founded Snooker Scene magazine, which was first published in 1971, and continued as editor until September 2022. He authored over twenty books about cue sports from 1972 onwards.
The International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) is an organisation that governs non-professional snooker and English billiards around the world. As of January 2020, the organisation is headquartered in Doha, Qatar.
Ryan Day is a Welsh professional snooker player. He is a prolific break-builder, having compiled over 450 century breaks during his career, including four maximum breaks. He is a three-time World Championship quarter-finalist, has been ranked at no. 6 in the world and has won four ranking tournaments.
The 1990 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 13 and 29 April 1990 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the ninth and final world ranking tournament of the 1989–90 snooker season following the European Open. Featuring a total prize fund of £620,000, the winner received £120,000; and was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
In snooker, a century break is a break of 100 points or more, compiled in one visit to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a mark of the highest skill in snooker. Ronnie O'Sullivan has described a player's first century break as the "ultimate milestone for any snooker player". Joe Davis made the first televised century break in 1962.
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards. It is headquartered in Bristol, England. Founded as the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) in 1946, with Joe Davis as chairman, it was revived in 1968 after some years of inactivity and renamed the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association in 1970. Its current chairman is Jason Ferguson.
John Williams is a retired Welsh snooker referee. He refereed eleven World Snooker Championship finals, nine at the Crucible Theatre, including the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis – the most watched snooker match in history. Having begun refereeing in the 1960s, Williams left the civil service in 1981 to work as a referee full-time. Having the chance to referee tournaments at Pontins, he quickly took charge and organised the events for many years. He gained national attention following a match between Fred Davis and Alex Higgins where the roof collapsed after rainfall and flooded the snooker table. Williams was pictured in many national newspapers after the event, resulting in more television coverage.
Ng On-yee is a Hong Kong snooker player who has won three IBSF World Snooker Championships and three World Women's Snooker world championships. She held the number one position in the World Women's Snooker world ranking list from February 2018 to April 2019.
The 2012 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 21 April to 7 May 2012 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 36th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible and the last ranking event of the 2011–12 snooker season. The event was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and in Europe by Eurosport.
The World Women's Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament on the World Women's Snooker Tour. Staged 41 times since the inaugural edition in 1976, it has produced 15 different champions, six of whom have won the title more than once.
The 2019 World Seniors Championship was a snooker tournament, that took place from 15 to 18 August 2019 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the first event of the 2019–20 World Seniors Tour. It was the tenth World Seniors Championship, first held in 1991. The event had a total prize fund of £63,500 up from £18,000 the previous year, with £15,000 more for the winner, at £25,000.
Si Jiahui is a Chinese professional snooker player. After training at the Wiraka Billiard Academy in Foshan, he moved to the United Kingdom aged 16 and earned a two-year tour card through the 2019 Q School for the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons. He lost his tour card after ending the 2020–21 season outside the top 64 in the world rankings, and competed as an amateur during the 2021–22 season, during which he defeated Shaun Murphy 6–5 in the first round of the 2021 UK Championship. After rejoining the professional tour at the start of the 2022–23 season, he reached his first ranking quarter-final at the 2022 European Masters.
Professional tournaments in table-top cue sports took place in 2020. These events include snooker, pool disciplines and billiards. Whilst these are traditionally singles sports, some matches and tournaments are held as doubles or as teams. The snooker season runs between May and April, whilst the pool and billiards seasons is listed over the calendar year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was disrupted with many events being cancelled or postponed. Cue sports events were played in January and February, before tournaments were discontinued for all disciplines due to the pandemic, returning in June without an audience.
The 2020 World Seniors Championship was a snooker tournament that took place from 19 to 22 August 2020 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The last event of the 2019–20 World Seniors Tour, it was the 11th edition of the World Seniors Championship, first held in 1991. The event was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was broadcast by the BBC. The event featured sixteen players in a single-elimination tournament.
The 2022 World Seniors Championship was a snooker tournament that took place from 4 to 8 May 2022 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The event was the 13th edition of the World Seniors Championship, first held in 1991, and was organised by the World Seniors Tour, which is open to players over 40 who are not in the top 64 of the world rankings. Qualifying rounds were held from 14 to 19 December 2021 and 8 to 13 February 2022 at the Crucible Sports and Social Club in Reading. Players who had qualified for that season's cancelled Seniors Masters and Seniors Irish Masters events—Bob Chaperon, Wayne Cooper, Gary Filtness, Michael Judge, Rory McLeod, Darren Morgan, and Patrick Wallace—were invited to compete at the World Seniors Championship instead. Referees for the event were Roy Gannon, Leo Scullion, Michaela Tabb, and Andy Yates.
Robbie McGuigan is a professional snooker player from Northern Ireland. In 2023, he became a three-time Northern Ireland Amateur champion, whilst still a teenager.
Junaid Ahmed (IND)
Gergő Almási (HUN)
Erik Amberg (GER)
Andrew Barklam (ENG)
Desislava Bozhilova (BUL)
Terry Camilleri (MLT)
Alex Crișan (ROU)
Kevin Dabrowski (POL)
Robin Dalgliesh (SCO)
Nico De Vos (BEL)
Deng Shihao (CHN)
Sami Erkkilä (FIN)
Natalia Gradinari (MDA)
Kim Ivett (AUS)
John Pellew (WAL)
Erich Pließnig (AUT)
Eva Poskočilová (CZE)
André Santos (PRT)
Marek Sedmak (SVK)
Anastasiya Tuzikava (BLR)
Jan Verhaas (NED)
