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.
Stephen Lee is an English former professional snooker player. He turned professional in 1992, reached a career-high of fifth in the snooker world rankings for the 2000–01 season, and won five ranking titles. His best performances in Triple Crown events were reaching the semi-finals of the 2003 World Championship, where he lost to eventual champion Mark Williams, and reaching the final of the 2008 Masters, where he was runner-up to Mark Selby. He compiled 184 century breaks in professional competition and was noted for his smooth cue action.
Terence Martin Griffiths was a Welsh professional snooker player, coach and pundit. After winning several amateur titles, including the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1975 and back-to-back English Amateur Championships in 1977 and 1978, Griffiths turned professional in June 1978 at the age of 30.
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.
Liang Wenbo is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate Ding Junhui, and was runner-up at the 2009 Shanghai Masters and the 2015 UK Championship. He made 292 century breaks in professional competition, including three maximum breaks, and reached a career high of 11th in the snooker world rankings.
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.
Michael White is a Welsh former professional snooker player from Neath, Glamorgan. Nicknamed ‘Lightning’ due to his fast playing style, he won two ranking titles during his career.
Jamie Jones is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath. At the age of 14 he was the youngest ever player to make a maximum 147 break in competition, a record that has since been beaten by Judd Trump. At the 2012 World Snooker Championship, Jones reached his first ranking quarter-final. He made his second appearance in the quarter-finals of a Triple Crown tournament at the 2016 UK Championship.
Jak Jones is a Welsh professional snooker player.
Lu Ning is a former professional snooker player from the People's Republic of China who, in 2023, was banned from professional competition for five years and four months after committing match-fixing offences.
Zhao Xintong is a Chinese snooker player. Zhao won the 2021 UK Championship, but received a 20-month ban from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association after committing offences relating to betting on snooker in 2023. This ban expired on 1 September 2024.
Yan Bingtao is a Chinese former professional snooker player who is currently serving a five-year ban from professional competition after committing a range of match-fixing offences. He rose to prominence by winning the ISBF World Snooker Championship, the sport's world amateur title, in 2014 at age 14, which made him the tournament's youngest ever winner. He turned professional in 2016.
Jamie Clarke is a Welsh professional snooker player.
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.
Tyler Rees is a Welsh amateur snooker player. He was Under-18 European Snooker Champion in 2016.
Joe O'Connor is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. He was the 2018 English Amateur Champion and a ranking event finalist at the 2022 Scottish Open.
Bai Yulu is a Chinese snooker player. A former world junior champion, she is the reigning women's world champion, having won the 2024 World Women's Snooker Championship. The first player from mainland China to win the women's world title, she received a two-year tour card to the main professional World Snooker Tour from the start of the 2024–25 snooker season. At the 2024 UK Championship, Bai became the first female player to win three matches at a professional ranking event.
The 2021–22 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played from July 2021 to May 2022, including the professional World Snooker Tour but also featuring events for female, senior, and Q School players. The season saw a record five players claim their first professional ranking titles: David Gilbert, Zhao Xintong, Hossein Vafaei, Fan Zhengyi, and Robert Milkins. Nutcharut Wongharuthai won her first World Women's Snooker Championship, becoming the only player besides Reanne Evans and Ng On-yee to win the women's world title in 19 years. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the World Snooker Championship, equalling Stephen Hendry's modern era record of seven world titles and becoming the oldest world champion in snooker history at the age of 46 years and 148 days. Lee Walker won his first World Seniors Championship.
Terence Parsons was a former Welsh amateur snooker player. He won five Welsh national snooker championship titles and an Amateur World Championship title during his professional career. He became a Welsh national champion in 1961, 1965, 1969, 1982 and 1984 and won the World Amateur Snooker Championship in 1982 at the age of 47.
The 2023–24 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played from 26 June 2023 to 26 May 2024.
Alex Taubman