Gerald Njuguna asked:


Nobody really knows the origins of billiards. The common belief is that the game originated as a game that was played outdoors which was a bit different from croquet that was played early in the 14th century in France. Its said it became quite popular and when the cold weather did not allow the game to be enjoyed outside, it moved indoors and was played on a table that was covered with green felt.

Do you know that when Mary, Queen of Scots, died, she was wrapped in a billiard cloth? Did you also know that pool was the first sport to have a world championship game in 1873? Interesting huh

There are well know historical figures that loved the billiard game. These include King Louise X1V and wife Marie Antoinette, Mozart, Abe Lincoln, Napoleon and George Washington among others.

Back then, billiard balls were made from ivory and were usually carved out from the center of an elephant’s tusk. The elephant tusks could only give you three to 4 billiard balls.

The pool game is said to have the highest average age among its players at about 35 yrs and also said to be one of the safest game in the world

“Billiard” was coined from the French word “billart” that means mace. The mace was a stick with a handle that started to be used with the game called croquet.

It was illegal

In its earliest history, the pool game was outlawed in certain. Its funny that the church in France considered pool as immoral. In the nineteenth century in America, the word “pool” room was used to mean a parlor room for horse race betting and was banned in a number of states in America.

Its said that Thomas Jefferson had a pool table that he hid in his home in Virginia. Nowadays, the terms pool room and billiard room mean the same thing.



Brad

Josephine Thunder asked:


8-ball is the most popular billiard game in the world. It is so popular, that 8-ball pool is almost a synonym for billiards. However, 8-ball is only a part of a one big happy family of billiard games.

8-ball pool, 9-ball pool, snooker, one pocket, balkline are all cue sports games. They all share a rectangular cloth-covered table, a long cue stick, a set of balls and an ambition to score, but they differ in their rules, objects, and even their terminology.

Generally, billiard games divide into two types: pocket billiard games and carom billiard games. Pocket billiard games, usually referred to as pool games, are the type of billiard played on a table that has six pockets. In pocket billiard games, the players aspire to sink the balls into the table pockets, according to specific games rules.

Carom billiard games, on the other hand, are played on pocketless tables. Only three billiard balls are involved in the carom games. The purpose of the players in most carom games is to maneuver their cue ball so it will carom off the other two balls, again, according to the specific requirements of the game.

8-ball pool is a pocket billiard game. Other popular pocket billiard games include 9-ball pool, 14.1 continuous (formerly known as straight pool) and even snooker. Snooker is the most popular cue sports in the UK. Even though snooker is played on a pocketed pool table, it is not governed by the same association that administrates pocket billiard rules. Therefore, pocket billiard general rules do not apply to snooker.

The equipment used in snooker games is also different from the one used in pocket billiard tournaments. For example, the snooker table is a bit larger than the standard pool table plus its pockets are narrower. The terminology used in both billiard games is different as well. While pool players’ goal is to “pocket” the “object balls”, snooker players aim to “pot” the “red” or the “on-ball”.



Cathy

April Kerr asked:


Billiard or pool is probably the most popular indoor game that is often played in the clubs and offices. As a matter of fact this game has gained huge popularity all over the world and this is the reason why you will find tournaments and competitions of billiard taking place everywhere. A billiard table and cue are the two indispensable tools for a game of billiard. Now the quality of these two instruments has huge impact on the player’s performance. So these two things have to the best of the lot.

Buying a Billiard Table

It is not at all an easy job to buy a billiard table. There are quite a few factors that you need to take care of in order to make sure that you are picking up the best piece. The important facts about a billiard table are its size, shape and price. Moreover you need to purchase a table that will fit the place where you keep it. If you are going to purchase the table for using it at home then make sure that you have a sufficiently spacious room to accommodate the table. It also matters a lot whether you are going to place the table at a corner of the room or in the centre.

The door size of the room needs to be wide enough to let the table get into it. There are various places from where you can buy a billiard table. Often you get to see advertisements in the newspapers where they want to sell used or new tables. If you have enough money to spend fro your hobby of Billiard then the best option is to go for a new one. If at all there is budget constraint then a used one in a good condition is not bad at all.

How to Buy a Billiard Cue and Balls?

The billiard cues and the balls are as essential as the table is. As a matter of fact if the cues and the balls are of cheaper quality then the chances of the games getting spoiled is very high. All the billiard players have the same opinion that the balls and the cues should be perfect for a good game. Now you need to take care of some features while buying the cues for your personal collection.

First of all hold the cues in hand and try out some shots with it just to make sure that you are getting the right feel about them. If you are a seasoned player of billiard then you will understand the quality from the first touch. Then you need to know if the sticks are perfectly straight or not. If at all they are defective in any ways then the shots will never be perfect.

So if you want to play billiards and be the best player you can, always choose your billiard table and cues carefully.



Gertrude

Josy Kinney asked:


Billiard balls are available in a multitude of colors and these colors make them stand out beautifully against the green background of the pool table top. All other games that use a ball to play with, stick to one color. But in billiards you have a myriad of colors that are used. Some games are played with all the balls while others are played with a fixed number and color of balls. One such game is Carom, which uses three balls and this game is played without pockets. One of the three balls is red and the other two are either white or yellow. One of the yellow or white balls has a black dot on it. In Carom, the red ball is called the object ball and one white ball is used as the cue ball.

In the USA, pocket billiards is known as pool, so the billiard balls are called pool balls. Pool balls are the most eye catching sports utilities. Most billiard halls believe that the wide range of colors of the billiard balls adds to the enjoyment of the game. You name it and you will probably find a billiard ball in that color from yellow, burgundy, black, orange, purple, blue to red; they have them all. And if all the mono colors were not enough they also have them in double colors. The contrast they create when placed against a green back give the game an aesthetic value of sorts.

To a regular person, the color of the balls is the only difference between them, but a professional pool player will be quick to point out the various differences between different types of pool balls. To a novice player, most of these may not make sense in the beginning but a seasoned player will tell you that the weight of a pool ball is what separates it from the other pool balls. The weight of the pool ball is largely responsible for its performance. As you get better at your game you will realize the difference that the weight of the pool ball makes to your game.

Most pool balls also have a number on them. The balls used for Carom are not numbered but others are. The single colored balls are called solids while the double colored balls are called stripes. For example you may have a yellow ball with the number 1 written on it, the blue and white ball will be ten and a combination of green and white is number fourteen. The normal billiard balls used in most games are smaller than the ones used for Carom. There are also billiard balls available for training. These are marked with target rings that tell the new player exactly where he/ she needs to strike

When not in use, the balls are generally stored in the ball rack. In carom, since the game is played without pockets the balls stay on the table till the end of the game. But in pocket billiards the balls that fall into the pockets, pass through a trough into a collection area where they are held for further use. Today billiard balls are made out of Phenolin resin or polyester and acrylic. These materials make the billiard balls strong enough to sustain shots without chipping or cracking. But before the introduction of synthetic polymers, billiard balls were made out of clay or wood. The rich were known to use ivory balls, but they were a far cry from the durable and colorful billiard balls available today.



Leo

Jimmy Cox asked:


Billiards is essentially a game of precision, and to play it at all well you must have the right implements to play with. A cue of your own is not a luxury, it is a necessity. It is no use trying to play billiards – ‘on a cloth untrue, with a twisted cue, and elliptical billiard balls,’ – as W. S. Gilbert has it.

Of late years, Willie Smith has set the fashion for a heavy cue tipped with a brass ferrule. His cue weighs 18 oz. John Roberts said: As regards the weight of a cue, I think 15 oz. to 16 oz. is heavy enough for anyone.

The length of a cue should be from 4 feet 8| inches to 4 feet 9 inches. Tom Newman uses a 17-oz. cue measuring 4 feet 10 inches in length, and as Smith’s is heavier still, it is evident that the best of modern billiardists favour distinctly heavier cues than were used by the old past master of the game

Weight and Length of Cue

I advise my readers to be up to date as regards using a cue of useful weight. The reason is mainly this – one of the principal things in billiard playing is to ‘let the weight of the cue do the work.’ Therefore, provided it does not feel clumsy and awkward in your hand, you should select a cue which is heavy rather than light. Then the ‘weight of the cue’ will do all the ‘work’ you want it to perform ; there is a lot more in this than you may think.

A point in favour of a fairly heavy cue is that, if it is made as it should be, it will have enough wood in it to be stiff. And the stiffer a billiard cue is, the better it is. A cue which shakes and quivers as it strikes a ball is good for but one thing – to lend to the man you want to beat.

Pick a cue with a fair-sized tip, have it fitted with a brass ferrule, and polish it with a dry cloth, plain paper, or constant play, the latter preferred. If you are in the habit of sandpapering the woodwork of your cue, buy a cheap one, the cheaper the better, because it will only be fit for firewood before long, and it is a mistake to pay too much to keep the home fires burning. In any other case, pay enough for your cue to get one of the best from a firm of standing and reputation.

Balls, Ivory and Composition

As regards balls, there is no getting away from the fact that ivory balls are the only kind officially recognized for the championships, which makes them the standard ball for billiards

There is nothing else for it, as far as I can see. Ivory balls really worth playing with are an expensive luxury, and a set of ivories fit for first-class play is worth a fancy price. The fact of the matter is that ivory suitable for billiard ball manufacture must be getting more and more scarce every year, while the demand is at least as great as ever

A time must come, and I think it will arrive sooner than many people think, when the law of supply and demand will bring composition balls on the table for championship billiards. The question is one for the Billiards Association and Control Council, and I should like to hint that the makers of composition balls would assist their own interests if they conducted exhaustive experiments to produce a ball which comes off at as near the ivory angle as possible, and is less apt to pick up dirt than composition balls usually are.

Once you have the proper cue and ball as outlined above, there will be no stopping you, and you will quickly learn to become a very good billiards player!



Leo

Nicky Meintjies asked:


The arrangement of billiard balls on the green bed of a pool table just before the break shot is sheer beauty. No other ball game offers so much color and variety as billiards does. In the game of Carom, a type of billiards played without pockets on the table, only three balls are used. One is a red ball and the other two are white balls with one of the white balls marked with a black dot. Sometimes a yellow ball is used instead of a white ball. The red ball is known as the “object ball”. The white ball is the “cue ball” for the first player. The yellow or the dotted white ball is the cue ball of the second player.

Billiard balls are also popularly known as “pool balls” because the game of pocket billiard is popular in the USA as “pool”. Pool balls are the snazziest of all billiard balls. Billiard halls prefer pool balls for the vibrant range of colors they come in. Yellow, blue, red, orange, purple, burgundy, green, black, and a combination of red and white, blue and white, yellow and white, orange and white, and purple and white – all these are the possible colors of billiard balls. They stand in good contrast to the green turf of the table.

When it comes to Billiard balls, you will find that there is a variety of differences between some of them. The obvious one is the difference in colour and stripes. Then there is the weight. While your average player will not even notice this, you can expect a professional pool player to notice not only the weight but the improvement that this factor makes to their playing. As your playing improves, you will also find that this makes quite of a big difference when playing the game.

Each pool ball also carries a number. Carom balls are not numbered. The balls with single colors are called solids and the others with two colors are called stripes. For instance, the yellow ball is number one, the blue and white ball is number ten and the green and white balls is number fourteen. Carom balls are slightly bigger than the pool balls. Training billiard balls are marked with target rings making it possible for the novice player to judge better about at which angle the ball needs to be struck.

When not in play billiard balls are kept in a ball rack. Billiard balls stay on the table until the end in a game of carom. In a game of pocket billiards the balls that fall in to the pockets are lead through the troughs and are collected to be in to play again. The earliest billiard balls were made up of wood and clay balls. Those that could afford it played with ivory balls. These days high quality billiard balls are made to withstand strong shots without chipping and cracking. Most billiard balls available in the market are made of Phenolin resin or polyester and acrylic.



Tiffany