In 1985, an estimated 18.5 million viewers stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch the conclusion of the World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, a record viewership in the UK for any broadcast on BBC Two or any broadcast after midnight. UK-the BBC dedicated 400 hours to snooker in 2007, compared to just 14 minutes 40 years earlier. 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. Regardless of when and by what route it reached the British Isles and the British colonies in its recognizable form, croquet is, like pall-mall and trucco, among the later forms of ground billiards, which as a class have been popular in Western Europe back to at least the Late Middle Ages, with roots in classical antiquity, including sometimes the use of arches and pegs along with balls and mallets or other striking sticks (some more akin to modern field hockey sticks).

Players including 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy have claimed that a 128-player professional tour is financially unsustainable. To be so near happiness, so near fame, so near the long paragraph in praise of the private theatricals at Ecclesford, the seat of the Right Hon. Lord Ravenshaw, in Cornwall, which would of course have immortalised the whole party for at least a twelvemonth! The prize money for professional events increased, with the top players earning several million pounds over the course of their careers. A report by the WCF Ranking Review Committee (2008) which looks at the use of the ranking system for selecting players for top events. In the 2022-23 season, only two professional ranking tournaments were played outside the UK, the European Masters in Fürth and the German Masters in Berlin, while lucrative Chinese events remained off the calendar. Over the following decade, the number of professional tournaments increased, with 44 events held in the 2019-20 season.

Davis won all fifteen tournaments held until 1946, when he retired from the championships. In an effort to boost popularity of snooker, Davis introduced a variation known as "snooker plus" in 1959, which added two extra colours, but this version of the game was short-lived. If successful, the value of the potted colour is added to the player's score, and the ball is returned to its designated spot on the table. A standard full-size snooker table measures 12 ft × 6 ft (365.8 cm × 182.9 cm), with a rectangular playing surface measuring 11 ft 8.5 in × 5 ft 10.0 in (356.9 cm × 177.8 cm). The playing surface is surrounded by small cushions along each side of the table. Some shots may require the use of props such as a small pin placed precisely on the table surface and around which the player is required to make the cue ball pass on a designated side (see Figure A10 illustration).

The height of the table from the floor to the top of the cushions is 2 ft 10.0 in (86.4 cm). A Women's Professional Snooker Championship (now the World Women's Snooker Championship) was created in 1934 for top female players. Mark has offered in-person billiards lessons to some of the top players in the world. Bright colors like yellow stimulate mental activity and can make players more alert. In general, bright red, bright yellow, and solid black are considered the worst colors for pool table felt. Snooker accessories include: chalk for the tip of the cue, used to help apply spin on the cue ball; various sorts of rest, such as the swan or spider for playing shots that are difficult to play by hand; extensions for lengthening the cue stick; a triangle for racking the reds; and a scoreboard which is typically attached to a wall near the snooker table. The nap affects the speed and trajectory of the balls, depending on the direction of the shot and whether any side spin is placed on the ball.

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