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Main \\ Outdoor Activities \\ Earth \\ Billiards \\
  The History of the Sport

Billiards as a game ??


We are unable even to state when or where the game was born. The French word 'Bille', meaning a ball, could provide the first syllable of the word 'Billiards'. Charles Cotton, author of 'The Complete Gamester' in 1674 suggests both Spain and Italy. The Encyclopedia Britannica records that a game similar to billiards was seen by a traveller called Anarcharsis in Ancient Greece in 4th Century B.C. Catkire Ore, a King or Ireland during the 2nd Century A.D. reputedly left 55 balls with 'pools' and cues of the same material.


We have evidence that the game existed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. In Shakespeare's play 'Anthony & Cleopatra' Cleopatra says to her handmaiden "Let us to Billiards". This is, of course, merely proof that the game existed at the time of Shakespeare and cannot be treated as evidence that the game was played by the Egyptians or Romans !


The situation is further confused as two distinct variations of the game exist. In areas of the world where the British have settled, the game of Billiards consists of three balls, and is played on a table with six pockets. The European influenced game, more commonly known as Carom, also consists of three balls but with the object being to use one ball to strike both other balls - this is known as a cannon in the British game - and the table has no pockets. The Spanish supposedly introduced the game (on the pocketless table) to Florida in approximately 1565 and a 'Billiards Table' in the U.S.A. has no pockets. Pool is therefore played on a 'Pocket Billiard Table'.


Over the years, three distinct types of table have flourished. The Carom table, which is used for the game of the same name, the Pool table used for the game of the same name, and the Snooker (or Billiard) Table which can be used for the games of Pool, Snooker, and Billiards.


The most commonly held belief is that Billiards is related to the game of Croquet, which consisted of a hoop, a king post and an implement used to propel the balls. The game was brought indoors and was raised to table height for convenience as evidenced by the engraving by Trouvain, housed by the National Library of Paris, which depicts King Louis XIV playing a table version of the game, still consisting of the hoop, king peg, balls, and an implement used to propel the balls.


The tables were of light construction with beds consisting of wood panelling. The surface of the table was covering in rough cloth, coloured green (probably to imitate the game played on grass), and the table had a rim to prevent the balls falling from the table. The implements used to propel the balls were known as 'maces', the forebear of the cue.


How the game further developed by the loss of the hoop and the king post (all types of the game) and the introduction of the pockets (the British version) is not documented, and further explanation would be totally speculative.

Origins - Ground Billiards
Port and King Billiards

During the middle-ages and even back to ancient Egypt, many sports were played with balls, clubs, maces or bats and skittles. There are ancient pictures depicting games that are clearly the forerunner of modern Skittles (Americans will know this as 10 pin bowling), Bowls, Quoits and Tennis, for instance.

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At some point in the 1400s, people began to play a version of Ground Billiards indoors on a table as well. It"s likely that the green cloth was supposed to represent the lawn from which the game had been stolen.

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The sub-families of Billiards
Billiards in the USA

The story of billiards in all it"s varieties and with a complete lack of any accepted standards was far from clear up to this point but around now began drifting down several differentiable paths.

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How billiards came to America has not been positively established. There are tales that it was brought to St. Augustine by the Spaniards in the 1580"s but research has failed to reveal any trace of the game there.

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Women in billiards

Until very recently, billiards was completely dominated by men. The atmosphere of the poolroom was very forbidding and a woman would have had trouble being accepted there.

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