Billiard and Pool Story

Billiard is a game that is played sometime during the 15^th century in Northern Europe & probably in France. It was played indoors on a wooden table with green cloth, and a simple border was placed around the edges. It is played with the balls and wooden sticks called “maces”. The word “billiard” came from French either from word “billart”, one of the wooden sticks, or “bille”, the ball. Even the word “billiard” was come from French but English is one of the others country often mentioned as countries that possibly invented the game of pool, but each is debatable

The word “pool” means a collective bet. Many none billiard games, such as poker, involve a pool but it was to pocket billiards that the name became attached. The term “poolroom” now means a place where pool is played, but in the 19^th century poolroom was betting parlor for horse racing. The unsavory connotation of “poolroom” came from the betting, not from billiards.

This game was first played with two balls on a table with six pockets with a hoop similar to a croquet wicket and an upright stick was used as a target. During the 18^th century, the hoop and the target gradually disappeared, leaving only the balls and pockets. It was known as the “Noble Game of Billiards” since the early 1800’s. In 1600, the game was familiar enough to the public.

In the late 1600’s, the cue stick was developed, and the mace was no longer to use. For long time only men were allowed to use the cue while women were forced to use the mace because it was felt that they were more likely to rip the cloth with the sharper cue.

After the 1800’s, billiard equipment improved rapidly all over England, because of the Industrial Revolution. The leather cue tip was developed by 1823. Chalk was used to increase friction between the ball and the cue stick even before cues had tips. The two-piece cue arrived in 1829. Slate became popular as a material for table beds around 1835. By 1845 the vulcanization was used to make billiard cushions. By the 1850 the billiard table had essentially evolved into its current form.

From about 1770’s until the 1920’s, the dominant billiard game in Britain was English Billiards, played with three balls and six pockets on a large rectangular table. Before that time, there were no fixed table dimensions. Eight-ball was invented shortly after 1900; Straight Pool followed in 1910. Nine-ball seems to have developed around 1920. Through the 1930’s, both pool and billiards, particularly three-cushion billiards, shared the spotlight.

From 1878 until 1956, pool and billiard championship tournaments were held almost annually, with one-on-one challenge matches filling the remaining months. Billiards was revived by two electrifying events, one in 1961, the other in 1986, by the movies “The Hustler” and its sequel “The Color of Money”.

For over 200 years, women of fashion have played the game. In the past, it was very difficult for a woman to develop billiard skills because male players, her family, and friends usually did not support her efforts and it was not easy to find experienced female instructors or coaches. As these situations have changed, and continue to change, we can expect women equal men in ability and take the game to new heights.