ARMY MAN’S INVENTION

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 184, 19 May 1939, Page 3

ARMY MAN’S INVENTION

GAAIE OF SNOOKER, In tlie “Billiard Player,” Air. Compton Alackeiizie tells how the new popular game of snooker was invented ana got its name. A young subaltern of the Devons, whilst stationed at /Jubbulnore, wanted to vary the monotony of black pool as played on tlie> moss billiard table. FLe suggested adding another coloured ball, and later others were also added. That young subaltern later became Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain. now in his eighty-fourth year, and snooker is b-3 years old. Its name originated thus. One afternoon, when the Devons were, entertaining the gunners, a subaltern of the latter told Sir Neville that first-year Woolwich cadets were called “Snookers,” a corruption oi the original “Neux.” When later somebody muffed a very simple pot, Sir Neville exclaimed: “Why you’re a regular Snooker!” The.name stuck to the game. It was not until the ’eighties, it readied England.,