THE ORIGIN of SNOOKER : the NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN STORY by Peter Ainsworth

THE ORIGIN OF SNOOKER : THE NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN STORY by Peter Ainsworth he game of snooker was fellows, it is just the same as shell-out only these Tinvented by Neville other balls are put on the spots up the centre of the Chamberlain in 1875. Everyone table.” knows that. Or to be more precise, this is today’s The gambling element involved in Sheldrick’s game commonly accepted theory. gives a clue to the reason for its rapid rise in popularity. But prior to 1938 there was an Imagine playing a game of four-handed snooker where equally accepted theory that for every point you scored, you were paid £1 by each the game been introduced by of the other players! The variation in the value of the a “Colonel Snooker” of the balls appealed to both the skilful and the lucky in a Royal Artillery. Then came the way which could not be matched by any other Pool Neville Chamberlain game being played on a billiard table at that time. Even in 1883 momentous day when Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald this strange version has characteristics which clearly Chamberlain at last responded to the umpteenth letter link it to the modern game having a pyramid of reds to speculating on the game’s origins and staked his own which was added Yellow, Brown, Green & Black balls claim, which was published in The Field on 19th March which were “put on the spots up the centre of the table”. 1938. This was apparently provoked by another claim There are additional references which appear to take in the same magazine, that the game had been Captain Sheldrick’s game back to 1884 when it was invented at “The Shop”, a term used to describe the being played elsewhere amongst the British Army in Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. India. Neville Chamberlain waited for an amazingly long time The first reliable reference to the game of snooker being before revealing himself as the Father of the game. played in England comes in the columns of the Sporting Despite unremitting speculation on the subject since Life in 1887 and further details appear two years later the game became popular in England in the late 1880’s, in a book by Maj-Gen A. W. Drayson who, in addition Chamberlain waited until he was in his 83rd year to to instruction on the game of billiards, describes a reveal that he created the game of snooker in 1875, variation of the game of “Snooker’s Pool”, which is some 63 years previously! easily recognisable as the modern game. Drayson says “This game, which is not as yet generally known, However, there are some serious inconsistencies in or much played, is an amusing extension of the game the account provided by Chamberlain which could of pyramids.” He mentions in his book that the benefit from closer examination. copyright to the rules of the game belonged to the billiard table manufacturer, Burroughes & Watts. The Earliest References he earliest contemporary reference which can be From other sources, there is also a reference to a set of rules being developed by John Dowland, a minor accurately dated and gives a detailed account of T professional in the mid-1880s. He was also credited the game of “Snookers” appears in a letter written on by some early writers with the game’s invention, but 2nd February 1886 by Captain Sheldrick from Calcutta. hard facts regarding this claim are difficult to discover, This ancient mariner describes a game already popular and even though Dowland was known to be connected at his club in Rangoon (Burma), which was directly with the firm of Burroughes & Watts prior to his death under the control of the British Army in India at that in 1901, no evidence exists of his involvement with time. He describes the game as follows: snooker which pre-dates that of Neville Chamberlain. “At our club in Rangoon we play a game called Chamberlain’s Game Snookers a first rate game, any amount of fun in it, he similarity of the above games to the version especially if one of you get snookgered <sic>. The T played today is important, because the game way it is played is the same as Shell-out but you put described in Chamberlain’s letter to The Field is not in the Yellow, Brown, Green & Black balls, if you take even remotely similar to modern snooker. Describing events in the Officers’ Mess of the 11th Devonshire the Yellow it is double the ordinary life, if the Brown Regiment, at Jubbulpore in 1875, he says: treble, if the Green four times, & if the Black 5 times “One day it occurred to me that the game of black as much as the ordinary life, of course you must pot a pool, which we usually played, would be improved if red ball in before you can play on one of the other we put down another coloured ball in addition to the beggars but some times you run in of <sic> one of black one. This proved a success, and, by degrees, them and got to pay up the price of the ball it is 2, 3, the other coloured balls of higher value followed suit.” 4th or 5th ball. You ought to start that game old man it There is a fundamental problem here which requires will take first rate I should think with lots of young an understanding of the types of game played on a Rev: 26th September 2006 Page 1 of 8 billiard table at that time. Next to billiards, the most The answer is that it received some very influential popular game on a billiard table would have been “Pool”. support from the famous author and playwright, This game actually derives from the earliest form of Compton Mackenzie. billiards which had only two balls (no red) and the Shortly after Chamberlain’s letter appeared in The Field players would each take a ball and try to pot each Mackenzie wrote to The Billiard Player reproducing other. Pool was (in 1875) a game which would regularly the claim and leaving it in no doubt that it carried his involve up to a dozen players, each having their own full support, describing it as “incontrovertible evidence”. cue-ball and taking turns to try and pot each other in a The letter which appeared in the April 1939 issue of fixed rotation. Those potted would lose a “life” and pay the magazine, received a similar endorsement by the a monetary forfeit. After losing a number of “lives” a Editor, Harold Lewis, so effectively closing the player was eliminated from the game. To differentiate discussion. It will be noticed that Mackenzie had seen between each player’s ball, they were first numbered it prudent to change the words in Chamberlain’s original (in pencil) then coloured by staining with a dye. The letter to The Field so that range of coloured balls, and the sequence they were instead of Chamberlain played, were initially: White, Red, Yellow, Green, and adding “other coloured balls Brown. The Blue, Pink and Black balls were of higher value” we are now subsequently added to this series, and would have given to understand that been available around this time. Additional players “others of different values could be added to the game by starting this colour were gradually added”. It is rotation again with balls marked by a “cross” or “spot”. not inconceivable that A number of variations of essentially this same game Mackenzie knew exactly were played. Amongst these was the “Black Pool” what he was doing in mentioned by Chamberlain. This varied from the basic making the change, the game only in that the black ball was neutral. It was only passage in placed on the centre spot and a player would be entitled Chamberlain’s original to shoot at it only after he had potted his allocated account which was altered. Compton Mackenzie ball. Mackenzie had a good knowledge of pool games, It becomes apparent from this, that there are two major having his own table at his home on the Isle of Barra problems with Chamberlain’s description of the birth in the Hebrides, where he regularly entertained friends and development of the game of “Snooker”. Firstly, with a game of “Indian Pool” more commonly known there is no single cue-ball used, with each player using as “Slosh”. He must surely have researched the story one of the balls on the table as his own, and secondly and been satisfied with its authenticity? Well, perhaps, there is no reference to a pack of red balls. It may be but if so, he certainly didn’t devote much time to the assumed that the reds were added later had not exercise. His autobiography tell us that Mackenzie Chamberlain said that the balls added were of a “higher only learned of the claim in the early part of 1939 when value” and significantly, the red ball was already details were given to him by Mr John Bisset, the established in the sequence of the Pool, being the Chairman of the Billiards Association & Control very first colour to be used in the standard sequence. Council. Chamberlain had apparently written to the BA&CC to register his claim and the papers had lain The Pyramids Variation on Bisset’s desk for some time while he was wondering here were many other variations of Pool games what to do with them. In January 1939, Bisset invited Tbeing played in 1875, which were distinguished Compton Mackenzie to present the trophy to the by the basic principle of each player using his own winner of the World Professional Snooker cue-ball.

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