Nearest play it again sports
This article covers the word as an umbrella term for cue sports in general. Billiards nearest play it again sports the 1620s was played with a port, a king pin, pockets, and maces. The modern term cue sports can be used to encompass the ancestral mace games, and even the modern cueless variants, such as finger billiards, for historical reasons.
A recognizable form of billiards was played outdoors in the 1340s, and was reminiscent of croquet. Billiards grew to the extent that by 1727, it was being played in almost every Paris café. In England, the game was developing into a very popular activity for members of the gentry. The footless, straight cue as it is known today was finally developed by about 1800. Initially, the mace was used to push the balls, rather than strike them. The newly developed striking cue provided a new challenge.
Cushions began to be stuffed with substances to allow the balls to rebound, in order to enhance the appeal of the game. After a transitional period where only the better players would use cues, the cue came to be the first choice of equipment. The demand for tables and other equipment was initially met in Europe by John Thurston and other furniture makers of the era. The early balls were made from wood and clay, but the rich preferred to use ivory. The early croquet-like games eventually led to the development of the carom billiards category. In the United States, pool and billiards had died out for a bit, but between 1878 and 1956 the games became very popular.
Players in annual championships began to receive their own cigarette cards. This was mainly due to the fact that it was a popular pastime for troops to take their minds off from battle. However, by the end of World War II, pool and billiards began to die down once again. The games with regulated international professional competition, if not others, have been referred to as “sports” or “sporting” events, not simply “games”, since 1893 at the latest. Snooker, though a pocket billiards variant and closely related in its equipment and origin to the game of English billiards, is a professional sport organized at an international level, and its rules bear little resemblance to those of modern pool, pyramid, and other such games.
A “Billiards” category encompassing pool, snooker, and carom has been part of the World Games since 2001. Billiard balls vary from game to game, in size, design and quantity. Carom billiards balls are larger than pool balls, having a diameter of 61. They are used principally in Britain, Ireland, and some Commonwealth countries, though not exclusively, since they are unsuited for playing nine-ball. The diameter varies but is typically slightly smaller than that of standard solids-and-stripes sets. Snooker balls are smaller than American-style pool balls with a diameter of 52.
Other games, such as bumper pool, have custom ball sets. Billiard balls have been made from many different materials since the start of the game, including clay, bakelite, celluloid, crystallite, ivory, plastic, steel and wood. The dominant material from 1627 until the early 20th century was ivory. There are many sizes and styles of billiard tables.
Generally, tables are rectangles twice as long as they are wide. Table sizes are typically referred to by the nominal length of their longer dimension. Formerly, ten-foot pool tables were common, but such tables are now considered antiques. The slates on modern carom tables are usually heated to stave off moisture and provide a consistent playing surface. Smaller bar tables are most commonly made with a single piece of slate. Women playing on an elaborately decorated green-covered table in an early 1880s advertising poster. Cloth has been used to cover billiards tables since the 15th century.
