Australian snooker

[Archivist]

Hi everyone,
I'm reaching out to snooker fans in Australia for some help. I'm trying to find out which Australian snooker rules were used in tournaments up until the mid-twenties of the 20th century. The main difference from the official snooker rules is that you can pocket a coloured ball any number of times in a row after a red ball. I've heard from someone who was in Australia a few years ago that some clubs that were opened over a hundred years ago still have the rules as souvenirs or rarities. I've got lots of confirmation of the existence of these rules (from newspapers and magazines of the time), but no full text. Could anyone help me find the full text of the rules?

[robbo mcs]

Hi everyone,
I'm reaching out to snooker fans in Australia for some help. I'm trying to find out which Australian snooker rules were used in tournaments up until the mid-twenties of the 20th century. The main difference from the official snooker rules is that you can pocket a coloured ball any number of times in a row after a red ball. I've heard from someone who was in Australia a few years ago that some clubs that were opened over a hundred years ago still have the rules as souvenirs or rarities. I've got lots of confirmation of the existence of these rules (from newspapers and magazines of the time), but no full text. Could anyone help me find the full text of the rules?

I'm in Australia, and have never heard of that, or seen such rules.

There is a very good website run by the National Library that lets you search all kinds of archives
https://trove.nla.gov.au

A quick search of that showed a couple of articles from the early 20thC, but not overly helpful. However, if you do an advanced search and dig around you may find something

There is also "Ask a Librarian" where they do the work for you. It is free, and when I have used this in the past they have given me some good leads to follow up. I would maybe start with trove, and if you can't find it there, go to ask a librarian, and tell them what you have already done
https://www.nla.gov.au/using-library.../ask-librarian

[Archivist]

I'm in Australia, and have never heard of that, or seen such rules.

There is a very good website run by the National Library that lets you search all kinds of archives
https://trove.nla.gov.au

A quick search of that showed a couple of articles from the early 20thC, but not overly helpful. However, if you do an advanced search and dig around you may find something

There is also "Ask a Librarian" where they do the work for you. It is free, and when I have used this in the past they have given me some good leads to follow up. I would maybe start with trove, and if you can't find it there, go to ask a librarian, and tell them what you have already done
https://www.nla.gov.au/using-library.../ask-librarian

I've been using the Trove library for years and the link is in the source list https://allaboutsnooker.info/sources/. That's where (and in the BNA of course) I first came across references to Australian snooker. I've only published two, the others are basically the same: big breaks, playing coloured after red, etc.

Yorkshire Evening Post - Tuesday 14 October 1913.jpg

There are also some statements by James Burke (‘Snooker’ from Referee, Sydney) that Australian snooker players are making a mistake in adopting BA rules, as Australian snooker is much more interesting for spectators and players. But I will post this later when I have more information on James Burke.

Thanks for the heads-up. I've already reached out to the library for assistance and am waiting to hear back. But I'm pretty sure it's not going to work. I haven't found any mention of snooker rule sets being published in Australia, whereas in England the press often advertises the cost of booklets and books. All hope for the clubs. I am sure that clubs have old archives, but I have no way of getting to them and finding the texts.

[Beertrix Potter]

More billiards orientated but all sorts of historical stuff on Peter Ainsworth's Flipsnack page.

https://www.flipsnack.com/hylandbilliards/

[DeanH]

More billiards orientated but all sorts of historical stuff on Peter Ainsworth's Flipsnack page.

https://www.flipsnack.com/hylandbilliards/

To save people their precious time; I have already checked my collection of the same publications from 1908 to date and have found zero reference to "Australian Snooker" and "Australian Rules" pertaining to rules; many hits on "Australian snooker champion/ship" and the like but none as being requested.

[Archivist]

Many thanks for your reply and for offering to help, Beertrix Potter. But over the years, I've already found almost everything on the internet that is freely available (and a few paid accounts).

DeanH, I think I understand the issue. I've written to the Trove library and six of Australia's oldest snooker clubs but only had one reply so far. With a very good version of this. Australia played snooker which differed from BA rules in that after a red you could play a coloured ball many times. The game was called snooker, and the classic snooker was called English snooker – it wasn't called Australian snooker. The official rules weren't published in separate booklets, but there were tournaments, and I'm hoping to find the rules that governed those tournaments.

A good argument here: https://allaboutsnooker.info/forbes-times-6-july-1912/
A game with the name ‘Royal Snooker’ but the rules are identical to Australian Snooker.

[100-uper]

I've just spotted this thread, and although I can't contribute anything meaningful, I did find these two snippets from the World of Billiards (1906) which may be of interest ......