where did you begin......

[Ian Davies]

cross-post from my comment in http://www.thesnookerforum.com/showthread-t_758.html

How did everybody start at snooker ?

Well I'll start things off.....

When I was a weee lad my dad used to have some coaching lessons on a Sunday afternoon. We'd go as a whole family and sit at the side watching him.

Every now and again I used to wander over to a near pool table and start skimming some pool balls around the table and seeing if I could sink a few.

The guy coaching my dad spotted me and took me to one side, stood me on a stool (I was even then too short to lean over a pool table) and get me to try and pot some straight middle bag shots.

I'm was hooked ever since.

Thought about putting a pole in so why not. Not sure if I've got very well defined vectors though.....

[tontaire]

I watched Snooker on eurosport and i wanted to start playing it.
I started by the pool and triyed sometimes snooker, it was too difficult for me.
Then the club has been closen and i bought a pool table.
this year, the club has re-oppened, and i go play snooker there.

Sorry if I don't write well

[Ian Davies]

Great stuff,

I think most of us might have spotted it on t.v. / satellite to start with.

We used to have an old pavillion/cinema/club in my home town - funnily enough that's where I saw my first every movie (Herbie Goes Bananas !).

Was way tooo young to be in there playing snooker though.

Unfortunately it got pulled down to make way for a car park :-(

[RaNeN]

I first started playing pool in Yahoo. I never knew there was actually a sport like this. Then watched pool on TV one day. Went with my friends to a Snooker parlour and then started playing on the small table and then progressed to the English table. If i am not wrong the small table is called the "FRENCH" table. Why is it so?

[tontaire]

The french table?

There is the french billard (with three balls) but the table is bigger than a pool table.

[RaNeN]

I have played snooker on a french table. Its bigger then a pool table for sure

[tontaire]

But when i've played in french billard, the french table hadn't holes

[RaNeN]

WOW, thats news to me. Never heard of a table without pockets?

[Robert602]

I might be able to clarify this table issue.

The oldest table billiards game comparable to the modern games is the 18th century carambole, probably invented in France. Points were scored by contacting both object balls with the cueball in one stroke (making a cannon), in the same way as in English billiards later. It was played on 10'x5' pocketless tables, which evolved various modern carom games including the most popular (and most difficult) three cushion billiards.

English billiards developed a little differently, adding pockets and using a bigger 12'x6' table. It offers extra ways to score with winning and losing 'hazards' as well as the traditional cannon. The professional game has almost disappeared, largely because the pros got too good for it to be interesting viewing (thousand breaks and such). Pyramid, and later snooker, came from the English game and eventually overtook it.

So my theory is that a 10'x5' table with pockets might well be called a French table because it's the same size as the French billiards tables. Properly though, it's really just a smaller snooker/English billiards table, since as far as I can tell the French game never used pockets.


Ahem, got a bit carried away with my billiards history there, sorry. To answer the original question then:

I got into playing pool on an outdoor table on a family holiday in Tenerife at about age 10, I played it pretty much solidly for the two weeks we were there. After that we got a 6x3 table at home and I got fairly decent at 8 ball on that. I watched snooker on TV for quite a while before I actually bothered to go down to the local club and try it out for myself, and I've been hooked ever since.

[chrisfinch]

watching tv definitely. The first world championships i vividly remember was 1997, although I've only been following the sport closely (other than the worlds) when Eurosport started showing every event at the start of last season.

[beermonster]

i started off by watching on tv. it was only when i started going to the working mens club with my dad that i started playing.
all i remember is thinking how big the table was lol

[Erwan_BZH]

I started playing pool with lads and then moved quickly to snooker. One of my friend had already played. The the TV coverage openned my eyes! lol

[phoenixraker]

cross-post from my comment in http://www.thesnookerforum.com/showthread-t_758.html

How did everybody start at snooker ?

Well I'll start things off.....

When I was a weee lad my dad used to have some coaching lessons on a Sunday afternoon. We'd go as a whole family and sit at the side watching him.

Every now and again I used to wander over to a near pool table and start skimming some pool balls around the table and seeing if I could sink a few.

The guy coaching my dad spotted me and took me to one side, stood me on a stool (I was even then too short to lean over a pool table) and get me to try and pot some straight middle bag shots.

I'm was hooked ever since.

Thought about putting a pole in so why not. Not sure if I've got very well defined vectors though.....

Some people say i still dont play snooker they are not sure what i play,

[reverse_side]

Have I not chipped in my two penneth here? Murphy's playing and I'm strangley not bothered about watching him..... Much rather watch that cracking player Carter.

Anyhow, I started at 11 on the youth club's table... full size table sounds amazing for letting little scallies tear around. A whole £1 as a deposit and lunchtimes in 1st year secondary were never the same again. high break of an almighty 26! yeah. then a game with my bro at Castle Private... all with their unique smell, then Pockets in Winsford where Dad used to pay for the light and I'd get the change from the light as pocket money... I never used to get a lot as I'd want to play as long as possible. Although, I remember we stopped for 3 minutes one time when Sinead O'Connor's "nothing compares 2u' came on the TV - startling.

Getting to 17 I joined the local conservative club (only for the snooker mind!) and proceded to learn more there in a few months than in all the previous years put together; and getting a taste for cricket as it was a time when we spanked the ozzies 3-1 http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report61.htm

My first tournament win was the Club Knockout that summer and it was an incredible bowls&snooker combined affair.... who's idea was that! So hot and sunny outside that to come back into the cool dark snooker room it took a few sips of Tennents to acclimatise; what a day. Won a bottle of whisky that I sold for a tenner that night.

Quite handy I went to Sheffield Uni after that!!!

[cudntpotaplant]

Basically, i used to play football when i was young (to a fairly good standard), but because i played so much and my body was developing (i was 15), i got tendonitis in my achilles tendon. I was told to stop playing footy, so i decided to take up snooker. I havent looked back since, im now 25, so have been playing for ten years.