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| History Learn a bit about the history pool and read some of the quirky facts about billiards and pool. The activity of shooting pool evolved from a form of French croquet. Played on a lawn, a ball (or bille, hence the title billiards) would be shoved around the field by wooden maces. The game was then moved inside but to keep the connection to the lawn, the game was played on a table covered with green cloth to represent grass. American pool is actually pocket billiards. It got its name from the fact that people in the halls it was played in would bet �pools� of money. (Similar to our �office pool� for sporting events.) There are two forms of billiards: pocket billiards and carom billiards, with no pockets. The earliest verifiable mention of Billiards was in Shakespeare�s Anthony & Cleopatra. (Thus we know it was at least around in Elizabethan England.) An English billiards rulebook comes from the same era. Another Englishmen named Charles Cotton (1674) thought the game came from Italy or Spain. Other anecdotal accounts [going back over 1500 years] in various ancient documents mentions travelers seeing games similar to billiards in China, Greece, and Ireland. Most historians believe billiards arose when the French brought Croquet inside and played it on a table. At that time, the game had wickets and pins on the table and the table was covered with green cloth to simulate grass. The French word for ball is bille. (The stick the French used was called the billart) The Dutch play a form of billiards called pin billiards with uprights in the middle of the table. These pins are called �Skittles� (This might be the precursor of bumper pool we see in bars today!) Junior English officers in India became bored with billiards, and created an off-shoot called snooker. Colored balls from �pool� were placed on various spots on the table. The officers formed an association and came up with formal rules for snooker. As pool is traditionally a bar room game, many jokes have become of it. Here are some jokes to entertain you. |
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