Introduction

Billiards was the original forerunner to snooker and for many years was deemed to be the more sophisticated of the two games. Unfortunately the players of the early twentieth century, Joe Davis, Walter Lindrum and others had become so good at the game that they had killed it as a form of public entertainment.

Due to their complete mastery of the game, breaks of a thousand plus became common at the very top level, removing the excitment and tension of matches with less perfect players on view. The professional game soon bore little resemblance to the game played by amateurs and juniors at club level and slowly started to diminish in popularity.

At this time, snooker became more readily accessible for the general public to enjoy and this increased competition signalled if not the end, close to it for billiards. This was unfortunate, as to play billiards successully requires great touch, feel and excellent hand to eye co-ordination.

The basic principles of snooker - straight cueing, solid stance, firmness of bridge and clarity of thought and mental approach, all apply for billiards. These basics must be mastered to become a decent player. Failure to do so results in a haphazard approach and style of play which leads nowhere and which ultimately affects a players enjoyment of the game.

It is strongly recommended that you try and learn the basic prinicples of billiards. This will assist your learning curve on cue ball control and the vagaries of spin and will introduce you to the many different angles available on the snooker and billiards table.

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