Portal:Cue sports

The Cue Sports Portal

Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports are also collectively referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some varieties of English.

There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:

Carom billiards, played on tables without pockets, typically ten feet in length, including straight rail, balkline, one-cushion carom, three-cushion billiards, artistic billiards, and four-ball
Pocket billiards (or pool), played on six-pocket tables of seven, eight, nine, or ten-foot length, including among others eight-ball (the world's most widely played cue sport), nine-ball (the dominant professional game), ten-ball, straight pool (the formerly dominant pro game), one-pocket, and bank pool
Snooker, English billiards, and Russian pyramid, played on a large, six-pocket table (dimensions just under 12 ft by 6 ft), all of which are classified separately from pool based on distinct development histories, player culture, rules, and terminology.

Billiards has a long history from its inception in the 15th century, with many mentions in the works of Shakespeare, including the line "let's to billiards" in Antony and Cleopatra (1606–07). Enthusiasts of the sport have included Mozart, Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, Jules Grévy, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll, W. C. Fields, Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, and Jackie Gleason. (Full article...)

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The 1988 World Snooker Championship, also known as the 1988 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 April to 2 May 1988 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), it was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1987–88 snooker season and the twelfth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament there having taken place in 1977.

A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 22 March to 2 April 1988 for 113 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The winner received £95,000 from the total prize fund of £475,000. (Full article...)
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The 1986 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1986 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 19 April and 5 May 1986 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1985–86 snooker season and the 1986 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927. The total prize fund was £350,000 with £70,000 awarded to the winner and was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

The defending champion was Dennis Taylor, who had defeated Steve Davis 18–17 in the 1985 World Snooker Championship final to win his first world title. In defence of his title, Taylor lost in the first round of the event 6–10 to Mike Hallett. Joe Johnson the world number 16 defeated Davis 18–12 in the final to win his sole ranking event. Prior to the competition, the bookmakers' odds for a Johnson victory were 150/1. There were 20 century breaks compiled in total during the tournament, the highest of which was a 134 made by Davis in the opening frame of his quarter-final win. (Full article...)
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The 1983 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1983 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1983 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. This was the third and final world ranking event of the 1982–83 snooker season following the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. Sixteen seeded players qualified directly for the event, with an additional sixteen players progressing through a two-round qualification round held at the Romiley Forum in Stockport, and Redwood Lodge in Bristol. The winner of the event received £30,000, and the tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy.

Alex Higgins was the defending champion, having won the 1982 championship, but he lost 5–16 to Steve Davis in the semi-finals. Davis, the 1981 champion, won the event for the second time, defeating Cliff Thorburn 18–6 in the final. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament. The highest was made by Thorburn in the fourth frame of his second round match against Terry Griffiths, where he compiled a maximum break of 147 points, becoming the first player to make such a break in a World Championship match. (Full article...)
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The 2021 Tour Championship (officially the 2021 Cazoo Tour Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 22 to 28 March 2021 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it was the third edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the third season of the Cazoo Cup. It was the 14th and penultimate ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season, following the conclusion of the WST Pro Series and preceding the World Championship.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list. The event was contested as a single-elimination tournament, each match being played over two sessions. The winner of the tournament received £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £380,000. The event was sponsored by car retailer Cazoo. The defending champion was Stephen Maguire, but as a result of reduced earnings during the season he was unable to qualify and defend the title. In a repeat of the 2019 final Australian Neil Robertson played Englishman Ronnie O'Sullivan. Robertson won the event defeating O'Sullivan 10–4 in the final. There were 26 century breaks made during the event, Barry Hawkins making the highest break, a 138. (Full article...)
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The 2014 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2014 Dafabet World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 19 April to 5 May 2014 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 38th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible. The tournament was also the last ranking event of the 2013–14 snooker season. The event was sponsored by Dafabet for the first time. A qualifying tournament was held from 8 to 16 April 2014 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield for 16 players, who met 16 seeded participants at the main championships.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won the previous year's event by defeating Barry Hawkins in the final. Mark Selby won the 2014 event to capture his first world title by defeating O'Sullivan 18–14 in the final. This was Selby's fourth ranking title, also completing the Triple Crown of World Championship, UK Championship, and Masters titles. Neil Robertson compiled the highest break of the tournament, a 140, and scored his 100th century break of the season in his quarter-final win over Judd Trump. The event featured a prize fund of £1,214,000, the winner receiving £300,000. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Champion of Champions (officially the 2019 ManBetX Champion of Champions) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 10 November 2019 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England. It was the ninth Champion of Champions event, the first of which was held in 1978. The tournament featured 16 participants who had won World Snooker events throughout the prior snooker season. In 2019, the Women's World Champion competed at the tournament for the first time. As an invitational event, the Champion of Champions tournament carried no world ranking points.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion having defeated Kyren Wilson 10–9 in the final of the 2018 event. O'Sullivan lost 5–6 to Neil Robertson in the semi-finals. Robertson defeated reigning world champion Judd Trump 10–9 in the final to win the championship, having required foul shots in the penultimate frame to avoid losing the match. There were 20 century breaks during the tournament, eight of which were made in the final. Mark Allen compiled the highest break of the tournament, a 140, in his semi-final loss to Trump. The tournament's total prize fund was £440,000, the winner receiving £150,000. (Full article...)
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The 1989 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 1989 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the eighth and final ranking event of the 1988–89 snooker season and the thirteenth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament at this location having taken place in 1977. There were 142 entrants to the competition.

The defending champion was Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship five times. He met John Parrott in the final, which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis won the match 18–3, which remains the biggest winning margin in the sport's modern era, and meant that the final, scheduled for four sessions, finished with a session to spare. This was Davis's sixth and last world title, and his last appearance in a World Championship final. Stephen Hendry scored the championship's highest break, a 141, in his quarter-final match. There were 19 century breaks compiled during the championship. (Full article...)
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Masako Katsura (桂マサ子, Katsura Masako, listen; 7 March 1913 – 20 December 1995), nicknamed "Katsy" and sometimes called the "First Lady of Billiards", was a Japanese carom billiards player who was most active in the 1950s. She was the first woman to compete and place among the best in the male-dominated world of professional billiards. First learning the game from her brother-in-law and then under the tutelage of Japanese champion Kinrey Matsuyama, Katsura became Japan's only female professional player. In competition in Japan, she took second place in the country's national three-cushion billiards championship three times. In exhibition she was noted for running 10,000 points at the game of straight rail.

After marrying a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer in 1950, Katsura emigrated to the United States in 1951. There she was invited to play in the 1952 U.S.-sponsored World Three-Cushion Championship, ultimately taking seventh place at that competition. Katsura was the first woman ever to be included in any world billiards tournament. Her fame cemented, Katsura went on an exhibition tour of the United States with eight-time world champion Welker Cochran, and later with 51-time world champion Willie Hoppe. In 1953 and 1954, she again competed for the world three-cushion crown, taking fifth and fourth places respectively. (Full article...)
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The 1985 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1985 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional ranking tournament in snooker that took place from 12 to 28 April 1985 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the event was the ninth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament having taken place in 1977. A five-round qualifying event for the championship was held at the Preston Guild Hall from 29 March to 5 April for 87 players, 16 of whom reached the main stage, where they met the 16 invited seeded players. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, and was sponsored by the Embassy cigarette company. The total prize fund for the event was £250,000, the highest prize pool for any snooker tournament to that date. The winner received £60,000, which was the highest amount ever received by the winner of a snooker event at that time.

The defending champion was Englishman Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship three times. He met Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor in the final which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis took an early 9–1 lead, but Taylor battled back into the match and drew level at 17–17, forcing a deciding frame. The 35th frame was contested over the final black ball, with the player able to pot the ball winning the world title. After Taylor missed three attempts to pot the black, Davis missed his only attempt to leave Taylor a relatively simple pot to win his sole World Championship. The match, often referred to as the "black ball final", is commonly considered to be the best-known match in the history of snooker and a reason for the surge in the sport's popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. (Full article...)
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The 2021 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2021 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 17 April to 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 45th consecutive year the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible Theatre and the 15th and final ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season. It was organised by the World Snooker Tour. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred and broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. It featured a total prize fund of £2,395,000 of which the winner received £500,000.

Qualifying for the tournament took place between 5 and 14 April 2021 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, consisting of a mix of professional and invited amateur players. The main stage of the tournament featured 32 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and an additional 16 players from the qualifying rounds. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won his sixth world title at the previous year's event, where he defeated Kyren Wilson 18–8 in the final. O'Sullivan lost in the second round to Anthony McGill 12–13. Mark Selby defeated Shaun Murphy 18–15 in the final to win his fourth world title and the 20th ranking title of his career. There were a record 108 century breaks made at the Crucible, with an additional 106 made in qualifying rounds. The tournament's highest break was 144 by Murphy in the second round. (Full article...)

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Albin Ouschan at the European Pool Championship 2008 in Willingen, Germany.

Albin Alois Ouschan (born August 14, 1990, in Klagenfurt, Austria) is an Austrian professional pool player. Ouschan was the 2016 WPA World Nine-ball Championship winner, as well as the runner-up in 2014. He also won the 14.1 Continuous European championship the same year. Ouschan is a multiple time Austrian champion in 8-ball, ten-ball and straight pool. Ouschan alongside partner Mario He won both the 2017 World Cup of Pool, 2019 World Cup of Pool and reached the final of the 2018 World Cup of Pool. They would lose 10–3 to the Chinese team of Wu Jia-qing & Liu Haitao. He won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship for the second time in 2021, beating Omar Al-Shaheen 13–9 in the final. He won the International Open in 2021, defeating Dennis Orcollo 13–6 in the final.

In 2023 Ouschan won his sixth Mosconi Cup whilst representing Team Europe. They defeated Team USA at the Alexandra Palace, London. (Full article...)
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Cochran sitting on a billiards table

Welker Cochran (October 7, 1897 – July 26, 1960) was an American professional carom billiards player who won world titles in two different disciplines, balkline and three-cushion billiards. (Full article...)
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Lou Butera in 2005

Lou Butera (May 15, 1937 – June 25, 2015) was an American professional pool player (then retired and operated a pool hall) and an inductee into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1986.

His nickname, "Machine Gun Lou", derives from his stunning the crowd and fellow competitors by running 150-and-out in straight pool in under 25 minutes against his opponents.

He gained exposure to the masses in 1981 and 1982 when he appeared in network trick shot competitions on CBS and ABC. (Full article...)
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Doherty at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic

Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player from Ranelagh in Dublin. He is the sport's only world champion from the Republic of Ireland, having won the title in 1997, making him one of just four players from outside the United Kingdom—in addition to Cliff Thorburn from Canada, Neil Robertson from Australia, and Luca Brecel from Belgium—to have won the World Snooker Championship in the sport's modern era. He combines his ongoing playing career with regular commentary and punditry work on televised snooker broadcasts.

After moving from Dublin to London to pursue his snooker career, Doherty won the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship in 1989. He turned professional the following year and reached the first of his 17 ranking finals at the 1992 Grand Prix, losing 9–10 to Jimmy White. He won the first of his six ranking titles several months later at the 1993 Welsh Open, beating Alan McManus 9–7 in the final, which helped him enter the top 16 for the first time in the 1993–94 world rankings. At the 1997 World Snooker Championship, he ended Stephen Hendry's record 29-match winning streak at the Crucible with an 18–12 victory in the final. He remains the only player to have won world titles at under-21, amateur, and professional levels.

Doherty has been runner-up at two other World Championships. As defending champion at the 1998 event, he came close to breaking the Crucible curse but lost the final 12–18 to John Higgins. Facing Mark Williams in the 2003 final, he recovered from 2–10 behind to tie the scores at 11–11 but lost 16–18. In other Triple Crown events, he has been UK Championship runner-up three times (losing 5–10 to Hendry in 1994, 1–10 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2001, and 9–10 to Williams in 2002) and Masters runner-up twice (losing 8–10 to Higgins in 1999 and by the same score to Matthew Stevens in 2000). (Full article...)
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Trump at the 2015 World Championship

Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world champion and the current world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's greatest and most talented players, he is currently in fourth place on the list of all-time ranking event winners, having won 30 ranking titles. He has also won five Triple Crown titles.

After a junior career that included winning the English Under-13 and Under-15 titles, and reaching the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals aged 14, Trump turned professional in 2005. He won his maiden ranking title at the 2011 China Open, was runner-up to John Higgins at the 2011 World Snooker Championship, and captured his first Triple Crown title at the 2011 UK Championship. By the end of the 2017–18 season, he had won eight ranking titles but was facing persistent criticism that he was underachieving in the sport, given his talent. In the 2018–19 season, he completed his Triple Crown by winning both the Masters and World Championship, won two other ranking events, and became the first player to win over £1 million in prize money in a single season.

In the 2019–20 season, he won six ranking events, setting a new record for the most ranking titles in a single season. He added a further five ranking titles during the 2020–21 season. Voted the World Snooker Tour's Player of the Year for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021, he was inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame in 2021. He reached his third World Championship final in 2022, where he was runner-up to Ronnie O'Sullivan, and was awarded an MBE in the same year. He won his second Masters title in 2023, making him the 11th player to win the tournament more than once. (Full article...)
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O'Brien at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic

Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish retired professional snooker player who competed on the World Snooker Tour from 1991 to 2024. He won one ranking title during his career, defeating Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final of the 1999 British Open. He was runner-up at the 2001 Masters, where he lost the final 9–10 to Paul Hunter. His best performance at the World Snooker Championship was reaching the quarter-finals of the 2000 event, where he lost 5–13 to eventual champion Mark Williams. He reached his highest world ranking of ninth in the 2000–01 season, but spent only three seasons of his 33-year career ranked inside the top 16. He retired from professional competition at the end of the 2023–24 season, intending to remain active in the sport as a coach and a commentator for Eurosport. (Full article...)
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Jim Rempe and Keith McCready at the King of the Hill Shootout, December 2005

James Rempe (born November 4, 1947, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, US) is an American professional pocket billiards (pool) player, and was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 2002. (Full article...)
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Wakelin at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic

Chris Wakelin (born 16 March 1992) is an English professional snooker player from Rugby, Warwickshire. He turned professional in 2013 and won his first ranking title at the 2023 Snooker Shoot Out. (Full article...)
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Walden at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic

Ricky Walden (born 11 November 1982) is an English professional snooker player from Chester.

Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi Classic and the 2014 International Championship and has been inside the top 16 in the season-ending rankings on four occasions. A former world Top 6 player, Walden has reached the televised stages of the World Snooker Championship on nine occasions as of 2023, with his best result being a semi-finalist in 2013. (Full article...)
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Paul Hunter Classic 2014

Alexander Ursenbacher (born 26 April 1996) is a Swiss professional snooker player from Rheinfelden. Also popularly known as 'The Swiss Fish', he is the first snooker player from Switzerland to have competed professionally (former professional Darren Paris represented England, in the mid-1990s, before moving to Switzerland).

Having qualified for the main tour through the 2013 Q School, where he defeated Paul Wykes in his quarter-final match, Ursenbacher lost his professional status upon the expiry of his two-year tour card in 2015, but regained it two years later after defeating Jackson Page 6–4 in the final of the 2017 EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championship. He lost his tour card again when he ended the 2022–23 season at 86th place in the snooker world rankings. However, he managed to immediately regain his professional status by prevailing in the first Q School Event of 2023. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Gary Wilson threw his snooker cue to the floor in anger at the 2022 UK Championship?
... that Mark Williams travelled for more than 13 hours to be a last-minute replacement at the 2022 Hong Kong Masters?
... that at the 1978 World Snooker Championship, Fred Davis reached the semi-finals at the age of 64?
... that the final of the 2009 IBSF women's snooker championship was interrupted so that drug tests could be conducted on the players?
... that Turkish carom billiards champion Güzin Müjde Karakaşlı grew up playing volleyball for about 12 years?
... that the Highfield Cocoa and Coffee House in Sheffield, England, sold tea, coffee and cocoa at a penny a pint and also provided billiards and reading rooms?
... that after winning the 2024 Masters, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan is both the youngest and oldest winner of the tournament?
... that a snooker table used at the 2022 Turkish Masters was fixed with a car jack?

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These are Good articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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The 2002 Scottish Masters (known as the 2002 Regal Scottish Masters for sponsorship reasons) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament which took place at the Thistle Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland, from 24 to 29 September. It was the final edition of the tournament, as it later lost its sponsorship by the cigarette brand Regal. It was the first of two invitational World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) competitions in the 2002–03 season. The host broadcaster was BBC Scotland.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, a former world champion, won the tournament, defeating the defending champion John Higgins 9–4 in the final. It was the third time that O'Sullivan had won the Scottish Masters in his career, and he was awarded £65,000 from a prize fund pool of £205,000. In the semi-finals O'Sullivan defeated world number six Stephen Hendry 6–3 and Higgins beat Stephen Lee 6–4; Lee made the tournament's highest break of 139 in his loss. (Full article...)
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The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) (formerly called the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC)) was the governing body of the games of English billiards and snooker and organised professional and amateur championships in both sports. It was formed in 1919 by the union of the Billiards Association (founded in 1885) and the Billiards Control Club (founded in 1908).

The B&SCC lost control of both the amateur and professional games in the early 1970s, following a dispute with professional players over challenge matches for the World Billiards Championship, and dissatisfaction from snooker associations outside the UK about the balance of voting power in the organisation, with a large proportion of votes being held in a small number of English areas. Following the loss of its government funding, the B&SCC went into voluntary liquidation in 1992 and its assets were later acquired by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. (Full article...)
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Tabb refereeing in Berlin for the 2013 German Masters

Michaela Tabb (born 11 December 1967) is a British snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top tournaments such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. She qualified in 2001 to referee on the World Snooker Tour and was the sport's highest profile female referee for the next 14 years. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open, and the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. She is the only woman to have refereed the World Snooker Championship final, which she did twice, in 2009 and 2012.

Tabb left the professional snooker tour in March 2015 following a dispute with the sport's commercial arm, World Snooker Ltd, against which she brought a case alleging sex discrimination, unfair dismissal, and breach of contract. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement in September 2015, under which World Snooker Ltd paid Tabb an undisclosed financial sum. She has continued to referee at pool events and on the World Seniors Tour. (Full article...)
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The 2004 Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament held in February 2004. It was the 30th staging of the Masters tournament, one of three Triple Crown events on the Snooker Tour, the eighth of fifteen World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) events in the 2003/2004 season, and was held at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, United Kingdom from 1 to 8 February 2004. The tournament was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC.

Paul Hunter won the tournament, defeating 1995 winner and world number three Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9, claiming the third Masters title of his career in four years. Hunter joined Cliff Thorburn, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis as the fourth player to win the Masters three or more times. In the semi-finals, Hunter defeated John Higgins 6–3 and O'Sullivan beat Jimmy White 6–4. O'Sullivan compiled a 138 break, the highest of the tournament, in the second frame of his semi-final match against White. (Full article...)
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The 2001 Nations Cup (officially the 2001 Coalite Nations Cup) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place at The Hexagon, in Reading, Berkshire, England, from 13 to 21 January 2001. It was a World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association team competition held as part of the 2000–01 snooker season and the third and final edition of the Nations Cup. The competition was contested by eight nations of three players each, with one of them qualifying via a play-off match. It was sponsored by smokeless coal manufacturer Coalite.

England were the tournament's defending champions but were eliminated in the group stages after finishing third in their group. Scotland's Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus won the competition, defeating the Republic of Ireland's (ROI) Ken Doherty, Fergal O'Brien and Michael Judge six frames to two (6–2) in the final. During the match, referee Alan Chamberlain courted controversy when he cautioned O'Brien over slow play since the television coverage was due to end soon after. The event's highest break was a 131 made by Thai player Phaitoon Phonbun in the second frame of his nation's group match with Malta. (Full article...)
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The 1971 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 28 September and 7 November 1970 in Australia. The tournament was the 1971 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927 but was held in 1970. It was the first time the event had been held outside England outside of two challenge matches in 1965, with matches held at various locations in New South Wales and Brisbane. The event featured nine participants, with a round-robin round producing four qualifiers, who then competed in a single-elimination tournament.

Ray Reardon was the defending champion, having defeated John Pulman in the 1970 final, however Reardon lost to John Spencer in the semi-final. Spencer won the event for the second time by defeating Warren Simpson 37–29 in the final held in the Chevron Hotel in Sydney. Eddie Charlton made the highest break of the tournament with a 129 in the final session of his round-robin match against Gary Owen. (Full article...)
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The 2001 Malta Grand Prix (officially the 2001 Rothmans Malta Grand Prix) was a professional snooker tournament held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Malta, from 21 to 25 February 2001. It was the seventh and last Malta Grand Prix, and the fourth of the five World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association invitational competitions in the 2000–01 snooker season. It preceded the season's antepenultimate invitational event, the 2001 Masters. The event featured 12 players and was played as a round-robin format until the semi-finals.

Ken Doherty was the defending champion of the tournament having defeated Mark Williams nine frames to three (9–3) in the final of the 2000 event but was eliminated from the group stages after finishing second in his group. Stephen Hendry won the competition, beating Williams 7–1 in the final. It was the 69th tournament that Hendry had won and he earned £10,000 from a prize pool of £36,000. In the semi-finals, Hendry defeated fellow Scot John Higgins 6–4 and Williams also beat Fergal O'Brien 6–4. Hendry made a maximum break in the third frame of the final, the highest of the tournament and the 42nd maximum in professional play. (Full article...)
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Theatrical release poster

The Hustler is a 1961 sports drama film, directed by Robert Rossen. It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges legendary pool player "Minnesota Fats".

The film, which was based on the 1959 book of the same name by Walter Tevis, stars Paul Newman as Fast Eddie, Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, Piper Laurie as Sarah, George C. Scott as Bert, and Myron McCormick as Charlie. (Full article...)
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Margaret Fefilova Styer (formerly Marharyta Fefilava; born 31 May 1997) is a Belarusian professional pool player from Minsk, Belarus. Fefilova has won dozens of Belarusian national women's championships, with an additional three national championships in mixed competitions against both men and women. She is the first player from Belarus to win a medal at the European Pool Championships.

Fefilova is a regular player on the Euro Tour and the Baltic Pool League. She has been the number one ranked player on the Euro Tour after winning two Tour events in 2017, the Dutch Open and the Portugal Open. (Full article...)
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The Women's Billiards Association (WBA), founded in 1931 and based in London, United Kingdom, was the governing body for women's English billiards and snooker, and organised the Women's Professional Billiards Championship and Women's Professional Snooker Championship as well as amateur and junior competitions. The founding meeting was held on 13 May 1931 at the Women's Automobile and Sports Association. The meeting was chaired by Teresa Billington-Greig and appointed Viscountess Elibank as the first president and Mrs Longworth as the first chairman. The WBA ran amateur and professional billiards competitions starting from 1932, an amateur snooker tournament from 1933, and a professional snooker championship from 1934.

It affiliated to the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC) in 1935. In 1936, after a proposal by the Association, the BA&CC took over the management of the WBA. The Association continued to stage professional competitions until 1950, and amateur competitions until the 1970s, when the Women's Billiards & Snooker Association, which was formed in 1976, and later the World Ladies Billiards & Snooker Association, founded in 1981, took control of the games. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various cue sports-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A set of standard carom billiard balls, comprising a red object ball, one plain white cue ball, and one dotted white cue ball (replaced in modern three-cushion billiards by a yellow ball) for the opponent (from Carom billiards)
Image 2alt=Yellow snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 3A shot using a rest, allowing the player to reach farther down the table (from Snooker)
Image 4alt=Brown snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 5alt=Red snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 6A player racking the balls (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 7Paul Gauguin's 1888 painting Night Café at Arles includes a depiction of French billiards (from Carom billiards)
Image 8Jerome Keogh invented the game in 1910. (from Straight pool)
Image 9alt=Pink snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 10The Family Remy by Januarius Zick, c. 1776, featuring billiards among other parlour activities (from Carom billiards)
Image 11Louis XIV playing billiards (1694) (from Carom billiards)
Image 12Cigarette card, c. 1911, showing George Sutton playing balkline (from Carom billiards)
Image 13A full-size snooker table set up for a game (from Snooker)
Image 14Dutch pool player Niels Feijen at the 2008 European Pool Championship (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 15Balkline table with standard markings (from Carom billiards)
Image 16A pool table diagram (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 17The World Snooker Championship trophy (from Snooker)
Image 18A Game of Billiards by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1807 (from Carom billiards)
Image 19Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon located at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, 1 January 1859 (from Carom billiards)
Image 20A close-up view of a cue tip about to strike the cue ball, the aim being to pot the red ball into a corner pocket (from Snooker)
Image 21A complete set of snooker balls (from Snooker)
Image 22alt=Black snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 23A massé shot around a pin (from Carom billiards)
Image 24alt=Blue snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 25A sliding scoreboard, some blocks of cue-tip chalk, white chalk-board chalk and two cues (from Snooker)
Image 26alt=Green snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 27Illustration A: Aerial view of a snooker table with the twenty-two balls in their starting positions. The cue ball (white) may be placed anywhere in the semicircle (known as the "D") at the start of the game. (from Snooker)

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v t e Cue sports
Pool games	Eight-ball British eight-ball Nine-ball Straight pool Ten-ball Artistic pool and trick shots Bank pool Baseball Bottle pool Bowlliards Chicago Cowboy pool Cribbage Cutthroat Fifteen-ball Golf Honolulu Kelly pool Killer One-pocket Pyramid pool Rotation Seven-ball Speed pool Three-ball
Carom billiards	Three-cushion One-cushion Balkline Straight rail Five-pins Artistic billiards Four-ball Goriziana
Snooker	Snooker Six-red snooker Snooker plus American snooker Brazilian snooker Shoot Out
Other games	English billiards Russian pyramid Kaisa Danish pin billiards Bumper pool Bagatelle Boccette Bar billiards Novuss Ground billiards Slosh
Resources	Glossary Techniques Billiard table Billiard ball Billiard hall Cue stick Rack Comparison of cue sports
Major international tournaments	Artistic Billiards World Championship UMB World Three-cushion Championship World Snooker Championship champions Six-red World Championship World Women's Snooker Championship WPA World Nine-ball Championship Women's champions WPA World Ten-ball Championship World Straight Pool Championship WPA World Eight-ball Championship champions World Cup of Pool Mosconi Cup World Pool Masters Cue sports at the World Games
Other events	Euro Tour events European Pool Championships U.S. Open Straight Pool 8-Ball 9-Ball
Governing bodies	World Confederation of Billiards Sports Union Mondiale de Billard World Pool Association International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
Categories	Cue sports Players Organizations Competitions
Cue sports portal The rules of games in italics are standardized by international sanctioning bodies.

v t e World pool champions
Nine-ball (men's)	1990: Earl Strickland 1991: Earl Strickland 1992: Johnny Archer 1993: Chao Fong-pang 1994: Takeshi Okumura 1995: Oliver Ortmann 1996: Ralf Souquet 1997: Johnny Archer 1998: Kunihiko Takahashi 1999: Efren Reyes & Nick Varner 2000: Chao Fong-pang 2001: Mika Immonen 2002: Earl Strickland 2003: Thorsten Hohmann 2004: Alex Pagulayan 2005: Wu Jia-qing 2006: Ronato Alcano 2007: Daryl Peach 2010: Francisco Bustamante 2011: Yukio Akakariyama 2012: Darren Appleton 2013: Thorsten Hohmann 2014: Niels Feijen 2015: Ko Pin-yi 2016: Albin Ouschan 2017: Carlo Biado 2018: Joshua Filler 2019: Fedor Gorst 2021: Albin Ouschan 2022: Shane Van Boening 2023: Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 2024: Fedor Gorst
Nine-ball (women's)	1990: Robin Bell 1991: Robin Bell 1992: Franziska Stark 1993: Loree Jon Jones 1994: Ewa Laurance 1995: Gerda Hofstätter 1996: Allison Fisher 1997: Allison Fisher 1998: Allison Fisher 1999: Liu Hsin-mei 2000: Julie Kelly 2001: Allison Fisher 2002: Liu Hsin-mei 2004: Kim Ga-young 2006: Kim Ga-young 2007: Pan Xiaoting 2008: Lin Yuan-chun 2009: Liu Shasha 2010: Fu Xiaofang 2011: Bi Zhu Qing 2012: Kelly Fisher 2013: Han Yu 2014: Liu Shasha 2015: Liu Shasha 2016: Han Yu 2017: Chen Siming 2018: Han Yu 2019: Kelly Fisher 2023: Chou Chieh-yu 2024: Rubilen Amit
Eight-ball (champions)	2004: Efren Reyes 2005: Wu Jia-qing 2007: Ronato Alcano 2008: Ralf Souquet 2010: Karl Boyes 2011: Dennis Orcollo 2012: Chang Jung-Lin 2022: Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 2023: Shane Van Boening 2024: Joshua Filler
Ten-ball	2008: Darren Appleton 2009: Mika Immonen 2011: Huidji See 2015: Ko Pin-yi 2019: Ko Ping-chung 2021: Eklent Kaçi 2022: Wojciech Szewczyk 2023: Eklent Kaçi 2024: Carlo Biado
Straight pool	2006: Thorsten Hohmann 2007: Oliver Ortmann 2008: Niels Feijen 2009: Stephan Cohen 2010: Oliver Ortmann 2011: Thorsten Hohmann 2012: John Schmidt 2013: Thorsten Hohmann 2014: Darren Appleton 2015: Thorsten Hohmann 2016: Mika Immonen 2017: Lee Vann Corteza 2018: Thorsten Hohmann 2019: Shane Van Boening
Cue sports portal

v t e World Snooker Championship
Early events	1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952
Match-play	1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957
Challenges	Apr 1964 Oct 1964 Mar 1965 Nov 1965 Dec 1965 Apr 1966 Mar 1968
Knock-outs	1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976
Crucible era	1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Related articles	List of winners List of players Triple Crown Crucible Theatre Crucible curse World Professional Match-play Championship Black ball final (1985)
Cue sports portal

v t e World snooker champions
Early events	1927: Joe Davis (ENG) 1928: Joe Davis (ENG) 1929: Joe Davis (ENG) 1930: Joe Davis (ENG) 1931: Joe Davis (ENG) 1932: Joe Davis (ENG) 1933: Joe Davis (ENG) 1934: Joe Davis (ENG) 1935: Joe Davis (ENG) 1936: Joe Davis (ENG) 1937: Joe Davis (ENG) 1938: Joe Davis (ENG) 1939: Joe Davis (ENG) 1940: Joe Davis (ENG) 1946: Joe Davis (ENG) 1947: Walter Donaldson (SCO) 1948: Fred Davis (ENG) 1949: Fred Davis (ENG) 1950: Walter Donaldson (SCO) 1951: Fred Davis (ENG) 1952: Horace Lindrum (AUS)
Match-play	1952: Fred Davis (ENG) 1953: Fred Davis (ENG) 1954: Fred Davis (ENG) 1955: Fred Davis (ENG) 1956: Fred Davis (ENG) 1957: John Pulman (ENG)
Challenges	1964 (Apr): John Pulman (ENG) 1964 (Oct): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Mar): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Sep–Dec): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Dec): John Pulman (ENG) 1966: John Pulman (ENG) 1968: John Pulman (ENG)
Knock-outs	1969: John Spencer (ENG) 1970: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1971: John Spencer (ENG) 1972: Alex Higgins (NIR) 1973: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1974: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1975: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1976: Ray Reardon (WAL)
Crucible era	1977: John Spencer (ENG) 1978: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1979: Terry Griffiths (WAL) 1980: Cliff Thorburn (CAN) 1981: Steve Davis (ENG) 1982: Alex Higgins (NIR) 1983: Steve Davis (ENG) 1984: Steve Davis (ENG) 1985: Dennis Taylor (NIR) 1986: Joe Johnson (ENG) 1987: Steve Davis (ENG) 1988: Steve Davis (ENG) 1989: Steve Davis (ENG) 1990: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1991: John Parrott (ENG) 1992: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1993: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1994: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1995: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1996: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1997: Ken Doherty (IRL) 1998: John Higgins (SCO) 1999: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 2000: Mark Williams (WAL) 2001: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2002: Peter Ebdon (ENG) 2003: Mark Williams (WAL) 2004: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2005: Shaun Murphy (ENG) 2006: Graeme Dott (SCO) 2007: John Higgins (SCO) 2008: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2009: John Higgins (SCO) 2010: Neil Robertson (AUS) 2011: John Higgins (SCO) 2012: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2013: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2014: Mark Selby (ENG) 2015: Stuart Bingham (ENG) 2016: Mark Selby (ENG) 2017: Mark Selby (ENG) 2018: Mark Williams (WAL) 2019: Judd Trump (ENG) 2020: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2021: Mark Selby (ENG) 2022: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2023: Luca Brecel (BEL) 2024: Kyren Wilson (ENG)
Cue sports portal Category

v t e Snooker world rankings
World rankings	1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Ranking points	2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Cue sports portal List of world number one snooker players