Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 16, 2024
Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in c. 1875, the game uses twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls—collectively called the colours. Using a cue stick, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each time the opposing player or team commits a foul. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player wins a predetermined number of frames. The standard rules of the game were first established in 1919. As a professional sport, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Top players of many nationalities compete in regular tournaments around the world, earning millions of pounds. (Full article...)