Captain Snooker suggested mixing the two games and so evolved snooker.
Western Daily Press, Monday 27 October 1947
JOE DAVIS, famous billiards and snooker player, believes that snooker is one of the most popular games and estimates that between 15 and 20 people play every day on each of the 500.000 tables in Britain. Nobody knows who invented snooker but in older days two games were played on a full-sized table … apart from billiards … namely “Pyramids” and “Live Pool.” These two games are said to have become tedious to the cadets at Woolwich, and so an officer named Captain Snooker, suggested mixing the two games and so evolved snooker.
Another possible origin is that it comes from a game played by boys in olden days. The game was played in a wood in which the players ran from tree to tree, using the trees as shields from missiles thrown by the ether players. If they found a tree large enough to provide good cover they claimed they were fully “snooked.”
The fact that in the game of snooker players endeavour to place cue ball behind another so that it cannot be touched suggests there may be something in the latter theory. The writer’s own theory, after some experience of the game is that it was invented by some man one morning when he wasn’t feeling very well.
T.J.