Myth number three
During the 1880’s rumours of snooker reached England and when John Roberts went out to India on one of his tours he had it in his mind to find out the rules. One evening in 1885 in Calcutta, Chamberlain was dining with the Maharajah of Cooch Behar when Roberts was introduced to him. Roberts duly brought the game back to England.
This myth is the simplest to disprove. A careful reading of Neville Chamberlain’s letter to The Field from 1938 is recommended.
Chamberlain’s letter to The Field, 19th March 1938, P. 677.
In the eighties rumours of the new game had reached England, and one evening—I think it was in 1885—I was dining with my hospitable and valued friend, the late Maharaja of Cooch Behar, in his beautiful house in Calcutta. After dinner he took us to the billiard room and introduced us to a well-known English professional billiard player who had come to India for a few weeks to give him lessons in billiards. The latter said to the Maharaja that he had been asked, before leaving home, to ascertain details about a new game called “snooker,” good accounts of which had reached England. Our host, with a smile, pointed to me, and told him that I could give him the fullest information about the game, as I had invented it. I told the expert all that he required to know, for which he warmly thanked me. I regret I do not, remember his name; he was probably a contemporary of John Roberts and W. Cook. Perhaps, some of the older members of the Billiards Association and Control Council may remember which professional went to India about that period to teach the Maharaja
‘…He was probably a contemporary of John Roberts and W. Cook…’ Chamberlain clearly states that the billiard professional he met at a dinner hosted by Sir Nripendra Narayan, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, was not John Roberts or William Cook. Chamberlain was familiar with these names, as he explicitly states, but he has forgotten the name of the individual who taught the Maharaja billiards.
So who was the professional billiards player who gave lessons to the Maharaja how to play in 1885 and met Neville Chamberlain for dinner? Peter Ainsworth suggests in his article ‘The Origin of Snooker: The Neville Chamberlain Story‘ that it may have been Sackville West Stanley.
We will not reiterate the arguments from the article, but we will add two more facts that fully support this theory.
On 28 February 1887, Sporting Life published a note entitled ‘Return of S. W. Stanley to England‘.
Return of S. W. Stanley to England. This clever young player, who for the past two years and four months has been in India engaged in instructing the native princes in the noble game, is expected to arrive in England on Monday next, March 8. His friends will be glad to know that he is in the best of health, and hopes shortly to prove that he has not forgotten his ‘game‘ daring his sojourn in the East.
On 14 March 1896, following Stanley’s death, the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News published an obituary that included this information:
When the days of frequent money matches began to wane, and the place of contests of 1,000 up for a genuine stake was taken by games which lasted a week or a fortnight for hypothetical “purses” and “prizes,” Stanley was fortunate enough to get an engagement in India at the court or the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. His duties consisted solely in giving the Maharajah lessons in billiards, and in playing occasional exhibitions for the entertainment of the Maharaja’s guests, for which he received a large salary, had the use of nearly all the horses in the stables, and, indeed, had an altogether exceptional berth.
Unfortunately, unsubstantiated speculation about a meeting in India in 1885 between Chamberlain and John Roberts Jr. published by F. H. Cumberlege and Compton Mackenzie has been used by journalists without fact-checking.
A comparison of a few dates is sufficient to demonstrate the inaccuracy of this version.
Sir Nripendra Narayan, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, in his book Thirty-seven years of big game shooting in Cooch Behar, the Duars, and Assam, wrote:
Towards the end of February, General Sir Frederick (now Earl) Roberts, General Stewart, General Godfrey Clark, Dr. (afterwards Sir Benjamin) Simpson, Colonel (now General) Pole Carew, Neville Chamberlain, Hume, Gordon, Major Garth, G. Garth, Bignell and myself set out.
Therefore, it is evident that the dinner must have taken place in February 1885.
Let us now examine the information published by the English Amateur Billiards Association regarding the year 1885:
On 1st February 1885 a meeting was called at the offices of the Sportsman newspaper to discuss the formalising of a common set of rules for the game. It was attended by most of the leading players and trade representatives with Mr. A. H. Collis-Orme chairing the meeting. Here it was proposed by the Chairman that an Association be formed.
At this stage there was still no though of forming an Association and it was only after a suggestion by Mr. Collis-Orme that this was agreed. Hardly underestimating their own importance the full title given to the association was “The Billiard Association of Great Britain and Ireland, India and the Colonies”.
A group of players were charged with producing a set of rules which would become the standard for the game. The players involved were John Roberts Jnr (Chairman) John Roberts Sen; William Cook; Joseph Bennett; Fred Bennett; W. J. Peall; Billy Mitchell; John North; Tom Taylor; Joe Sala and George Collins. The Billiard Association, as it was known, met week by week in a room set aside for them by Messrs. Bertram & Roberts in the dining gallery at the Royal Aquarium. The task was eventually completed on 21st September 1885 and the new rules were published shortly afterwards
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The predominant influence still maintained over the new association by the Newspaper would soon result in an irrevocable split with John Roberts, who would refuse to recognise the authority of the Association for the rest of his life. However, in its earliest days, Roberts comforted by his prominent position in re-drafting the rules now decided to play for the Championship again. He issued a challenge to Cook who had been allowed to hold the title for over three years. As Cook failed to respond within the stipulated time the title and trophy was passed to Roberts in February 1885.
Apparently regretting letting the trophy slip so easily from his grasp, Cook immediately issued his own challenge. This was immediately accepted and a match was arranged for the end of March 1885.
The format of the championship had been changed under the new Billiard Association rules to 3,000 up played over three days and the venue was set at the Argyll Billiard Hall, (previously known as the Palais Royal) Argyll Street, London from 30th March-1st April 1885.
Could John Roberts have visited India between 1 February and 30 March 1885 if the journey, made one way in the late nineteenth century, typically took at least three weeks? This assumption is demonstrably unrealistic.
I would like to conclude with one more argument. If John Roberts had learned the rules of snooker back in 1885 and met its creator, why did he keep this information secret until the end of 1893? During a tour of the USA, he saw snooker being played by local billiard players and was so delighted that he became its ardent supporter and started to spread it in the clubs of Great Britain. This is how John Roberts’ son describes it:
The Billiard Player. September, 1938
John Robert’s son speaks
MR. JOHN W. ROBERTS—yes, he’s the son of the John Roberts—sends us a chatty letter from Calcutta. He tells the story of how his famous father “discovered” the game of snooker in the United States—new light on an old, unfinished argument.
“It was Slosson, the great American carom player,” writes Mr. Roberts, ” who introduced my father to the game. Of course the balls were of the usual American size, round about 2½ ins. or 2 5/8 ins., the six coloured balls (ivory) were numbered on both sides of the white portion, the middle of the balls having deep coloured bands, yellow 2, green 3, brown 4, blue 5, pink 6 and black 7.
The usual 15 red and the player’s ball included the set.
Thanks, Mr Slosson
“My FATHER WAS SO taken up with this game that he not only brought over a set of these balls to England, but he also brought over three American players, Slosson being one of them; I think Ives was another,” goes on Mr. Roberts.
“The first game of snooker which I witnessed by these American players caused some little sensation at the time, but what delighted the audience most were Slosson’s trick shots. One such was the placing of the 22 snooker balls in an angle of one of the corner pockets, playing each ball with the cue round the table, one after the other, and bringing them all to rest in an angle of the pocket nearest to the pocket from which he had played, no ball touching another in its progress round the table.”