Snooker to a game specially invented by Satan
Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald, 18 November 1899
SNOOKER
Snooker to a game specially invented by Satan for the turning of saints into sinners. The development of low cunning to its mainspring; to advance one’s own interests at the expense of your neighbour its chief delight; and to lough at the misfortunes of others its greatest pleasure.
When Satan had completed his invention he rubbed his hands and chuckled to himself, saying this will suit the nether regions to a T, or T. H. rather, and so it came to pass in the development of the game that some of the shots were known as T.H.’s. In the early stages of the game, doubles or double-dealing was introduced, and this kind of vice was almost unknown.
One of the players with an inventive mind, and not possessed of too refined a conscience, put it into the head of Satan to quote Scripture in this wise—”One sickly sheep infects the flock and poisons all the rest.” Whether or not, for nearly all the players were smitten by this new-fangled play, this to the only instance of Satan’s quoting, but not named in the rules which follow.