Billiards Essay, Research Paper
Billiards evolved from a lawn game like croquet, which was played in the 15th century in Northern Europe and in France. The word billiard comes from either “billart,” a wooden stick or “bille,” a ball. Until recently was dominated by men. Women weren t wanted in a room where pool was taking place. Now women are as much experts about pool as men. Today there are enough good women pool players that women have formed their own organization, the WPBA. It s hard for women to play billiards and develop their talents because there family and friends do not like the idea of women in the “sport” of billiards.
In the game of billiards participants shoot at plastic balls with a stick known as a cue. I m not sure how much a pool cue would be nowadays, but back in 1964, since that is the only book our library has on billiards, they cost 3 dollars. During all game of billiards participant must first strike a cue ball. The cue ball must then strike one or more of the other balls known as object balls. Participants use the cue ball to push object balls into the pockets. There are many different games of billiards, these include pool, snooker, and carom billiards.
Pool is played on a table with six pockets. Most pool games are played with fifteen object balls and a cue ball. A version of pool, eight ball is played as follows. One player will be assigned to shoot the balls numbered higher than eight and the other player assigned to those lower than eight. To win the player must shoot all of his/her balls in the pockets proceeded by the eight ball.
Snooker is a more popular game of billiards in Britain. This game uses tables that measure two by four meters in length, which contains six pockets with openings that are rounded. Snooker, unlike pool, uses a total of twenty-two balls: 15 red, 6 numbered from 2 to 7 and 1 cue ball. Players must score from pocketing the balls. They gain points for every ball pocketed. The player who ends up with the most points is the winner.
Carom billiards is played on a table without pockets measuring 1.5 meters by 3 meters, using two cue balls (one for each player) and one or two red object balls. A version of carom billiards called free billiards is the most popular variation. During this game a point is scored by caroming the cue ball from one object ball to another.