Billiards and Snooker: Rules, Titles and Indian Stars

The correct answer is B, 15. A frame of snooker begins with fifteen red balls arranged in a triangle behind the pink, each worth one point. Along with these there are six colours, namely yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black, and one white cue ball, so twenty-two balls stand on the table at the start. The player must pot a red and then a colour alternately until the reds are exhausted. Option A is wrong because twelve is not the number used in any standard form of the game. Option C is wrong because eighteen reds appear in no recognised version of snooker. Option D is wrong because twenty-one is the number of balls other than the cue ball, that is fifteen reds and six colours, and it is the usual trap set in this question.

The correct answer is C, 7. The six colours of snooker are valued in a fixed order, yellow two, green three, brown four, blue five, pink six and black seven, so the black is the highest valued ball on the table and is the one a player takes after each red while building a big break. Option A is wrong because five points belong to the blue, which sits at the centre of the table. Option B is wrong because six points belong to the pink, which stands just in front of the triangle of reds. Option D is wrong because no ball in snooker is worth eight points; the highest value is the seven of the black, and the maximum break of 147 is built on repeated use of that ball.

The correct answer is B, 147. The figure is arrived at by potting all fifteen reds for fifteen points, taking the black worth seven after each red for one hundred and five points, and then clearing the six colours in order of value for twenty-seven points, giving a total of one hundred and forty-seven. A player who does this in one visit is said to have made a maximum break. Option A is wrong because one hundred and twenty is only the score from the reds and the blacks, before the colours are cleared. Option C is wrong because one hundred and fifty-five is possible only in the rare situation of a free ball after a foul, not in a standard frame. Option D is wrong because one hundred and eighty is the maximum score of three darts in darts, not of snooker.

The correct answer is A, Jabalpur. Officers of the British garrison at Jabalpur, in present-day Madhya Pradesh, added coloured balls to the older game of black pool in 1875, and Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain of the Devonshire Regiment gave the new game the name snooker, which was slang at the Woolwich military academy for a first-year cadet. The game then travelled to Britain and became a professional sport there. Option B is wrong because Shimla, though a British summer capital with many clubs, is not credited with the invention. Option C is wrong because Pune is the city of Wilson Jones, the first Indian world champion, and not the birthplace of the game. Option D is wrong because Kolkata hosted early billiards championships but is not where snooker was devised.

The correct answer is C, Wilson Jones. Wilson Jones of Pune won the World Amateur Billiards Championship in 1958 and so became the first Indian to win a world title in any sport, a landmark often asked in general awareness papers. He won the championship a second time in 1964 and was honoured by the government for the achievement. Option A is wrong because Michael Ferreira came later and won the world amateur billiards title three times, in 1977, 1981 and 1983. Option B is wrong because Geet Sethi won the amateur title in 1985 and the professional title from 1992 onward. Option D is wrong because Pankaj Advani belongs to a much later generation and is known for his world titles in both billiards and snooker, including the grand double of 2005.

The correct answer is B, the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. The World Snooker Championship, the oldest and most important event in the professional game, has been staged at this small theatre in the English city of Sheffield without a break since 1977, and the venue is so closely identified with the title that the championship is often called the Crucible. Option A is wrong because Wembley Arena in London hosted the Masters tournament for many years but not the world championship. Option C is wrong because Alexandra Palace in London is the home of the professional darts world championship. Option D is wrong because there is no such venue in Leeds; the name is a popular nickname for Alexandra Palace and is used here as a distractor.

The correct answer is A, Pankaj Advani. The billiards player from Bengaluru won both the time format and the points format of the World Billiards Championship in 2005, a double no player had achieved before, and it is for this that he is called the holder of the grand double. He had won a world snooker title as a teenager and took the English billiards gold at the 2006 Asian Games, and he has received the Arjuna Award, the Khel Ratna, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan in 2018. Option B is wrong because Sourav Kothari won the World Billiards Championship in 2018 but not a double. Option C is wrong because Aditya Mehta is a professional snooker player and not the holder of this record. Option D is wrong because Dhruv Sitwala has won Asian and national billiards honours but not the grand double.

The correct answer is B, Michael Ferreira. Michael Ferreira of Mumbai won the World Amateur Billiards Championship in 1977, 1981 and 1983, and with those three titles he carried forward the tradition that Wilson Jones had begun and which Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani later extended. He is also remembered for his very high breaks in the amateur game. Option A is wrong because Wilson Jones won the world amateur title twice, in 1958 and 1964, and so was the first Indian world champion in any sport. Option C is wrong because Geet Sethi won the world amateur title in 1985 and 1987 and then several professional world titles from 1992. Option D is wrong because Subhash Agarwal was a leading Indian billiards player of the same era but did not win three world amateur titles.

The correct answer is B, 2. English billiards is played with three balls, and a cannon, in which the striker's cue ball hits both the red and the opponent's ball in the same stroke, scores two points. Potting the opponent's white also scores two, while potting the red or going in-off the red scores three, and these values can be combined in a single stroke, which is how large breaks are built. Option A is wrong because no stroke in English billiards scores a single point. Option C is wrong because three points belong to the red ball, whether it is potted or the cue ball goes in-off it. Option D is wrong because four points can arise only from a combination of strokes, such as a cannon together with the pot of the opponent's ball, and not from a cannon alone.

The correct answer is C, Pink. The pink ball is worth six points and is placed on its spot immediately in front of the apex of the triangle of reds, which is why it is so often involved in the opening shots of a break. The full order of values is yellow two, green three, brown four, blue five, pink six and black seven, and the three low colours sit along the baulk line. Option A is wrong because the blue is worth five points and is spotted at the exact centre of the table. Option B is wrong because the brown is worth four points and stands at the middle of the baulk line. Option D is wrong because the green is worth three points and stands at the left end of the baulk line as the player faces the table.

The correct answer is B, 22. A frame of snooker begins with fifteen red balls in a triangle, six colours on their own spots, namely yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black, and the white cue ball with which the player strikes, making twenty-two balls in all. Option A is wrong because twenty-one counts only the object balls and leaves out the cue ball, and this is the commonest error in the question. Option C is wrong because sixteen is the number of balls used in the American game of pool, that is a cue ball and fifteen numbered balls. Option D is wrong because fifteen is only the number of reds in snooker, and leaving out both the colours and the cue ball gives that figure.