Cue sports of billiard sports are a skillful set of games generally played with a cue stick that is used to strike billiard balls. The spheres then move around a cloth-covered table bounded by rubber cushions.

Historically, the umbrella term was billiards. While that name is still used frequently as a generic label for all of these cue sports, the terms have diversified over the years throughout England, Australia, Canada and America.

Depending on the dialect or context, there are many renditions of this classic amusement. There are three major divisions of cue sport games: Carmon billiards refers to matches played on tables without pockets, including among others balkline and straight rail, cushion caroms, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.

One other subdivision includes: pool, generally played on a table with six pockets including amongst others an eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool, one-pocket and bank pool. Snooker is the third subdivision which is technically Levitra a pocket game but is generally classified separately based on its historic divergence from other pastimes, as well as a separate culture and terminology that characterize its play.

More obscurely, there are games that make a better use of targets and obstacles, and table-top games played with disks instead of balls. All of these early forms of cue sports have lead pool to be the game and sport it is today.

There is a rich, fascinating history behind the sport from its inception in the 15th century to the wrapping of the body of Mary, Queen of Scots in her billiard table cover in 1586. The game is also mentioned in the works of Shakespeare and includes the famous line “let’s to billiards” in Antony and Cleopatra(1606-1607).

Other famous enthusiasts include Mozart, Kamagra Soft Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, French president Jules Grevy, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carroll, Babe Ruth, Jackie Gleason and many others. It is no wonder why there is such popularity now, considering the many great fans of the past.

These traditions have evolved from outdoor activities to indoor. While an outdoor pastime, the ground was used with balls rolling around on the lawn.

Thus, it has roots to trucco, croquet and golf; more distantly, it is related to bocce and bowls. The name of the diversion originates in France from the word billette, meaning stick.

The cue was modified from a golf club as a sister piece of equipment. The word cue came from queue, French for tail, referring to the original use of tail of the mace to strike a ball while it was lying against a rail cushion.

The current form of the stick we use today evolved in about 1800 and has been used and widely recognized ever since. The tradition has been further enhanced by striking rather than pushing the objects and by an intelligent padding that boarders the table, allowing the objects to rebound for an additional challenge.

Furniture makers originally made the balls out of wood and clay while the more expensive versions were made of ivory. The tables were made out of wood with cushions surrounding the edges.

A form of obstacle returned to the game which was originally a hazard and is now a target, the pockets. The pockets are the holes partially cut into the table bed which lead to a net to catch the spheres.

Pocket billiards has been on the rise ever since and is very popular around the world in forms of eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool and one-pocket amongst numerous other variations. Now many of those terms are interchangeable and are fairly close to their ancestral origin forms in the 18th to early 19th centuries.

The tradition became a sport in 1893, when it began to be considered more than just a pastime. There are a variety of rules and equipment to be used now for a competition.

Popular competitions include broad categories like nine-ball, snooker, three-cushion and eight-ball. Snooker comes from Britain and is organized at the international level while its rules bear little resemblance to those of pool games.

So, any applicable term is a vastly encompassing term when referring to these sports. Snooker and carom were featured in the 2005 World Games in Duisburg, Germany and the 2006 Asian Games.

The equipment is necessary and directly impacts the quality of the sport. This common game can be used for a leisurely pastime or for intense rivalry; either way, people will pass on this tradition for many years to come.

Author Bio: Jack R. Landry has played professional billiards for the last 19 years and written hundreds of articles about billiards buying viagra and pool tables.

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Category: Recreation and Leisure/Sports
Keywords: Pool Tables