Angles of Approach

Ask almost any snooker fan to name the greatest player in the history of the sport, and they will tell you it’s Ronnie O’Sullivan. This isn’t really a matter of facts and figures, although O’Sullivan, whose professional career has now spanned over thirty years, does indeed come out on top by almost any statistical measure. If you really want to know why he’s considered the greatest, you have to watch him play the game.

Snooker is related to, but distinct from, other cue games like billiards and eight-ball pool. One key difference between snooker and pool is that snooker tables are bigger. A lot bigger. Two reasonably tall men could lie down end to end along the length of a snooker table and still not reach the corners. A standard pool table has a total playing area of about twenty-seven feet; a snooker table’s surface is about seventy-two square feet. What’s more, the pockets on a snooker table are actually smaller—about three and a half inches wide.