Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by WonderTeam. WonderTeam Wonders, “How is snooker different from pool?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, WonderTeam!

Today’s Wonder of the Day is about a popular game. To play, you’ll need a table covered in felt, a cue stick, and a small cube of chalk. What are we talking about? Snooker, of course!

At first glance, snooker may look like the game of pool. However, the two are different in many ways. For example, a snooker table is larger than a pool table. Snooker balls are also a bit smaller, as are the pockets on the table. 

The rules of the two games are also different. In pool, each player attempts to knock a set of striped or colored balls into the pockets. In snooker, the players aim for the same set, and the balls must be pocketed in a specific order.

How do you play snooker? Each game begins with a coin toss. The winner of the toss decides which player will go first. Then, that player begins by using their cue stick to knock a white cue ball toward 15 red balls organized in a triangle on the table. The goal is to cause one of the red balls to fall into a table pocket.

The players then alternate between the red balls (worth one point) and the other colored balls on the table. The other balls must be shot in a specific order, and each has a different point value. There are yellow (two points), green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points), and black (seven points). The player who has the most points at the end of the game wins.

If a player pockets a snooker ball in the wrong order, they have committed a foul. Most often, a foul means their turn is over. In some cases, though, they also lose points. Other fouls include failing to hit any ball during a turn and pocketing the white cue ball. 

Today, people around the world enjoy the game of snooker. They even join together for national and worldwide competitions. One player many snooker experts currently have their eyes on is Hong Kong’s Onyee Ng. 

Onyee is one of only five women to win the World Women’s Snooker (WWS) Championship three times. She also became the first Asian woman to win the title in 2015. In 2018, she became the first person to win a world snooker title without losing a single round.

Onyee is currently one of the highest-ranking snooker players in her generation. She has won 16 titles to date. Onyee is considered one of the few players to rival Reanne Evans, who has dominated the women’s snooker world since 2002.

Have you ever played snooker? If not, would you like to learn? It can be a fun game to play with family and friends. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even be as good as Onyee Ng one day!

Standards: CCRA.R.4, CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.SL.3, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.W.2, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.L.2, NCAS.A.1, NCAS.A.2, NCAS.A.3

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Ready to jam? Tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day might have you singing “Rolling on the River!”