YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Is there anything you're yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...

- by CAROLINE FORD

I enjoyed watching the Snooker World Championships, but which came first: pool or snooker?

Elizabeth Matthews, Bristol

Millions of people worldwide tuned in to watch Zhao Xintong create history by winning the World Snooker Championship last week confirming snooker as one of the most popular cue sports in the world, yet it's a mere newcomer compared to pool.

Pool - or pocket billiards as it's more formerly known is an umbrella term for various cue sports and games played on a six-pocket table and it was first played in France in the 1340s.

Similar to croquet, it was played as an outdoor lawn game, but moved indoors and onto a wooden table covered with green cloth to resemble grass. Players used a mace with a handle (queue, eventually cue) to strike the ball.

It is thought billiards reached England via Spain and it became very popular with the English upper classes in the early 18th century. The earliest version of the game was played with two balls and up to a dozen players, each with their own ball, which were often numbered and coloured.

US pool came from 19th century American poolrooms with pool standing for a collective bet which were betting rooms for horse racing. To allow gamblers to pass the time between races, pocket billiard tables were installed.