It is commonly accepted that the game of snooker knows its origin at the British Army officers' mess in Jabalpur, India, some time in 1875, where a Colonel, Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain, suggested adding coloured balls to black pool.
The variation featured 15 reds, a yellow, green, pink and black (blue and brown were added some years later).
The word 'snooker' was army jargon for a first-year cadet. It is said that during a game a cadet missed a shot and Sir Neville said to him: "Why you're a regular snooker!"
After explaining the meaning to his fellow peers, the Colonel added that they were perhaps all snookers at this game. The term was adopted for the new variation and has been in use ever since.
It is not known whether Colonel Chamberlain was ever posted in Malta but snooker must have spread broadly across the British Empire and therefore to Malta too. When it comes to the modern history of the game, Malta is probably Europe's longest established snooker country, with an association founded in 1935 and a rich pedigree in both billiards and snooker with national championships stretching back to 1947.
In 1994, Snooker Promotions gave a new dimension to the game by introducing local fans to a superior level of play - professional tournaments. Over the past 13 years no fewer than 16 such events have been held, the first two in '94 being the Cisk Gold Malta Masters and the Rothmans Grand Prix won by Tony Drago and John Parrott respectively.
Barely two years from its introduction on the scene, the enthusiastic efforts of Snooker Promotions were acknowledged by the game's governing body, the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (now known as World Snooker). Malta was to host the 1996 edition of the European Open, a world ranking tournament on the Main Tour. That was Malta's first, but since then six others were staged here with the eighth 'ranking' title to be contested at the end of this month, an event most correlated with our islands having the title of Malta Cup.
Writing about Malta's world ranking connotation, unforgettable moments indeed, one cannot fail to refer to the winners of the past seven such tournaments.
In the European Open series we had John Parrott (1996), John Higgins (1997), Stephen Hendry (2001) and Stephen Maguire (2004) with Ken Doherty winning the Rothmans Grand Prix in 2000.
In the Malta Cup series one finds Stephen Hendry (2005) and Ken Doherty (2006). All five past winners will be featuring in the coming Malta Cup along with other players making up the world's top 16 and 16 other qualifiers.
Rankings were first introduced after the 1976 World Championship, as a means of determining seeding for subsequent competitions. This meant that the highest-ranked players automatically qualified for the final stages of certain tournaments, whereas lower-ranked players have to play a series of qualifying rounds.
Ray Reardon, who had won the championship in 1976 and 1978, thus became the first player to be officially ranked number one in the world, with 15 ranking points. Throughout the years the ranking formula continued to evolve with tournaments being added and removed from the rankings list, and adjustments made to the points system.
The third Malta Cup represents a prestigious and memorable anniversary for it will be the 200th world ranking tournament since the first one of 1976.
One hundred and ninety nine tournaments played both in the UK and elsewhere, in places like Canada, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and, of course, Malta giving the sport international exposure which definitely contributed to give snooker a global standing and representation.
Throughout these 30 years, the World Championship, always played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield since 1977, is regarded as the climax of snooker's annual calendar and the most important event of the year in terms of prestige, prize-money and ranking points.
Prize-money grew through the years from a modest total prize fund of £15,300 in the 1977 World Championship, where the winner received £6,000, to the attractive rewards of 2004, where the championship offered a total of £896,240, including £200,000 for the winner and £100,000 for the runner-up. A further £147,000 was on offer for a 147 (TV) break.
It is a fact that television has over the years contributed to strengthen the game's popularity in the UK and to its rapid growth in many other countries around the globe.
When it comes down to figures, snooker does attract vast television audiences. The 2005 World Championship final was watched by a peak figure of 7.8 million on the BBC where it was established that 45% of the UK population (25 million) watched 15 minutes or more of the coverage.
In the Far East, the snooker boom is developing at pace. The China Open staged in Beijing in 2005 was enthusiastically received and a staggering 110 million people watched live on television as Ding Junhui beat Hendry in the final to elevate himself to the status of national hero.
Today, World Snooker enjoys an excellent deal with Eurosport to beam the game into 51 different territories, with a reach of 95 million homes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Viewing figures are particularly high in countries such as Germany, Belgium and Holland. As a result, The Malta Cup, and Malta as a destination, will benefit from no fewer than 25 hours of live transmission with a substantial amount of repeat broadcast.
One of six ranking events on this season's Main Tour, the Malta Cup 2007 (www.maltacup.org) will be staged at the Hilton Conference Centre at Portomaso.
A week of world snooker at its best from January 28 up till February 4. At stake will be useful ranking points and a prize-fund of over £200,000.
The tournament, organised by Snooker Promotions (Malta) and sanctioned by World Snooker, has the Malta Tourism Authority, Air Malta, Hilton Malta and Vodafone Malta as main local sponsors.
Ranking Tournaments
• Ray Reardon was the winner of the first world ranking tournament in 1976.
• Between them they have won 116 out of the 199 ranking tournaments played. They all will be challenging for the Malta Cup 2007 - Stephen Hendry (picture - 36 victories), Steve Davis (28), Ronnie O'Sullivan (18) and John Higgins and Mark Williams (17 each).