Snooker The sport has become increasingly popular in China. The origin of snooker dates back to the latter half of the 19th century. In the 1870s, billiards was a popular activity amongst British Army officers stationed in India and several variations of the game were devised during this time. One such variation originated at the officers' mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in 1875, which combined the rules of two pocket billiards games, pyramid and life pool. The former was played with fifteen red balls and one black positioned in a triangle, while the latter involved the potting of designated coloured
David Gray (snooker player) to Stephen Maguire in the final. It was during this tournament that Gray scored his first maximum break – the 50th ever made in professional play – in the fifth frame of his last-32 match against Mark Selby (whom he had defeated in the 2003 Scottish Open final). His semi-final against Joe Perry was particularly memorable as Perry appeared to have won the match 9-7 by potting a colour leaving Gray requiring a snooker, but Perry himself was snookered on the next red, failed to hit it, and didn't score another point as Gray cleared the table then hit a