We have recently been fortunate enough to acquire a number of Ivory balls are historically an important part of the history of the game of billiards. On that basis we thought some detail about a product that we take for granted today might be of interest.

In both the 18th and 19th Centuries Billiard balls tended to be made out of wood. Ivory balls were occasionally used but it was not until 1820 that they were in constant use. From that time until the 1860’s all balls used for Billiards , Snooker and other cuesports were made of Ivory. However Ivory was a very expensive and unreliable material. It is hard to believe that only four good quality Ivory balls could be made from an individual tusk.

The balls were turned to a diameter that allowed them to be further altered when they went out of true. The porous mixture of ivory made the balls very susceptible to sudden changes of temperature and extremes of heat and cold. As a result it was suggested that they should be purchased between the months of May and September. Additionally a keen player would immediately put the balls away in a box filled with cotton wool and keep them from both a heat and light source.

In 1860 a Scot called Peter Kinnear moved to the USA where he settled in New York. He set to work to discover an alternative to Ivory that was both cheaper and more resilient. He had a friend John Wesley Hyatt who was a chemist and between them they worked on a new product.  They discovered a perfect solution in the form of “Cellulose Nitrate” later known as “Celluloid”. This was the first of the modern plastics.

In 1868 The “Albany Billiard Ball Co” was formed and it produced the “Hyatt” ball which was sold in England as “Bonzoline” named after the company that imported the product. In 1901 one of the brothers involved in “Albany Billiard Co “came to England and he started to produce a ball that became known as “Crystalate” this was a composition ball with a “Cellulose Nitrate” base.

The Crystalate ball was marketed by “The Endolithic Co Ltd” and in 1909 this company in conjunction with E.J.Riley brought from Australia a sensational young player called George Gray . Due to his phenomenal performances on the billiard tables including many record breaks the reputation of this new ball was assured. The reputation was such that “The Billiards Assocaition and Control Club” made it the standard ball for all matches. Thus we had two competing companies with a similar product and as such something had to give.

In 1912 an agreement was reached between “Bonzoline” and “Endolithic” for the joint marketing of the balls. The ”Crystalate” ball was made in Tonbridge , Kent and the “Bonzoline” was made in Albany , New York. Once the Great War was over financial pressures ensured that both balls were made in one factory and by 1931 “The Composition Billiard Ball Supply Co” had been created.

However the Europeans were not to be outdone and in Germany an entirely different ball was being created. The ball , known as the “Case Resin” ball had a Phenol and Formaldehyde base. It was rather lighter than the cellulose equivalent had superb colouting and a more translucent appearance. The firm making these balls was called “Raschig”. The experiments on this ball were carried out by brilliant German scientist called “Koebner”. 

Dr Koebner was both German and Jewish and was pre Second World war in England where he wished to stay for obvious reasons. A deal was struck for Dr Koebner to stay in England and teach “The Composition Billiard Ball Co ” how to make the resin ball. Fortunately this agreement was concluded in 1937 which almost certainly saved Koebners life. Dr Koebner continued to work on his product in the UK which was marketed as the “Vitalite” ball.

The manufacturing process for “Vitalite” was much more sophisticated than the Cellulose ball. The raw materials were mixed under heat in large stills to produce a substance that looked like Golden Syrup. The substance was poured into glass flasks and then underwent a number of baking treatments lasting several days. This left a hard plastic block which then had to be ground and polished into a sphere. The addition of “Aniline” brought about the superb colour. Once World War 2 was over the “Vitalite” ball was marketed extensively in Europe and gained a wide acceptance internationally , however the “Crystalate” ball was still the most popular in the UK.

By the end of the Second World War a Cast Resin Ball was also being made in Belgium by “Saluc” now known widely as the excellent “Aramith” ball. However their domination of this market took some considerable time. In the late 1960’s the raw materails required for Cellulose Nitrate were becoming both scarce and expensive Therefore in 1972 a new “Super Crystalate” ball was produced. It was an instant success and had particularly bright and vibrant colours.  The ball was very hard and durable and was adopted by the “Billiards Association”. The ball was used extensively by Professionals and used on the TV series “Pot Black”

However Saluc were not to be outdone and as word spread of the quality of their products their market share rose considerably from the 1960’s onwards. Eventually they became world leaders and the only manufacturers of phenolic balls today. It now exports 99% of its production to 60 countries worldwide. In addition they have 80% of the world market of all cuesport balls - who says nothing famous comes from Belgium !

Snooker is not a game normally associated with bad behaviour. However over the years there have been a few , how can we put it “characters” that have become successful in the game.  Here is a Top Ten of well known rogues !

Quinten Hann
The Aussie cue master’s talents on the table were unquestionable but his temperament was. The peroxide blonde ladies’ man was known to concede frames with more than 10 reds left on the table and break off by smashing the white into the pack of reds. He once played barefoot after breaking his toe during a parachute jump and after a feisty match with Andy Hicks he challenged him to a boxing match. Hann retired from the game in 2006 days before a hearing into alleged match fixing. At the hearing he was banned from snooker for eight years and fined £10,000.

Alex Higgins
When it comes to bad behaviour The Hurricane ticks every box. The super talented Northern Irish player loved drinking, smoking and fighting - he once head-butted an official, verbally abused a referee and threatened to have Dennis Taylor shot. Higgins was the ultimate floored hero, he was a master of the baize  but with it came a hunger for booze and gambling. He played his last major tournament in 1997 and even then reacted badly to defeat and had to be ejected from the arena.

Bill Werbeniuk
“He was a great drinker but also a very good player. Only he could get tanked up with 10 pints before a match and still win.” This is how Jimmy White paid tribute to the big Canadian when he died in 2003. Wurbeniuk was a larger than life character who claimed that a hereditary tremor in his arm meant that he had to imbibe copious quantities of booze before a game to stop his arm shaking. He even convinced the Inland Revenue and, for a while, claimed lager as a vocational expense. Despite the boozing, Wurbeniuk was a top player but eventually the drink got the better of him and he quit the sport. Before his last professional match in 1990, he said: “I’ve had 24 pints of extra strong lager and eight double vodkas and I’m still not drunk.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Rocket is never far away from scandal, having made as many headlines for his antics away from the table as he has by winning countless titles. In 1996 Ronnie was handed a two-year suspended sentence, a £20,000 fine and advised to donate £10,000 to charity after he assaulted an official at the World Championships. The same year he was accused of bad sportsmanship after playing left-handed against opponent Alain Robidoux. Then in 1998 he was stripped of the Irish Masters title after testing positive for marijuana. More recently the Essex Exocet got into hot water for making lewd remarks and gestures during a press conference at the China Open.

Cliff Thorburn
The third Canadian to make the list is Cliff Thorburn, the first player to make a maximum break of 147 at the World Championships. In 1989 he was fined £10,000 by World Snooker for using cocaine. He retired seven years later.

Jimmy White
The Whirlwind upset the authorities in 2005 when he announced that he would be competing under the name Jimmy Brown. This came about after he struck a sponsorship deal with the makers of HP Sauce and announced he had changed his name by deed poll to James Brown, and would wear brown clothing when competing at the upcoming Masters tournament. World Snooker subsequently announced that he would continue to be called Jimmy White.

Peter Francisco
Silvino’s nephew Peter was also tarred with the match fixing brush. The South African was banned from snooker for five years following an investigation into his 1985 World Championship match against Jimmy White. Due to an unusually high number of bets on the score line 10-2 in favour of White, betting on the match was suspended. When the game finished 10-2 officials analysed the match and banned Francisco.

Silvino Francisco
The 1985 British Open champion was arrested in 1989 over match fixing allegations, but was cleared of all charges. He was declared bankrupt in 1996 and earned a living working in a mate’s fish & chip shop. A year later he was sent to prison for smuggling cannabis.

Tony Knowles
Lancastrian Knowles was a mainstay of the snooker circuit throughout the early eighties, but will be remembered for the saucy stories of his sexual exploits that he told to a tabloid newspaper in the 1983. After the lurid stories were published he was fined £5,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.

Kirk Stevens
Canadian Stevens was snooker’s playboy during his time at the top of the game, but his flamboyant style of play and outrageous dress sense soon led him to the wrong side of the tracks. After being accused by Silvino Francisco of being high on drugs during the final of the 1985 British Open he admitted he had a problem with cocaine and returned to Canada. Stevens soon dropped out of the top 50 and made a living selling cars and doing up people’s gardens.

 

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