|
History of Bar Billiards
The similarity of Bar Billiards with Bagatelle, the pub game that was most
popular for at least a century after 1770 is so evident that it seems highly
likely that Bar Billiards is a derivative of Bagatelle via some lineage but
that lineage is, at present, unknown. Beyond that assumed and mysterious
connection, it isn't known how Bar Billiards originated but in the early 1930s
an Englishman called David Gill observed a game called Russian Billiards (Billiard
Russe) being played in Belgium. A Russian link is therefore a possibility
but it seems more likely that the game was named so as to sound slightly exotic
to the ears of West Europeans at the time.
Gill convinced the English manufacturer Jelks to make a version of the game
which he called Bar Billiards. Pubs seemed keen to buy tables and other
manufacturers soon got in on the act. The first pub league was created
in Oxford in 1936 and shortly afterwards leagues sprang up in Reading, Canterbury
and High Wycombe. Eventually, a governing body was formed called the All-England
Bar Billiards Association which supervises the game across 18 counties, mainly
in the South of England.
There do not appear to be any standards to Bar Billiards rules and at least
one other variation is in wide circulation that utilises 4 skittles instead
of 3.
Bar Billiards is still popular in the South of England but has, unfortunately,
lost a lot of its popularity due to the emergence of American 8 ball Pool.
For more information on, see the Online
Guide to Traditional Games.
|
01727 855058 
Email Us
Established
1999
UK based
We
ship globally
