TODAY marks the start of snooker’s UK Championship in York. Here are 15 snippets of snooker trivia to celebrate.

The prestigious event, which runs until the final on December 8, will feature 128 players competing for the top prize of £150,000.

World number one Mark Selby will be defending his title, with seven amateur players also included alongside other leading pros such as Judd Trump, John Higgins, Jimmy White, Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen.

Go pot-ty with these facts about snooker which we’ve lined up for you:

  • Snooker is said to have been devised in 1875 by bored army officers in India experimented with variations on billiards.
  • Sir Neville Chamberlain (not to be confused with the prime minister of the same name) is credited with inventing the game.
  • The game originally included 15 reds, yellow, green, pink and black. Brown and blue were only added later.
  • The word ‘snooker’, a slang military term referring to someone who is inexperienced, became tied to the game after Chamberlain called an opponent a ‘snooker’ after he missed a pot.
  • The first known indoor billiard table belonged to King Louis XI of France in the 15th century.
  • Joe Davis won just £6.10s.0d after becoming the first world champion in 1927. In 2013 when Ronnie O'Sullivan took the world title he pocketed a cool £250,000.
  • The quickest century break in snooker tournament play was achieved by Malta’s sharp-shooter Tony Drago at the 1996 UK Championship when he took just three minutes 31 seconds to amass 100 points.
  • The record for the fastest 147 maximum break in the game’s history is held by rocket Ronnie O'Sullivan who made his clearance in five minutes and 20 seconds at the World Championship in 1997.
  • In 2008 at the Chinese Open Shaun Murphy and Dave Harold fought out the longest frame ever recorded in a snooker tournament, taking a yawn-some 93 minutes and 12 seconds to get done.
  • The first UK Championship was held in 1977, and originally only British residents and passport holders were eligible. All pros were allowed to enter from 1984 onwards.
  • The oldest winner is Doug Mountjoy who won in 1988 when he was 46. Ronnie O'Sullivan is the youngest winner having triumphed in 1993 aged just 17.
  • The most prolific winner of the UK Championship is current I’m A Celebrity contestant Steve Davis who has six titles, followed by Stephen Hendry on five and Ronnie O’Sullivan on four.
  • Under the official rules of snooker, the referee shall, if a player is colour blind, tell him the colour of a ball if requested.
  • The first streaker at a snooker event was Lianne Crofts who invaded the match between Steve Davis and Ronnie O'Sullivan during the 1997 Benson & Hedges Masters.
  • While playing in the 1980 World Team Cup challenge, heavy-set Canadian player Bill Werbeniuk split his trousers while playing live on TV. The incident was made worse by him not wearing underpants!

Will you be glued to the UK Championship? Do you think snooker was better in its 1970s and 80s heyday than it is now? Do you think snooker should be classed as a sport or a game? Add your comments below.