To the table

The TV series Downton Abbey, the second film incarnation of which is soon to appear in our cinemas, has a lot to answer for when it comes to people’s perceptions of what to expect from a shooting weekend at a big country house. Certainly, that is what James Hervey-Bathurst, former head of the Historic Houses Association and owner of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, has found. “From a Shooter’s point of view, a billiards room to play snooker in is part of the Downton Abbey experience. It is what guests expect to find – rather like a labrador.”

But it is not just Downton that has led to this sense of snooker being a guaranteed pastime at stately homes. The Field has had its own role to play. In the days when it enjoyed a regular snooker column, written by one WG Clifford, a noted author on the subject, it became a key player in establishing the game’s origins.

During the 1930s, a flurry of letters appeared in the magazine on the subject of who invented the game. Various theories abounded. Was it created by a ‘Colonel Snooker’ of the Royal Artillery? Did it come