Are You Ready for Some Snookball?

December 23, 2014 7:01 AM

If you built a $7,000 pool table big enough to walk around on and replaced the balls with soccer balls, you'd be playing Snookball. The sport was invented by two French entrepreneurs and there are 10 tables in that country so far. "We know this game will be popular when beer is involved," one told Sport Bible.
posted by rcade (22 comments total)

I've never had any interest in soccer, and I've always been garbage at pool, but this? I'd play this for hours.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:13 AM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

Hehe. Looks like fun. That cross-corner bank shot was sweet.
posted by CincyBlues at 7:25 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Once again, beer inspires us to greatness.
posted by eriko at 7:25 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Except they keep saying it's just like snooker, and they call it snook ball, but it's got a standard 8-ball set, which you don't use in snooker. (Snooker needs 15 red balls, plus a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black ball.)

(Still want one...with the 8-ball setup.)
posted by eriko at 7:28 AM on December 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yeah, snooker would be much harder, the table would be too crowded, and soccer balls don't have nearly the weight or momentum of a snooker ball.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:35 AM on December 23, 2014

I'm pretty sure you could build a back yard version for under $7,000. Now if only I had a back yard.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:35 AM on December 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'll just take whatever opportunity I can to post this gif.
posted by rlk at 8:26 AM on December 23, 2014 [14 favorites]

I prefer life size Foosball.
posted by miyabo at 9:21 AM on December 23, 2014

Yeah, snooker would be much harder, the table would be too crowded, and soccer balls don't have nearly the weight or momentum of a snooker ball.

A concept that might be workable for a Giant Snooker match could be one that uses the same size wooden balls that are about twice the size of croquet balls, and you had to use a mallet instead of a cue.
posted by chambers at 9:37 AM on December 23, 2014

All the rules are the same as snooker, except that you use your feet instead of a cue and the balls are replaced by footballs and all the other rules are different from snooker.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:49 AM on December 23, 2014 [6 favorites]

Pretty much anything is popular once beer is involved.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:51 AM on December 23, 2014

On a tangent, YouTube has recently decided that I should care about 3 cushion billiards which is a very difficult sport and requires an unspeakable amount of skill and yet 3 cushion billiards videos represent the full top 25% of all the most boring possible ways to arrange pixels into a moving picture.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:53 AM on December 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

This would be awesome, but I think you'd have to serve drinks in plastic cups and keep plenty of mops nearby.

Drunk people + kicking a ball + drinks on tables = chaos.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:19 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

and all the other rules are different from snooker

Sounds like your game is snarkball, sir!
posted by dhartung at 10:22 AM on December 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

I prefer life size Foosball.

It *sucks* when they shove that metal rod through your shoulders.
posted by eriko at 11:14 AM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

I'm pretty sure you could build a back yard version for under $7,000.

Seems like you could build a portable set of walls to just plunk down on any old sport field for just the cost of a bit of lumber and your time, assuming you had woodworking equipment on hand. That plus the cost of balls and paint could be low enough to make this an affordable party/tailgate game.
posted by aaronetc at 12:10 PM on December 23, 2014

This has led me to look at the Wikipedia on billiards and it appears that the earliest billiards were essentially a table-top version of a lawn game very like croquet.
posted by RobotHero at 12:20 PM on December 23, 2014

But can it be used to teach history?
posted by Zerowensboring at 1:23 PM on December 23, 2014

Vlad Dracul Foosball!
(Lawn darts sold separately)
posted by clavdivs at 4:20 PM on December 23, 2014

What isn't popular when beer is involved?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:17 PM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Trigonometry.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 10:48 PM on December 23, 2014

What isn't popular when beer is involved?

Three-cushion billiards.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:55 AM on December 24, 2014 [1 favorite]