Snooker

Snooker (pronounced UK: /ˈsnuːkər/ SNOO-kər, US: /ˈsnʊkər/ SNUUK-ər) is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white , fifteen red balls, and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black—collectively called the colours. Using a cue stick, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the to other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each time the opposing player or team commits a . An individual of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker ends when a player reaches a predetermined number of frames.

Snooker gained its identity in 1875 when army officer Neville Chamberlain, stationed in Ootacamund, Madras, and Jabalpur, devised a set of rules that combined black pool and pyramids. The word snooker was a well-established derogatory term used to describe inexperienced or first-year military personnel. In the early 20th century, snooker was predominantly played in the United Kingdom where it was considered a "gentleman's sport" until the early 1960s, before growing in popularity as a national pastime and eventually spreading overseas. The standard rules of the game were first established in 1919 when the Billiards Association and Control Club was formed. As a professional sport, snooker is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

The World Snooker Championship first took place in 1927. Joe Davis, a key figure and pioneer in the early growth of the sport, won fifteen successive world championships between 1927 and 1946. The "modern era" of snooker began in 1969 after the broadcaster BBC commissioned the television series Pot Black, later airing daily coverage of the World Championship, which was first televised in 1978. Key figures in the game were Ray Reardon in the 1970s, Steve Davis in the 1980s, and Stephen Hendry in the 1990s, each winning the World Championship at least six times. Since 2000, Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the most world titles.

Top professional players compete in regular tournaments around the world, earning millions of pounds on the World Snooker Tour, a circuit of international events featuring competitors of many different nationalities. The World Championship, the UK Championship, and the Masters together make up the Triple Crown Series, considered by many players to be the most highly valued titles. Although the main professional tour is open to women, female players also compete on a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker. Competitive snooker is also available to non-professional players, including seniors and people with disabilities. The popularity of snooker has led to the creation of many variations based on the standard game, but using different rules or equipment, including six-red snooker, the short-lived "snooker plus", and the more recent Snooker Shoot Out version.

## History

Snooker originated in the second half of the 19th century. In the 1870s, billiards was popular among British Army officers stationed in Jubbulpore, India, and several variations of the game were devised during this time. A similar game, which originated at the Officers' Mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in 1875, combined the rules of two pool games: pyramid pool, played with fifteen red balls positioned in a triangle; and black pool, which involved the potting of designated balls. Snooker was further developed in 1882 when its first set of rules was finalised by British Army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, who helped devise and popularise the game at Stone House in Ootacamund on a table built by Burroughes & Watts that had been brought to India by boat. The word snooker was, at the time, a slang term used in the British Army to describe new recruits and inexperienced military personnel; Chamberlain used it to deride the inferior performance of a young fellow officer at the table.

Snooker featured in an 1887 issue of the Sporting Life newspaper in England, which led to a growth in popularity. Chamberlain was revealed as the game's inventor, 63 years after the fact, in a letter to The Field magazine published on 19 March 1938. Snooker became increasingly popular across the Indian colonies of the British Raj, and in the United Kingdom, but it remained a game mainly for military officers and the gentry; many gentlemen's clubs that had a snooker table would not allow non-members inside to play. (Reflecting the game's aristocratic origins, the majority of tournaments on the professional circuit still require players to wear waistcoats and bow ties, although the necessity for this attire has been questioned.) To cater for the growing interest, smaller and more open snooker clubs were formed. The Billiards Association (formed 1885) and the Billiards Control Club (formed 1908) merged to form the Billiards Association and Control Club (BA&CC) and a new, standardised set of rules for snooker was first established in 1919. The possibility of a drawn game was abolished by the use of a as a tiebreaker. These rules are similar to the ones used today, although rules for a minimal point penalty were imposed later.

Played in 1926 and 1927, the first World Snooker Championship—then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker—was won by Joe Davis. A Women's Professional Snooker Championship (now the World Women's Snooker Championship) was created in 1934 for top female players. As a professional English billiards and snooker player himself, Davis raised the game from a recreational pastime to a professional sporting activity. Davis won all fifteen tournaments held until 1946, when he retired from the championships. However, snooker declined in popularity in the post-war era; the 1952 World Snooker Championship was contested by only two players and was replaced by the World Professional Match-play Championship, which was also discontinued in 1957. In an effort to boost popularity of snooker, Davis introduced a variation known as "snooker plus" in 1959, which added two extra colours, but this version of the game was short-lived. A world championship for top amateur players, now known as the IBSF World Snooker Championship, was founded in 1963, and the official world championship was revived on a challenge basis in 1964.

The BBC first launched its colour television service in July 1967. In 1969, David Attenborough, then the controller of BBC2, commissioned the snooker tournament television series Pot Black, primarily to showcase the potential of the BBC's new colour television service, as the green table and multi-coloured balls provided an ideal opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the new broadcasting technology. The series became a ratings success and was, for a time, the second-most popular show on BBC2 behind Morecambe and Wise. In the same year, the 1969 World Snooker Championship reverted to a knockout tournament format, with eight players competing. Due to these developments, the year 1969 is taken to mark the beginning of snooker's modern era. The World Snooker Championship moved in 1977 to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, where it has been staged ever since, and the 1978 World Snooker Championship was the first to receive daily television coverage. Snooker quickly became a mainstream sport in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and much of the Commonwealth, and has remained consistently popular since the late 1970s, with most of the major tournaments being televised. In 1985, an estimated 18.5 million viewers stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch the conclusion of the World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, a record viewership in the UK for any broadcast on BBC Two or any broadcast after midnight.

As professional snooker grew as a mainstream sport, it became heavily dependent on tobacco advertising. Cigarette brand Embassy sponsored the World Snooker Championship for 30 consecutive years from 1976 to 2005, one of the longest-running deals in British sports sponsorship. In the early 2000s, a ban on tobacco advertising led to a reduction in the number of professional tournaments, which decreased from twenty-two events in 1999 to fifteen in 2003. The sport had become more popular in Asia with the emergence of players such as Ding Junhui and Marco Fu, and still received significant television coverage in the UK—the BBC dedicated 400 hours to snooker in 2007, compared to just 14 minutes 40 years earlier. However, the British public's interest in snooker had waned significantly by the late 2000s. Warning that the sport was "lurching into terminal crisis", The Guardian newspaper predicted in 2010 that snooker would cease to exist as a professional sport within ten years. In the same year, promoter Barry Hearn gained a controlling interest in the World Snooker Tour, pledging to revitalise the "moribund" professional game.

Over the following decade, the number of professional tournaments increased, with 44 events held in the 2019–20 season. Snooker tournaments were adapted to make them more suitable for television audiences, with some tournaments being played over a shortened duration, or the Snooker Shoot Out, which is a timed, one- competition. The prize money for professional events increased, with the top players earning several million pounds over the course of their careers. However, lower-ranked professional players struggled to make a living from the sport, especially after paying tournament entry fees, travel, and other expenses. Players including 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy have claimed that a 128-player professional tour is financially unsustainable. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the professional tour was confined to events played within the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the 2022–23 season, only two professional ranking tournaments were played outside the UK, the European Masters in Fürth and the German Masters in Berlin, while lucrative Chinese events remained off the calendar. Stephen Maguire in 2023 criticised the World Snooker Tour and World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, claiming that "the game is dying right in front of our eyes", and stating that some players ranked within the world's top 30 were seeking jobs outside the sport due to lack of earning potential from tournaments.

Snooker referees are an integral part of the sport, and some have become well-known personalities in their own right. Len Ganley, John Street, and John Williams together refereed 17 of the first 20 World Snooker finals held at the Crucible Theatre. Since 2000, non-British and female referees have become more prominent in the sport. Dutch referee Jan Verhaas became the first non-Briton to referee a World Championship final in 2003, while Michaela Tabb became the first woman to do so in 2009. Tabb was the only woman refereeing on the professional tour when she joined it in 2002, but tournaments now routinely feature female referees such as Desislava Bozhilova, Maike Kesseler, and Tatiana Woollaston.

## Gameplay

### Equipment

A standard full-size snooker table measures 12 ft × 6 ft (365.8 cm × 182.9 cm), with a rectangular measuring 11 ft 8.5 in × 5 ft 10.0 in (356.9 cm × 177.8 cm). The playing surface is surrounded by small along each side of the table. The height of the table from the floor to the top of the cushions is 2 ft 10.0 in (86.4 cm). The table has six , one at each corner and one at the centre of each of the two longer side cushions. One drawback of using a full-size table is the amount of space required to accommodate it, which limits the locations where the game can easily be played. The minimum room size that allows space on all sides for comfortable cueing is 22 ft × 16 ft (6.7 m × 4.9 m). While pool tables are common to many pubs, snooker tends to be played either in private settings or in public snooker halls. The game can also be played on smaller tables, with variant table sizes including 10 ft × 5 ft (305 cm × 152 cm), 9 ft × 4.5 ft (274 cm × 137 cm), 8 ft × 4 ft (244 cm × 122 cm), and 6 ft × 3 ft (183 cm × 91 cm)

The cloth on a snooker table is usually a form of tightly woven woollen green baize, with a directional nap that runs lengthwise from the end of the table to the far end near the . The nap affects the speed and trajectory of the balls, depending on the direction of the shot and whether any is placed on the ball. Even if the is struck in precisely the same manner, the effect of the nap will differ according to whether the ball is directed towards the baulk line or towards the opposite end of the table. A snooker ball set consists of twenty-two unmarked balls: fifteen , six , and one white cue ball. The six colours are one each of yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black, although the brown and blue balls were not a part of the original rules. Each ball has a diameter of 2+1⁄16 inches (52.5 mm). At the start of the game, the red balls are racked into a tightly packed equilateral triangle and the six colours are positioned at designated on the table. The cue ball is placed inside the "D" ready for the shot. Each player has a cue stick (or simply a "cue"), not less than 3 ft (91.4 cm) in length, which is used to strike the cue ball. The of the cue must only make contact with the cue ball and is never used for striking any of the reds or colours directly.

Snooker accessories include: for the tip of the cue, used to help apply on the cue ball; various sorts of , such as the or for playing shots that are difficult to play by hand; for lengthening the cue stick; a for the reds; and a which is typically attached to a wall near the snooker table. A traditional snooker scoreboard resembles an abacus and records the scored by each player for the current frame in units and twenties, as well as the frame scores. A simple scoring bead is sometimes used, called a "scoring string" or "scoring wire". Each segment of the string (bead) represents one point as the players can move one or several beads along the string.

### Rules

#### Objective

A player wins a frame by scoring more points than their opponent. At the start of a frame, the are positioned on the table as shown in illustration A. Starting with the cue ball in the "D", the first player executes a break-off shot by striking the cue ball with the tip of their cue, aiming to hit any of the red balls in the triangular . The players then take alternating at playing shots, with the aim of a red ball into a pocket and thereby scoring one point. Failure to make contact with a red ball constitutes a , which results in penalty points being awarded to the opponent. At the end of each shot, the cue ball remains in the position where it has come to rest (unless it has entered a pocket, where it is returned to the "D") ready for the next shot. If the cue ball finishes in contact with an object ball, or a ball that could be an object ball, a is called. The player must then play away from that ball without moving it, or else the player will concede penalty points. When playing away from a touching ball, the player is not required to strike another object ball.

When a red ball enters a pocket, the striker must then pot a coloured ball (or "colour") of their choice. If successful, the value of the potted colour is added to the player's score, and the ball is returned to its designated spot on the table. (If a designated spot is unavailable, the colour is respotted on the spot of the highest available colour; if no spots are available, the colour is respotted as close as possible to its own spot without touching the obstructing ball towards the top cushion.) The player must then pot another red ball followed by another colour. The process of alternately potting reds and colours continues until the striker fails to pot the desired object ball or commits a foul—at which point the opponent comes to the table to start the next turn—or when there are no red balls remaining. Points accumulated by potting successive object balls are called a "" (see Scoring below). At the start of each player's turn, the objective is to first pot a red ball, unless all reds are off the table, or the player has been awarded a , which allows them to nominate another object ball instead of a red. The cue ball may contact an object ball directly or it can be made to bounce off one or more cushions before hitting the required object ball.

The game continues until every red ball has been potted and only the six colours and the cue ball are left on the table. The colours must next be potted in the ascending order of their values, from lowest to highest, i.e. first (worth two points), then (three points), (four points), (five points), (six points), and finally (seven points); each colour remains in the pocket after being potted. When the final ball is potted, the player with the most points wins the frame. If there are not enough points remaining on the table for a player to win the frame, that player may offer to concede the frame while at the table (but not while their opponent is still at the table); a frame concession is a common occurrence in professional snooker. Players will often play on even when there are not enough points available for them to win, hoping to force their opponent into playing foul shots by laying . These are shots that are designed to make playing a legal shot harder, such as leaving another ball between the cue ball and the object ball.

If the scores are equal when all of the object balls have been potted, the black is used as a tiebreaker. In this situation, called a "", the black ball is returned to its designated spot and the cue ball is played , meaning that it may be placed anywhere on or within the lines of the "D" to start the tiebreak. The referee then tosses a coin and the winner of the toss decides who takes the first strike. The game continues until one of the players either pots the black ball to win the frame, or commits a foul (losing the frame).

Professional and competitive amateur matches are officiated by a referee, who is charged with ensuring the proper conduct of players and making decisions "in the interests of fair play". The responsibilities of the referee include announcing the points scored during a break, determining when a foul has been committed and awarding penalty points and free balls accordingly, replacing colours onto their designated spots after they are potted, restoring the balls to their previous positions after the "miss" rule has been invoked (see Scoring), and cleaning the cue ball or any object ball upon request by the striker. Another duty of the referee is to recognise and declare a stalemate when neither player is able to make any progress in the frame. If both players agree, the balls are returned to their starting positions and the frame is restarted (known as a ""), with the same player taking the break-off shot as before. Professional players usually play the game in a sporting manner, declaring fouls they have committed which the referee has not noticed, acknowledging good shots from their opponent, and holding up a hand to apologise for a fortunate shot, known as a "fluke".

#### Scoring

Points in snooker are gained from potting the object balls in the correct sequence. The total number of consecutive points (excluding fouls) that a player amasses during one to the table is known as a "break". A player could achieve a break of 15, for example, by first potting a red followed by a black, then another red followed by a pink, before failing to pot the next red. Breaks of 100 points or more are referred to as a century break, and are recorded over the career of a professional player. A maximum break in snooker is achieved by potting all reds with blacks, then potting all six colours, yielding 147 points; this is often known as a "147" or a "maximum". As of 25 September 2022, there have been 178 officially confirmed maximum breaks achieved in professional competition.

Penalty points are awarded to a player when a foul is committed by the opponent. A foul can occur for various reasons, such as sending the cue ball into a pocket, or failing to hit the object ball. The latter is a common foul committed when a player fails to escape from a "", where the previous player has left the cue ball positioned such that no legal ball can be struck directly in a straight line without being wholly or partially obstructed by an illegal ball. Fouls incur a minimum of four penalty points unless a higher-value object ball is involved in the foul, up to a maximum of seven penalty points where the black ball is concerned. When a foul is committed, the offender's turn ends and the referee announces the penalty. All points scored in the break before the foul was committed are awarded to the striker, but no points are scored for any ball pocketed during the foul shot.

If dissatisfied with the position left after a foul, the next player may nominate the opponent who committed the foul to play again from where the balls have come to rest. If the referee has also called a "miss"—meaning that the referee has deemed the opponent not to have made their best possible attempt to hit the object ball—the player has the option of having the balls replaced to their original positions and forcing the opponent to play the shot again. If, after a foul, the next player cannot cleanly strike both sides of the object ball, the referee may call a free ball, allowing the player to nominate any other ball in place of the object ball they might normally have played. If a player is awarded a free ball with all 15 red balls still in play, they can potentially make a break exceeding 147, with the highest possible being a 155 break, achieved by nominating the free ball as an extra red, then potting the black as the additional colour after potting the free-ball red, followed by the 15 reds with blacks, and finally the colours. Jamie Cope was the first player to achieve a verified 155 break during a practice frame in 2005, with other players such as Alex Higgins claiming to have made a similar break.

One of snooker is called a "frame". A snooker generally consists of a predetermined number of frames. Most matches in current professional tournaments are played as the best of 7, 9, or 11 frames, with finals usually the best of 17 or 19 frames. The World Championship uses a longer format, with matches ranging from the best of 19 frames in the first round to best of 35 for the final, which is played over four of play held over two days. Some early world finals had much longer matches, such as the 1947 World Snooker Championship, which was played over the best of 145 frames.

## Governance and tournaments

### Professional

Professional snooker players compete on the World Snooker Tour, which is a circuit of world ranking tournaments and invitational events held throughout the snooker season. All competitions are open to professional players who have qualified for the tour, and selected amateur players, but most events include a separate qualification stage. Players can qualify for the tour by virtue of their position in the world rankings from prior seasons, by winning continental championships, or through the Challenge Tour or Q School events. Players on the World Snooker Tour generally gain a two-year "tour card" for participation in the events. Beginning in the 2014–15 season, some players have also received invitational tour cards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the sport; these cards are issued at the discretion of the World Snooker Board, and have been awarded to players including Steve Davis, James Wattana, Jimmy White, and Stephen Hendry. Some additional secondary tours have been contested over the years. A two-tier structure was adopted for the 1997–98 snooker season; comprising six tournaments known as the WPBSA Minor Tour was open to all professionals, but only ran for one season. A similar secondary UK Tour was first played from the 1997–98 season, which was renamed the Challenge Tour in 2000, Players Tour Championship in 2010 and returned as the Challenge Tour in 2018.

The global governing body for professional snooker is the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), founded as the Professional Billiard Players' Association. The WPBSA owns and publishes the official rules of snooker, and has overall responsibility for policy-making in the professional sport of snooker. World Snooker Ltd is responsible for the professional tour which is owned by both the WPBSA and Matchroom Sport.

#### World rankings

Every player on the World Snooker Tour is assigned a position on the WPBSA's official world ranking list, which is used to determine the seedings and the level of qualification each player requires for the tournaments on the professional circuit. The current world rankings are determined using a two-year rolling points system, where points are allocated to the players according to the prize money earned at designated tournaments. This "rolling" list is maintained and updated throughout the season, with points from tournaments played in the current season replacing points earned from the corresponding tournaments of two seasons ago. Additionally, "one-year" and "two-year" ranking lists are compiled at the end of every season, after the World Championship; these year-end lists are used for pre-qualification at certain tournaments and for tour-card guarantees.

The top 16 players in the world ranking list, generally regarded as the "elite" of the professional snooker circuit, are not required to pre-qualify for some of the tournaments, such as the Shanghai Masters, the Masters and the World Snooker Championship. Certain other events, such as those in the Players Series, use the one-year ranking list to qualify; these use the results of the current season to denote participants. As of the 2020–21 season, there are 128 places available on the World Snooker Tour, with players either in the top 64 on the official ranking list, or finishing as one of the top eight prize money earners during the most recent season, guaranteed a tour place for the next season, this being assessed after the World Championship.

#### Tournaments

The oldest current professional snooker tournament is the World Snooker Championship, which has taken place as an annual event most years since 1927. Hosted since 1977 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the championship was sponsored by tobacco company Embassy from 1976 to 2005, and has since been sponsored by various betting companies after the introduction of an EU-wide ban on advertising tobacco products. The Triple Crown tournaments are televised in the UK by the BBC, while most other tournaments are broadcast on the Eurosport network, or ITV Sport, as well as numerous other broadcasters internationally.

The World Championship is the most highly valued title in professional snooker, both in terms of financial reward (the tournament has carried a £500,000 winner's prize since 2019), ranking points, and prestige. The UK Championship, held annually since 1977, is considered to be the second most important ranking tournament, after the World Championship. These two events, and the annual non-ranking Masters tournament, make up the Triple Crown Series; being some of the oldest competitions on the professional circuit, the Triple Crown events are valued by many players as the most prestigious. Only eleven players have won all three Triple Crown events, as of 2022.

Snooker has faced criticism for matches taking too long. In response, Matchroom Sport chairman Barry Hearn introduced a series of timed tournaments. The shot-timed Premier League Snooker was held between 1987 and 2012, with seven players invited to compete at regular United Kingdom venues, and was televised on Sky Sports. Players had twenty-five seconds to take each shot, with five time-outs per player per match. Although some success was achieved with this format, it did not receive the same amount of press attention or status as the regular ranking tournaments. This event has been taken out of the tour since 2013, when the Champion of Champions was established. The event saw players qualify by virtue of winning other events in the season, with 16 champions competing.

In 2015, the WPBSA submitted an unsuccessful bid for snooker to be played at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Another bid has been put forward for the 2024 Summer Olympics through the World Snooker Federation, founded in 2017. A trial for the format for cue sports to be played at the 2024 games was put forward at the 2019 World Team Trophy, also featuring nine-ball and carom billiards. Snooker has been contested at the World Games since 2001, and was included as an event at the 2019 African Games.

### Amateur

Non-professional snooker (including youth competition) is governed by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF). Events held specifically for seniors are handled by the WPBSA under the World Seniors Tour. World Disability Billiards and Snooker (WDBS) is a WPBSA subsidiary that organises events and playing aids in snooker and other cue sports for people with disabilities. Snooker is a mixed gender sport that affords men and women the same opportunities to progress at all levels of the game. While the main professional tour is open to female players, there is also a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker (formerly the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association) that encourages female players to participate in the sport. The winner of the World Women's Snooker Championship now receives a two-year tour card to the main professional tour.

The highest competition in the amateur sport is the IBSF World Snooker Championship, while the highest level of the senior sport is the World Seniors Championship. On the women's tour, the leading tournament is the World Women's Snooker Championship. The reigning champion is Reanne Evans who has held the women's world title twelve times since first winning the championship in 2005. Evans has also participated on the World Snooker Tour and has taken part in the qualifying rounds of the main world championship on five occasions, reaching the second round in 2017. The most prestigious amateur event in England is the English Amateur Championship; first held in 1916, this is the oldest snooker competition still being played in the world.

### Criticism

Several players, including Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Allen and Steve Davis, have claimed that there are too many tournaments in the season, causing burnout of players. O'Sullivan played only a subset of tournaments in 2012, so he could spend more time with his children; as a result he ended the 2012–13 season ranked 19th in the world despite being the world champion. O'Sullivan played only one tournament in 2013, the World Championship, which he won. He suggested that a "breakaway tour" with fewer events would be beneficial to the sport, but none was organised. The number of ranking events on the World Snooker Tour has continued to increase, from eight in 2002-3, to 11 in 2012-13, and 15 in 2022-23.

Some leagues have allowed clubs to exclude female players from tournaments. A committee member of the Keighley league defended allowing such teams in the league as necessity: "If we lose two of these clubs [with the men-only policies] we would lose four teams and we can't afford to lose four teams otherwise we would have no league." A World Women's Snooker spokesperson commented, "It is disappointing and unacceptable that in 2019 that  [sic] players such as Rebecca Kenna have been the victim of antiquated discriminatory practices." The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Snooker said, "The group believes that being prevented from playing in a club because of gender is archaic."

## Important players

After the creation of the World Snooker Championship, snooker overcame billiards as the most popular cue sport in the United Kingdom. Joe Davis was world champion for twenty years, retiring unbeaten from the event after claiming his fifteenth world title in 1946 when the tournament was reinstated after the Second World War. He was only beaten on level terms by his brother Fred Davis, all coming after his retirement from the game. He did lose matches in handicapped tournaments, but on level terms these defeats were the only losses of his entire career.

By 1947, Fred Davis was deemed ready by his brother to become world champion, but lost the world final to Walter Donaldson. Fred Davis and Donaldson would contest the next four finals. After the abandonment of the World Championship in 1953, with the 1952 event boycotted by British professionals, the World Professional Match-play Championship became the unofficial world championship. Fred Davis won the tournament every year from 1952 to 1956, but did not enter the 1957 event. John Pulman won the 1957 event and was the most successful player of the 1960s, won the event seven times between April 1964 and March 1968 when the World Championship was contested on a challenge basis. This winning streak ended when the tournament reverted to a knockout format in 1969. Ray Reardon was the dominant force in the 1970s, winning six world titles (1970, 1973–1976, and 1978), and John Spencer won three (1969, 1971 and 1977).

Steve Davis (no relation to Joe or Fred) won his first World Championship in 1981, becoming the 11th world champion since 1927. He won six world titles (1981, 1983, 1984, and 1987–1989) and competed in the most-watched snooker match, the 1985 World Snooker Championship final, which he lost to Dennis Taylor. Stephen Hendry became the 14th world champion in 1990, aged 21 years and 106 days; he is the youngest player ever to have lifted the world title. Hendry dominated the sport through the 1990s, winning the World Championship seven times (1990, 1992–1996, and 1999).

Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the most world titles since 2000, having done so on seven occasions (2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020 and 2022), while John Higgins and Selby have both won four times (Higgins in 1998, 2007, 2009, and 2011; Selby in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021), and Mark Williams three times (2000, 2003, and 2018). O'Sullivan is the only player to have made 1,000 career century breaks, and holds the record for the most maximum breaks compiled in professional competition, having achieved his 15th in October 2018. O'Sullivan also holds the record for the most ranking titles (39) and most Triple Crown titles (21) achieved in the sport.

## Variants

Some versions of snooker, such as six-red or ten-red snooker, are played with almost identical rules but with fewer object balls, reducing the time taken to play each frame. The Six-red World Championship, contested annually in Bangkok, Thailand, has been a regular fixture on the World Snooker Tour since 2012. The ten-red game has had a World Women's 10-Red Championship held annually in Leeds, England, from 2017 to 2019.

Geographic variations exist in the United States and Brazil, while speed versions of the standard game have been developed in the United Kingdom. American snooker is an amateur version of the game played almost exclusively in the United States. With simplified rules and generally played on smaller tables, this variant dates back to 1925. Sinuca brasileira (or "Brazilian snooker") is a variant of snooker played exclusively in Brazil, with fully divergent rules from the standard game, and using only one red ball instead of fifteen. At the start of the game, the single red is positioned halfway between the pink ball and the side cushion and the break-off shot cannot be used to pot the red or place the opponent in a snooker. The Snooker Shoot Out is a variant snooker tournament, first staged in 1990, featuring single-frame matches for an accelerated format. The idea was resurrected in 2011 with a modified version that was added to the professional tour in the 2010–11 season and upgraded to a ranking event in 2017.

Other games were designed with an increased number of object balls in play. One example is "snooker plus", which included two additional colours: an orange ball worth eight points positioned between pink and blue, and a purple ball worth 10 points positioned between brown and blue, increasing the maximum possible break to 210. Introduced at the 1959 News of the World Snooker Plus Tournament, this variant failed to gain popularity and is no longer played. Power Snooker was a short-lived cue sport based on aspects of snooker and pool, which was first played competitively as the 2010 Power Snooker Masters Trophy and again in 2011, but the format failed to gain widespread appeal and was discontinued. Using nine red balls racked in a diamond-shaped pack at the start of the game, the matches were limited to a fixed game-play period of 30 minutes. Tenball was a snooker variant designed specifically for the television show of the same name, presented by Phillip Schofield, which lasted for one series. A yellow and black ball worth ten points was added between the blue and pink, and the game had a slightly revised set of rules. Snookerpool is a variant of snooker that is played with traditional snooker balls on an American pool table with the larger pockets (11ft x 5.5ft).

## See also

Cue sport


No. 1 Squadron RAAF

No. 1 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron headquartered at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. It is controlled by No. 82 Wing, part of Air Combat Group, and is equipped with Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet multi-role fighters.

The squadron was formed under the Australian Flying Corps in 1916 and saw action in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns during World War I. It flew obsolete Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s, B.E.12s, Martinsyde G.100s and G.102s, as well as Airco DH.6s, Bristol Scouts and Nieuport 17s, before re-equipping with the R.E.8 in October 1917 and finally the Bristol Fighter in December. Its commanding officer in 1917–18 was Major Richard Williams, later known as the "Father of the RAAF". Disbanded in 1919, No. 1 Squadron was re-formed on paper as part of the RAAF in 1922, and re-established as an operational unit three years later. Initially a composite formation of Airco DH.9s and Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s, it took on a specialist bomber role in the 1930s, flying mainly Hawker Demons but also Westland Wapitis and Bristol Bulldogs, before re-equipping with Avro Ansons on the eve of World War II.

Converting to Lockheed Hudsons in 1940, No. 1 Squadron saw action in the Malayan and Dutch East Indies campaigns, and suffered severe losses before being reduced to cadre in 1942. It was re-formed with Bristol Beauforts the following year, and re-equipped with de Havilland Mosquitos in 1945 for further operations in the Dutch East Indies. Reduced to cadre once more after the war ended, No. 1 Squadron was re-established at Amberley in 1948 as an Avro Lincoln heavy bomber unit under No. 82 Wing. From 1950 to 1958 it was based in Singapore, flying missions during the Malayan Emergency, where it bore the brunt of the Commonwealth air campaign against communist guerrillas. When it returned to Australia it re-equipped with English Electric Canberra jet bombers. It operated McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II leased from the USAF from 1970 to 1973, as a stop-gap pending delivery of the General Dynamics F-111C swing-wing bomber. The F-111 remained in service for 37 years until replaced by the Super Hornet in 2010. In 2014–15, and again in 2017, a detachment of Super Hornets was deployed to the Middle East as part of Australia's contribution to the war against the Islamic State.

## Role and equipment

No. 1 Squadron is located at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland, and controlled by No. 82 Wing, which is part of Air Combat Group. Its mission responsibilities include air-to-air and air-to-surface combat. The squadron is nicknamed the "Fighting First". The blazon of its crest is "the Australian Kookaburra in a diving position superimposed on the cross of Jerusalem", which symbolises the Victoria Cross-winning action of No. 1 Squadron pilot Frank McNamara in Palestine during World War I. The unit motto is Videmus Agamus ("We see and we strike").

The squadron operates Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet multi-role fighters, the first of which entered service in March 2010. Nicknamed the "Rhino", its missions include air superiority, fighter escort, land strike, maritime strike, close air support, and reconnaissance. The Super Hornet is larger than the "classic" McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet formerly operated by the RAAF, carries more ordnance, and has a greater fuel capacity. It is fitted with a 20 mm cannon and can be armed with air-to-air and anti-shipping missiles, as well as a variety of air-to-ground bombs and missiles. Flown by a crew of two, a pilot and an air combat officer (ACO), it is capable of engaging targets in the air and on the surface simultaneously. It can be refuelled in flight by the RAAF's Airbus KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transports. The Super Hornets are serviced at the operating level by No. 1 Squadron technical staff; heavier maintenance is conducted by Boeing Defence Australia and other contractors.

## History

### World War I

No. 1 Squadron was established as a unit of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) at Point Cook, Victoria, in January 1916 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Reynolds. With a complement of 28 officers, 195 airmen, no aircraft and little training, it sailed for Egypt in mid-March 1916, arriving at Suez a month later. There it came under the control of the 5th Wing of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Major Foster Rutledge, an Australian serving in the RFC, took command on 1 June. After training in England and Egypt, the unit was declared operational at its new headquarters in Heliopolis on 12 June, when it took over aircraft belonging to No. 17 Squadron RFC. Its three flights were, however, operating in isolation at different bases in the Sinai Desert, and the squadron did not reunite until December. Flying primitive and poorly armed Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 two-seat biplanes, its primary roles during this period of the Sinai campaign were reconnaissance—including aerial photography—and artillery spotting for the British Army. No. 1 Squadron pilots attached to No. 14 Squadron RFC took part in the Battle of Romani in July and August. In September and October, B and C Flights, led by Captains Oswald Watt and Richard Williams respectively, undertook bombing and reconnaissance missions in support of the Australian Light Horse in northern Sinai.

On 12 September 1916, the British began to refer to No. 1 Squadron as No. 67 (Australian) Squadron RFC. This practice continued until January 1918, when the unit officially became known as No. 1 Squadron AFC. The relationship between airmen and ground crew was less formal than in British units; squadron members recalled that "The CO is the only one who is ever called 'sir'" and that officers did not demand "saluting and standing to attention and all that rot". The unit received the first of several Martinsyde G.100 single-seat fighters to augment the B.E.2s on 16 October; although considered obsolete, the "Tinsyde" was substantially faster than the B.E.2, and armed with forward-firing machine guns. Shortly before the squadron took part in a bombing raid against Beersheba on 11 November, Lieutenant Lawrence Wackett managed to fix a machine gun to the top plane of one of the B.E.2s, using a mount he designed himself. Each flight was also assigned a Bristol Scout beginning in December, but it too was obsolete and under-powered, and the squadron ceased operating the type within three months. Other older models issued to the unit included the Airco DH.6, Martinsyde G.102 and Nieuport 17. On 17 December, the squadron's flights were finally brought together at one base, Mustabig in Sinai.

March 1917 saw the heaviest bombing campaign carried out by the squadron to date; short of its regular 20-pound (9.1 kg) ordnance, the pilots improvised by dropping 6-inch (150 mm) howitzer shells on Turkish forces along the Gaza–Beersheba line. During one such mission on 20 March, Lieutenant Frank McNamara earned the Victoria Cross for landing his Martinsyde in the desert under enemy fire and rescuing a fellow pilot whose B.E.2 had been forced down. On 26 March, No. 1 Squadron took part in the First Battle of Gaza; it suffered its first combat death the next day, when one of its B.E.2s was attacked by a German Rumpler. The unit participated in the Second Battle of Gaza on 19 April; like its predecessor, the attack was a failure for the Allies. Williams, later known as the "Father of the RAAF", assumed command of the squadron in May. Two B.E.12s were delivered the same month; like the Martinsydes, they were armed with a forward-firing machine gun and employed as escorts for the B.E.2s. By June, mechanical issues caused by hot summer weather and the threat from new German Albatros scouts were rendering the B.E.2s largely ineffective, and Williams urgently requested newer models. Modern aircraft were eventually delivered, first the Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 in October, and then the Bristol F.2 Fighter in December. "Now for the first time," wrote Williams, "after 17 months in the field we had aircraft with which we could deal with our enemy in the air."

No. 1 Squadron joined the 40th (Army) Wing of the RFC's Palestine Brigade on 5 October 1917. On 22 and 24 November, the squadron bombed Bireh village during the Battle of Jerusalem. The first of its 29 confirmed aerial victories, over an Albatros, occurred on 3 January 1918. By month's end, its complement of aircraft included five B.E.2s, five Martinsydes, two R.E.8s, and nine Bristol Fighters. The squadron supported the Capture of Jericho in February 1918. It carried out air raids and reconnoitred prior to the First Transjordan attack on Amman in March and prior to the Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt a month later; it also flew reconnaissance missions during the advance to and fighting near Es Salt and Jisr ed Damieh. By the end of March, it was equipped with 18 Bristol Fighters, which had replaced all the other types. As well as undertaking offensive operations, the Bristol Fighters served in the photo-reconnaissance role. During the last week of April 1918, the squadron moved its base forward from Mejdel to a new aerodrome outside Ramleh. Williams relinquished command in June to take over 40th Wing.

Beginning in August 1918, members of No. 1 Squadron, including one of its aces, Lieutenant Ross Smith, were attached to Colonel T.E. Lawrence's Arab army to protect it against German bombing. In September, the squadron began operating a Handley Page O/400, the only Allied heavy bomber in the Middle East and the only twin-engined aircraft flown by the AFC. That month it joined the Bristol Fighters in the final offensive of the Palestinian campaign, the Battle of Armageddon, inflicting what the Australian official history described as "wholesale destruction" on the Turkish Seventh Army. By October, the Bristol Fighters had moved forward from Ramleh to Haifa and by the middle of the month were required to patrol and reconnoitre an exceptionally wide area of country, sometimes between 500 and 600 miles (800 and 970 km), flying over Rayak, Homs, Beirut, Tripoli, Hama, Aleppo, Killis and Alexandretta. They bombed the German aerodromes at Rayak, where 32 German machines had been either abandoned or burnt, on 2 October. On 19 October, the first German aircraft was seen in the air since fighting over Deraa in mid-September, just prior to the Battle of Sharon. Smith and another pilot forced a DFW two-seater to land, and destroyed it on the ground by firing a Very light into the aircraft after the German pilot and observer had moved to safety. In the wake of the 31 October armistice with Turkey, the squadron relocated to Ramleh in December, and then in February 1919 to Kantara. There its members were personally farewelled by General Sir Edmund Allenby, who congratulated them for achieving "absolute supremacy of the air ... a factor of paramount importance" to the Allied campaign.

### Inter-war years

No. 1 Squadron returned to Australia on 5 March 1919, and was disbanded. In 1921, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was established as a separate branch of the military, and on 1 January 1922, the squadron was re-formed on paper. Its planned strength, approved by the Air Board in December 1921, was three officers and five airmen, operating four Airco DH.9s. Funding problems for the fledgling Air Force resulted in the disbandment on 1 July of No. 1 Squadron and other units established at the same time, their aircraft and personnel instead forming a single squadron of six flights under the control of No. 1 Flying Training School (No. 1 FTS) at Point Cook. No. 1 Squadron was reactivated as an operational unit of the RAAF reserve, known as the Citizen Air Force (CAF), at Point Cook on 1 July 1925. Its commanding officer was Flight Lieutenant Harry Cobby.

Like No. 3 Squadron, formed the same day at Point Cook but transferred to RAAF Richmond, New South Wales, three weeks later, No. 1 Squadron was a multi-purpose or "composite" unit made up of three flights, each of which had a different role and comprised four aircraft: A Flight operated DH.9s for army cooperation, B Flight operated Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 fighters, and C Flight operated DH.9A bombers. A third of the squadron's complement of 27 officers and 169 airmen was Permanent Air Force (PAF), and the rest CAF. No. 1 Squadron relocated from Point Cook to nearby RAAF Laverton on 1 January 1928. The RAAF retired its S.E.5s the same year, and in 1929 took delivery of Westland Wapiti general-purpose aircraft to replace its DH.9s and DH.9As. Through the inter-war years, No. 1 Squadron undertook a range of tasks including civil aid, flood and bushfire relief, search and rescue, aerial surveys, and air show demonstrations. In October 1930, a de Havilland DH.60 Moth attached to the unit conducted Australia's first crop-dusting operation, at the behest of the Victorian Forestry Commission.

RAAF squadrons began adopting specialised roles in the early 1930s, No. 1 Squadron becoming No. 1 Single-Engined Bomber Squadron. By November 1935 it was made up of two flights of newly delivered Hawker Demon fighter-bombers, and one of Wapitis. In December 1935 it was augmented by No. 1 FTS's Fighter Squadron and its six Bristol Bulldogs, which were redesignated fighter-bombers. Nos. 21 and 22 (Cadre) Squadrons were formed on 20 April 1936 at Laverton and Richmond, respectively, absorbing the CAF personnel of Nos. 1 and 3 Squadrons, which became PAF units. The same day, No. 1 Squadron was renamed No. 1 (Fighter Bomber) Squadron. This reorganisation temporarily denuded No. 1 Squadron of most of its aircraft, leaving only A Flight, with four Bulldogs and a Wapiti, in operation. The Wapiti was transferred to No. 1 FTS in July, and by the end of the month the squadron's complement of aircraft stood at four Bulldogs and one Moth.

No. 1 Squadron began receiving new Demons in November 1936. In January 1937, it relinquished its Bulldogs to No. 21 Squadron, which was to hold them until they could be transferred to the soon-to-be-formed No. 2 Squadron. By the end of February, No. 1 Squadron's strength was 12 Demons and one Moth, 11 officers and 108 airmen. The unit was redesignated No. 1 (Bomber) Squadron in August 1937. Towards the end of the year, it was plagued by several Demon accidents, resulting in a series of inquiries and a review of RAAF procedures in 1938 by Marshal of the RAF Sir Edward Ellington; the so-called Ellington Report and its criticism of air safety standards led to the removal of Air Vice-Marshal Richard Williams from his position as Chief of the Air Staff, which he had held since the formation of the Air Force. No. 1 Squadron received the RAAF's first three CAC Wirraways on 10 July 1939. As the likelihood of war increased, the squadron's role was altered to incorporate reconnaissance as well as bombing, resulting in the transfer out of all Demons and Wirraways and the transfer in from other units of nine Avro Ansons on 28–29 August 1939; at the end of the month its personnel comprised nine officers and 122 airmen.

### World War II

Following the outbreak of World War II, No. 1 Squadron's Ansons were tasked with maritime patrol and convoy escort duties. In 1940, the squadron became the RAAF's inaugural Lockheed Hudson unit; it received its first Hudson on 30 March, and by the end of May had transferred out the last of its Ansons and was operating 11 of the new aircraft. Deployed to Malaya to conduct maritime reconnaissance, No. 1 Squadron arrived at Sembawang, Singapore, on 4 July 1940. It relocated to RAF Kota Bharu, near the Malaya–Thailand border, in August 1941. Two days before the attack on Malaya, its Hudsons spotted the Japanese invasion fleet but, given uncertainty about the ships' destination and instructions to avoid offensive operations until attacks were made against friendly territory, Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham did not allow the convoy to be bombed. Shortly after midnight, local time, on the night of 7/8 December, the Japanese force started landing on the beaches at Kota Bharu, close to the airfield, and from about 02:00, No. 1 Squadron launched a series of assaults on the Japanese forces, becoming the first aircraft to make an attack in the Pacific War. The Hudsons sank a Japanese transport ship, the IJN Awazisan Maru, and damaged two more transports, the Ayatosan Maru and Sakura Maru, for the loss of two Hudsons, an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor. By the end of the day, Japanese ground forces had advanced to the outskirts of the airfield, forcing the squadron's remaining airworthy aircraft to be evacuated to Kuantan, and from there back to Singapore.

By Christmas Eve 1941, No. 1 Squadron had five serviceable aircraft. Together with No. 8 Squadron RAAF, also equipped with Hudsons, it was tasked with maritime patrols to the east of Singapore. On 26 January 1942, two of the squadron's Hudsons spotted a Japanese convoy heading for Endau, on the east coast of Malaya. It was decided to attack the convoy with all possible strength, including four Hudsons from No. 1 Squadron and five from No. 8 Squadron, together with obsolete Vickers Vildebeest and Fairey Albacore biplanes of Nos. 36 and 100 Squadrons RAF, and with what little fighter escort could be found. The convoy was strongly defended by Japanese fighters, and although all nine Hudsons returned to Singapore, several were badly shot up. The rest of the strike force did not fare as well; 11 Vildebeests, two Albacores, two Hudsons (of No. 62 Squadron RAF) and three fighters were lost. By the end of the month, No. 1 Squadron had withdrawn to airfield P.2 on Sumatra, along with several other Commonwealth units including No. 8 Squadron. It continued to attack Japanese bases in Malaya and convoys in the Dutch East Indies, relocating to Semplak, Java, in mid-February. At Semplak it took over the Hudsons of No. 8 Squadron and No. 62 Squadron RAF, giving it a strength of 25 aircraft; at one stage it was to be renumbered as an RAF squadron, but this never occurred. Heavily outnumbered by Japanese air units, which raided Allied bases with impunity, No. 1 Squadron suffered heavy losses and was ordered to withdraw its four remaining Hudsons to Australia on 2 March 1942, disbanding soon after. Although 120 of the squadron's personnel were evacuated from Java, 160 men including the commanding officer, Wing Commander Davis, were unable to escape and were taken prisoner by the Japanese; less than half survived captivity.

No. 1 Squadron was re-formed with Bristol Beauforts on 1 December 1943 at Menangle, New South Wales. By March 1944 it had deployed to Gould, Northern Territory, where it was controlled by No. 79 Wing under North-Western Area Command. Its strength at the beginning of the month was some 350 officers and men, and 19 Beauforts. The squadron commenced reconnaissance operations on 20 March, and undertook its first bombing mission on 4 April against Lautem, East Timor. It attacked other targets in Timor during May, losing two aircraft. Having undertaken 82 sorties in July, the Beauforts concentrated on maritime reconnaissance from August, using air-to-surface radar during operations from Gould and Gove. After re-equipping with de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers at Kingaroy, Queensland, in January 1945, the squadron deployed to Morotai in May and then Labuan Island in June–July. Now part of No. 86 (Attack) Wing, it flew only a few missions before the end of the war, losing one Mosquito. No. 1 Squadron returned to Australia in December 1945 and was disbanded at Narromine, New South Wales, on 7 August 1946.

### Malayan Emergency

No. 1 Squadron was re-formed as a heavy bomber unit on 23 February 1948, when No. 12 Squadron was re-designated. Operating Avro Lincolns, it was based at RAAF Station Amberley, Queensland, where it formed part of No. 82 (Bomber) Wing. The wing's aircraft were serviced by No. 482 (Maintenance) Squadron. From July 1950 to July 1958—for the first two-and-a-half years under the auspices of No. 90 (Composite) Wing—it was based in Singapore, flying missions against communist guerrillas during the Malayan Emergency. Tasked by RAF Air Headquarters Malaya, the Lincolns generally conducted area bombing missions, as well as strikes against pinpoint targets. They operated singly and in formations, sometimes in concert with RAF bombers, and often strafed targets with their machine guns and 20 mm cannon after dropping ordnance. The Lincolns were considered well suited to the campaign, owing to their range and ability to fly at low speeds to search for targets, as well as their firepower and heavy bomb load. Not having to contend with anti-aircraft fire, they flew mainly by day, but No. 1 Squadron also operated by night, the only Commonwealth unit to do so.

The squadron carried out its own day-to-day maintenance in Malaya; the Lincolns were rotated back to Australia for major work. Its original complement of six aircraft was increased to eight after the British Air Ministry requested in February 1951 that Australia augment its bomber force to partly offset the imminent withdrawal of the RAF's Lincolns to Bomber Command in Europe. The squadron was awarded the Gloucester Cup for proficiency in 1950–51 and 1954–55. It suffered no casualties during the campaign but two of its aircraft were written off: one that overshot the landing strip at Tengah in November 1951, and another that crashed into the sea off Johore after striking trees on takeoff in January 1957.

Although the original purpose of the bombing campaign in Malaya was to kill as many insurgents as possible, the impracticality of achieving this in operations over dense jungle resulted in a shift towards harassing and demoralising the communists, driving them out of their bases and into areas held by Commonwealth ground troops. Operation Kingly Pile, which involved two sorties by No. 1 Squadron and one by English Electric Canberra jet bombers of No. 12 Squadron RAF on 21 February 1956, was considered the most successful of the more than 4,000 missions conducted by the Lincolns, killing at least 14 communist troops. By the time it was withdrawn to Australia in July 1958, No. 1 Squadron had dropped over 14,000 tonnes of bombs—85 per cent of the total delivered by Commonwealth forces during the Emergency. Its service was recognised with the presentation of a Squadron Standard by the Commander-in-Chief Far East Air Force, Air Marshal The Earl of Brandon. As at 2014, the Malayan Emergency marked the last occasion that the unit took part in combat operations.

### Jet era

No. 1 Squadron re-equipped with Canberra Mk.20s after returning to Australia. The RAAF's first jet bomber, the Canberra was subsonic but had long range and was highly manoeuvrable. It had been procured partly for its capacity to deliver nuclear weapons, an ordnance option the government seriously contemplated but never acquired. Initially the Canberra's envisaged mission profile was medium-to-high-altitude area bombing but its primitive bombsight and light load made this a dubious proposition, and by mid-1961 crews were training in low-level army cooperation tactics. No. 1 Squadron was awarded successive Gloucester Cups for its proficiency in 1959–60 and 1960–61. As of January 1962, its strength was eight aircraft and 53 personnel, including 18 officers. The unit effectively ceased operations in 1968, to begin converting to the General Dynamics F-111C supersonic bomber, which was expected to enter service soon afterwards. Already controversial owing to its escalating cost, the F-111 program was heavily delayed by airworthiness concerns related to its swing-wing technology. In September 1970, as an interim measure while awaiting delivery of the F-111, No. 1 Squadron relinquished its Canberras for leased McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantoms. Although the Phantom had a multi-role capability, the RAAF employed it as a strike aircraft to maintain compatibility with the proposed F-111 mission profile. One of No. 1 Squadron's Phantoms was lost with its crew of two in June 1971, the only fatalities and hull loss of the 24 aircraft leased to the RAAF. Though not as sophisticated an aircraft as the F-111, the Phantom was a significant advance over the Canberra, and well regarded by its Australian crews.

No. 82 Wing accepted its first F-111Cs in June 1973. The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Charles Read, ordered that the new aircraft be flown with great caution initially, well within operational limits, to minimise the possibility of further damage to its reputation through early attrition. No. 1 Squadron was assigned 12 of the initial 24 aircraft delivered. It was No. 82 Wing's lead strike force, No. 6 Squadron's primary task being crew conversion training. The wing employed a centralised servicing regime, whereby all aircraft and maintenance personnel were held by No. 482 Squadron, which released the F-111s in line with Nos. 1 and 6 Squadrons' joint flying program. In February 1981, responsibility for operating-level servicing of the F-111s was transferred to the flying squadrons, which for the first time took direct control of their F-111s. No. 482 Squadron continued to provide intermediate-level servicing; major upgrades and complex maintenance were carried out by No. 3 Aircraft Depot. These two organisations merged in 1992 to form No. 501 Wing, which handed over heavy maintenance of the F-111 to Boeing Australia in 2001. Between 1977 and 1993, the RAAF lost seven F-111Cs in crashes. Three of the accidents involved aircraft flown by No. 1 Squadron: in August 1979, January 1986 and September 1993, the last two killing both crew members. In July 1996, No. 1 Squadron took responsibility for aerial reconnaissance using specially modified RF-111Cs previously operated by No. 6 Squadron. This gave No. 1 Squadron five mission types: land strike, maritime strike, close air support, long-range air defence, and reconnaissance. In May 1999 the unit was again awarded the Gloucester Cup for proficiency.

Along with its revolutionary variable-sweep wings, the F-111 was equipped with terrain-following radar and an escape module that jettisoned the entire cockpit in an emergency, rather than individual ejection seats. Its top speed was Mach 2.5 and its combat radius allowed it to reach targets in Indonesia from bases in northern Australia. Upon delivery in 1973 it was fitted with analogue avionics and could only drop unguided ("dumb") bombs. In its 37 years of service with the RAAF the type went through several upgrades, including the Pave Tack infra-red and laser-guided precision weapons targeting system, Harpoon anti-shipping missiles, and advanced digital avionics. Alan Stephens, in the official history of the post-war Air Force, described the F-111 as "the region's pre-eminent strike aircraft" and the RAAF's most important acquisition. The closest they came to being used in anger, though, was during Australian-led INTERFET operations in East Timor commencing in September 1999. Both F-111 squadrons were deployed to RAAF Base Tindal, Northern Territory, to support the international forces in case of action by the Indonesian military, and remained there until December; six of No. 1 Squadron's aircraft and approximately 100 personnel were involved. From 20 September, when INTERFET forces began to arrive in East Timor, the F-111s were maintained at a high level of readiness to conduct reconnaissance flights or air strikes if the situation deteriorated. As it happened, INTERFET did not encounter significant resistance, and F-111 operations were limited to reconnaissance by RF-111Cs from 5 November through 9 December.

In 2007, the Australian government decided to retire the F-111s by 2010, and acquire 24 Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets as an interim replacement, pending the arrival of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning then being developed. The F-111 fleet was considered to be at risk due to fatigue, and too expensive to operate as each aircraft required 180 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time. No. 1 Squadron ceased operating the F-111 in January 2009, in preparation for converting to the Super Hornet. Former F-111 aircrew, familiar with side-by-side seating and a different performance envelope, found conversion more challenging than pilots experienced in the RAAF's McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighters, which shared many characteristics with the newer model. No. 1 Squadron re-equipped between 26 March 2010 and 21 October 2011, making it the first Australian unit, and the first squadron outside the United States, to fly the Super Hornet. It became operational with its new aircraft on 8 December 2011. The multi-role Super Hornet allowed No. 1 Squadron to augment its previous offensive strike role with an air-to-air combat function. The RAAF attained full operational capability with the Super Hornet in December 2012.

In April 2014, the government purchased 58 F-35s in addition to 14 already ordered, for the express purpose of replacing the 71 "classic" Hornets of Nos. 3, 75 and 77 Squadrons and No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit. A government decision on whether to purchase a further 28 F-35s, to be based at Amberley, would depend on how long the Super Hornets were to be retained. According to Australian Aviation, continuing delays to the F-35 program had increased the likelihood that the Super Hornets would, rather than being disposed of early as originally planned, continue to be operated by the RAAF for their full service life of over 20 years. On 14 September, the Federal government committed to deploying up to eight Super Hornets of No. 1 Squadron to Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, as part of the Australian Air Task Group joining the coalition against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces in Iraq. The Super Hornets conducted their first mission over Iraq on 5 October, and their first strike four days later. According to the Department of Defence, as of 20 December 2014 the Super Hornets had flown over 180 sorties, dropped 113 weapons, and destroyed 36 ISIL targets, damaging another six. In March 2015, having flown almost 3,000 hours in over 400 missions, the detachment was replaced by six F/A-18As from No. 75 Squadron.

No. 1 Squadron commemorated its centenary in 2016 with several events including, on 8 June, a flight over Amberley by Super Hornets in concert with a vintage Bristol Fighter. On 23 November, the 12 Super Hornets operated by No. 6 Squadron were transferred to No. 1 Squadron in preparation for the former unit converting to an electronic warfare role with the Boeing EA-18G Growler in 2017. At the same time, a training flight was established within No. 1 Squadron to deliver refresher training on the Super Hornet. A detachment of No. 1 Squadron was again deployed to Al Minhad as part of the Australian Air Task Group in May 2017, replacing the legacy Hornets of No. 77 Squadron. The Super Hornets flew the last strike mission of their rotation, and the last of 2,700 sorties by the Air Task Group Hornets, on 14 January 2018. In April, No. 1 Squadron was awarded the 2017 Gloucester Cup. The squadron's training flight and six Super Hornets were transferred to the newly established No. 82 Wing Training Flight in June 2020.

## Aircraft operated

- Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2/B.E.12 (1916–1918)
- Martinsyde G.100/G.102 (1916–1918)
- Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 (1917–1918)
- Bristol F.2 Fighter (1917–1919)
- Handley Page O/400 (1918)
- Airco DH.9/DH.9A (1925–1929)
- Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 (1925–1928)
- Westland Wapiti (1929–1936)
- Hawker Demon (1935–1939)
- Bristol Bulldog (1935–1937)
- Avro Anson (1939–1940)
- Lockheed Hudson (1940–1942)
- Bristol Beaufort (1943–1945)
- De Havilland Mosquito (1945–1946)
- Avro Lincoln (1948–1958)
- English Electric Canberra (1958–1970)
- McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (1970–1973)
- General Dynamics F-111C (1973–2009)
- Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet (2010–current)

Royal Australian Air Force squadron

Aircraft squadrons of the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II

Military units and formations established in 1916