Thread Ball Snooker starts off a bit like conventional snooker in that there are a number of balls placed at fixed points on the table. The difference is that these balls are actually tightly wound spheres of very tough thread. (they have a hard spherical core, around which several yards of thread have
been machine wound)
At the start of the game each ball is securely attached to its own anchor point on the table by one end of its thread.
Every time it is struck, it unravels a bit more, leaving a line of thread in its wake. This means that even after it has been pocketed, the line remains on the table. Remaining balls can therefore become entangled with the lines left by other balls, including the ones which have been pocketed. If struck in the correct way, it is also possible to get a partially unwound ball to rewind some of its slack thread trail.
Skilful participants will be able to take advantage of this, and other aspects of the game that would only become apparent when it was being played. Unskilled players may still enjoy the game by simply knocking the balls around to create mad entanglements of the brightly coloured thread lines.
Clearly the balls get smaller as they unravel, and there are bonus points to be won for anyone who succeeds in totally unwinding any ball to its inner core during a game.