Top/bottom/left/right on a snooker table

Factual Questions
1

This is something that has bugged me for a while and I’m wondering if anyone knows the reason for it.

On a snooker table, the “top cushion” is the one at the end where the black and reds are (as opposed to the bottom, or baulk cushion, which is behind the D). OK, that makes sense, you break off by standing at the bottom of the table, even if it is rather counter-intuitive when you watch it on TV where the top of the table is always at the bottom of the screen.

So why is it that the “left-hand” pockets are actually on the right of the table when viewed with the top at the top? E.g. the commentators will talk about a ball being potted into the “left middle” when the pocket in question is on the left-hand side of the screen.

Surely if the top of the table is at the bottom of my TV screen, the “left middle” pocket is on the right?

Is this just a convention to avoid confusing television viewers, or do snooker players also refer to the pockets “back-to-front” like this? And if it is just for TV, why do they think we would be confused by left/right being swapped but happy with the top cushion being at the bottom of the screen?

2

Good question - I’d say that it would just be confusing for the viewer if L and R were reversed by the commentators.

Also, there’s really no difference between the L and the R sides of a snooker table in terms of the game. It’s pseudosymmetric at the opening break - just green and yellow breaking the symmetry. The top and bottom of the table, by contrast, are completely different, different play takes place at each area, so you could see how naming conventions such as ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ would really take root and over ride any considerations of TV commentary.