A lawn-game color brought indoors
Billiards developed from games played outdoors on grass, including croquet. When play moved to a table, the playing surface changed, but the green covering kept a visual trace of that outdoor setting. The color is a reminder of the game’s roots, not a claim that the table reproduces a lawn.
Felt does more than set the scene
The cloth also creates the surface the balls roll across. Stretched over the table’s flat bed, it provides a consistent path for shots; its texture affects how balls travel. In that sense, billiards transformed a lawn game into a precise indoor one while retaining a small piece of its original landscape: a green field beneath the players’ hands.
