What Is a Century Break in Snooker? 100 Points, One Visit

Snooker breaks · Milestones · Updated 2026-07-31

A century break is a score of 100 or more points in a single visit to the table - one unbroken run of roughly 25 or more pots, ended only by the frame running out of balls or the player running out of position. It is the standard by which serious snooker is measured: commentators count centuries the way cricket counts hundreds.

Below the century sit the milestones that structure every amateur's progress - the 30, the 50, the 70 - and above it, the total clearance and the maximum. This guide sets out exactly what each takes, and how breaks are recorded properly.

What it takes to score 100 in one visit

The most economical century is built on red-black: thirteen reds with blacks is 104. Realistic centuries mix blacks, pinks and blues as position dictates - red-black averages 8 a pair, red-pink 7, red-blue 6 - so a century typically needs 13 to 16 reds' worth of work, plus whatever colours finish it. The limiting factor is never potting; it is keeping the cue ball on the right side of the reds for shot after shot.

How rare is a century?

At professional level, centuries are routine excellence - the leading players compile them in the hundreds over a career, and a strong tournament produces dozens. At club level the picture inverts: a 30 is a good night, a 50 marks a genuinely capable player, and a century is the wall most amateurs never climb. Many strong league players go entire seasons without one. That asymmetry is exactly why recording your high break honestly, frame after frame, is the truest measure of where your game actually stands.

Century, total clearance, maximum: the distinctions

• Century: any single-visit break of 100 or more. It can start mid-frame, with reds already gone.
• Total clearance: every remaining ball from the first red of the visit to the final black, in one visit. Often but not necessarily a century.
• Clearance to the colours / frame-winning clearance: taking everything from some point to the black - the bread and butter of match play.
• Maximum: the 147 - a total clearance in which every red is followed by a black. Every maximum is a century; almost no century is a maximum.

Recording breaks properly

A break is defined by the visit, which means a scoreboard has to know where visits begin and end - including the foul that ends one, the free ball that extends one, and the respotted colours inside one. Chalk on a slate loses all of that; it keeps the frame score and forgets the story. Recording each visit as it happens gives you the high break, the average break and the break distribution - how often you run 20s versus 40s - which is the single most honest picture of a cueist's level.

Milestones, witnessed live. Snooker Scoreboard₊ records every visit ball by ball and lights the milestones as you pass them - 30, 50, century, 147 - then keeps your high break, average break and distribution across the season. Scoring is free; your history syncs through your own iCloud. Learn more about Snooker Scoreboard₊.

Building toward your first century

1. Make 30 your routine: Four red-blacks. Practise the line-up drill until a 30 stops feeling like an event - position, not potting, is what you are training.
2. Live around the black spot: Centuries are compiled in the black's working area. Practise taking the black off its spot and returning to the reds three, then five, then eight times consecutively.
3. Rehearse the 27 clearance: Yellow to black, cue ball anywhere sensible. A century attempt that reaches the colours on 80 dies without this pattern in the bank.
4. Track the distribution, not the highlight: One lucky 60 means less than ten consecutive 25s. Watch your average break climb; the century arrives at the end of that curve, not before it.

Frequently asked questions

Does a century break have to be 100 exactly?

One hundred or more. A 100 and a 143 are both centuries; the record books simply count them once each, alongside the high break's exact value.

Can a century include penalty points?

No. A break counts only points scored from pots in one visit. Penalty points from an opponent's fouls are added to your frame score but never to a break.

What is a good high break for an amateur?

Club players are usually delighted with 30+, league standard sits around 40-60, and a competitive amateur with a century has a genuine claim to being the best player in most rooms.

How many centuries has one player made in a match?

Professional matches have seen a player make four or more centuries in a single best-of-nine. At the extreme, world finals have produced double-digit century counts across both players.

Keep reading

• What Is a 147 in Snooker? The Maximum Break, Explained
• How to Keep Score in Snooker: Ball Values, Breaks and Fouls
• Snooker Rules for Beginners: Your First Frame, Simply