Joe Hunn's career choice in Islington, London 41 years ago proved a pivotal moment in the history of cue sports in Hawke's Bay.
"I was 16 and about to embark on a career as a telegram boy at the local Post Office," Hunn recalled.
"It was a poster which lured me to the job. There was a picture of a footballer, a cricketer and a snooker player on the poster. That Post Office had access to some fantastic sporting facilities including snooker which I took a liking to straight away ... there wasn't a picture of a telegram boy anywhere on the poster," Hunn recalled.
Hunn, 57, who moved to New Zealand 15 years ago, stopped playing when he was 26 and took it up again three years ago when he was living in Auckland. He moved to Hawke's Bay in April and when he won last weekend's New Zealand Masters title at the Tauranga Citizens Club, Hunn gave Hawke's Bay and his Havelock North Club their third national snooker title for the year.
Last month Bayden Jackson won the national men's title and his wife Tara the national women's title.