Teenage Horowhenua pool player thrives under coaching from former NZ champion

Levin pool player Ciara King, 15, was the top-placed female at a recent 8-ball chartered club tournament in Christchurch.

Everyone has different memories of the Covid-19 lockdown and what they did to pass the time.

Levin’s Ciara King, who was aged 11 at the time, remembers picking up her father’s pool cue.

She’d have games against whānau, including her father, Manu King. He was only a casual player by his own admission – but handy enough – so when Ciara began beating him regularly, he started to take notice.

What were “fun games” turned into highly competitive encounters.

Once Covid-19 restrictions lifted, the whānau, who were new to town, joined the Levin Cosmopolitan Club. The first thing Manu noticed was the club’s healthy pool scene and top-of-the-line facilities.

One conversation led to another and they discovered the club was actively trying to promote junior pool and have players like Ciara join in.

“They were very encouraging. They were amazing,” he said.

Ciara King, 15, of Levin, shows off some of the trophies she has won playing pool.

Through the club, they were introduced to former New Zealand 8-ball representative Steve Pemberton, a local legend, who offered to coach Ciara and a select group of juniors once a week.

Pemberton, 64, suffers from macular degeneration and is slowly losing his sight.

While he can still see he wants to impart some of the knowledge he learned playing pool tournaments around the world. The sport took him to Australia, South Africa, England and the United States in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Steve Pemberton is keen to pass on his pool knowledge to a new generation of players.

“I’m slowly going blind. It’s given me the motivation to pass on what I know,” he said.

“I can still see the length of the pool table though.”

For 15-year-old Ciara, who is also a keen netball player, the prospect of playing 8-ball competitively opened up a new world. Her game thrived in a short time. She joined the club in August 2022 and by early 2023 was encouraged to enter a national 8-ball chartered club competition.

In her first tournament, Ciara performed well in the singles competition and won the pairs event, so was always going to be keen to contest the 2024 event which was held last month at Richmond, Christchurch.

Ciara finished just outside the top three overall but won the trophy for being the top-placed female and also the Plate trophy for winning that final and finishing fourth overall.

“It was a great experience. Everyone is really encouraging and really nice,” she said.

She has her sights set on the next event in Papatoetoe in 2025.

Pemberton said he was currently coaching Ciara and three others but would like to coach as many as 10 juniors at a time.