Cued up for success

Jun 12 2007 By Iain Laing, The Journal

The recent World Snooker Championships in Sheffield saw John Higgins lift the crown, yet the North-East boasts its own world snooker champion, as Iain Laing reports.

When Pam Wood first took up a cue, the legal secretary from Tyneside never dreamed she would one day be crowned a world champion.

The 38-year-old, who works at law firm Ward Hadaway in Newcastle, started playing the game several years ago as a way of killing time between her then two jobs.

At the time, Pam was working as a secretary at Northumbria University.

She recalls: "The university's staff bar had a snooker table downstairs and one of the van drivers there taught me how to play.

"I used to finish my shift at 1.30pm and be straight on the table and play all afternoon before starting my second job - working at a bar - at 7pm."

After a four-year break while she completed an LLB (Hons) in Law at Northumbria University, Pam took up the game again, playing for the Wallsend Supasnooker B Team in the North Shields and District League.

In April this year, she entered the World Ladies Snooker Championship in Cambridge just hoping to qualify for the latter stages of the tournament. She narrowly missed out on qualification, but then teamed up with Christine Sharpe, from Essex, for a tilt at the Ladies Doubles crown. The dynamic duo defeated Tina Owen-Sevilton and Joanne Davies by three frames to one in the final to walk off with the world title, having beaten ladies' world number two and reigning doubles champion June Banks along the way.

Pam, from North Shields, said: "It was fantastic to win - it's a great feeling to be a world champion!

"I never expected it to happen. I just wanted to qualify for the later stages of the singles competition but I narrowly missed out on that.

"Then when I saw we were playing June Banks and Shirley Ridley in the quarter-finals of the doubles, I thought that was that, but we beat them 3-2 and went on to win the title."

Not content with winning the Ladies Doubles' title, Pam almost scooped a double world championship win when she teamed up with Wallsend snooker ace and former world under-21 champion Gary Wilson in the Mixed Doubles event.

The pair beat reigning Ladies World Champion Reanne Evans and her partner Mark Allan - a professional snooker player - in the semi-final only to lose 3-1 in the final to Joe Perry - ranked number 13 in the world in men's professional snooker - and England ladies pool player Leah Willetts.

Pam says: "We won the first frame and almost won the second, but they came back to beat us."

The newly crowned world champion is not resting on her laurels however. Pam is now practising for the new season and is aiming to beat her highest break, which so far is 56 in tournament play and an impressive 99 in practice.

She is also on the look-out for sponsorship to help with expenses for the forthcoming season.

Pam says: "The top players in men's snooker earn hundreds of thousands of pounds, but the women's game does not attract anywhere near that amount of money so it is difficult to get up to the same kind of standards."

Whilst she is on the look-out for financial backing to help improve her game still further, Pam has also used her skills on the snooker table to help others. She warmed up for her success at the World Championships with a 10-hour charity marathon in March, raising more than £370 for Comic Relief from her efforts.

Jamie Martin, managing partner at Ward Hadaway, says: "Well done to Pam - it is great to know that we have a real world champion at the firm."