Australian 11yo brings home gold from snooker and eight ball championships

At just 11 years old, Angelo Tsikouris is a champion with six national titles under his belt.

But his choice of sport is not necessarily a popular one with his age group — Angelo plays a gentleman's sport: snooker.

He says he developed a love of the game by watching his grandfather play.

"When I was about five, he used to put me on the ground and I'd shoot a ball through a toilet roll," Angelo says.

He snuck his first game on a table at home when his dad was out grocery shopping and has been inseparable from the cue sport since.

His mother Natalie Tsikouris says initially they didn't realise how talented Angelo was, but at nine years old he won the national under-12s competition.

"When he won, we were like: Did he, did he just win?" Ms Tsikouris says.

"It's a huge achievement but it's more that he kept doing it, kept winning again."

Angelo went on to win three national junior titles in snooker and another three in eight ball last week while on a trip to the UK to represent Australia in the international blackball championships.

He wants more kids to take up table sports — specifically snooker.

"I'm the only one in Darwin that's playing snooker, or the NT," he says.

Another young champ

Angelo may be the Territory's sole young snooker champ, but he's not the only local kid with a gift for playing table sports.

Fifteen-year-old Adam Grace is the best eight ball player in the Northern Territory — and that includes adult players.

"I practise two or three hours after school, and that's every day," he says.

"I don't really do that much homework, mainly pool."

Adam travelled to Norway earlier this year to represent Australia in the under-19s category.

"It gives me really good confidence when I shoot a ball, I just like the sound of it going into the pocket," he says.

He will represent the NT at the national eight ball championships later this year, as its youngest-ever champion.

Ken Kernich, president of the Northern Territory Eight Ball Association, says there are a handful of other young Territorians who also compete in cue sports at an international level.

As for why the Territory is home to so many child champions, he has one theory.

"Maybe an air-conditioned room where you can play pool is a lot better than working out in the sunshine," he says.

"But they commit themselves to being good players, they practise, practise, practise.

"A lot of people struggle to get one ball into a pocket, [but] when you practise that much it's almost like putting marbles into buckets."