NEO Panchoo, 12, with his mother, Apsra Panchoo, and Stephen Hendry, a seven-time world snooker champion. Picture: Supplied NEO Panchoo, 12, with his mother, Apsra Panchoo, and Stephen Hendry, a seven-time world snooker champion. Picture: Supplied
Durban - A 12-year-old schoolboy recently became the youngest Chinese pool referee in Africa.
Professional pool player Neo Panchoo, a Grade 7 pupil at Durban North Primary, scored higher than his mother, Apsra Panchoo, when they both wrote a three-hour exam on Chinese pool.
Panchoo, a chemical engineer, a women’s world champion and level three pool coach, said Neo accompanied her to the exam venue, and while she prepared to write the exam, he played outside with some of the other children.
Neo then overheard the adults talk about the exam and said that he wanted to write it as well.
“I spoke to the invigilator and asked if Neo could write, and we got the go-ahead,” said Panchoo.
Neo added: “I wrote the exam for fun. I scored 98%, while my mother got 97%.”
Kobus Kirstein, the World Pool
head referee, said Neo was the youngest Chinese pool referee on the continent.
Among his achievements, Neo has
a bronze medal from the national championship for managing the women’s team, and he has KZN colours for cue sports, blackball pool and Chinese eight-ball.
Panchoo said Neo was like any other child.
“He’s competitive and plays professional pool but he also loves to play soccer, hockey and being with his friends.
“He loves watching the National Geographic channel and documentaries on how things are built.”
Neo hopes to put his passion
for science and mathematics to good use.
Panchoo said: “I don’t stifle his growth with narrowed typical targets that parents tend to impose.
“He is a bright boy with the potential to follow a career in engineering, coding or one that is yet to be invented.”
Chinese pool or Chinese eight-ball is a two-player game.
It combines the play of eight-ball with the shooting style of carom billiards - and is a pool-carom hybrid game, like English billiards.