Thorold billiards champ poised to take on the world

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: A version of article was originally published by ThoroldToday on August 2.

Forget three times, Thorold resident Amber Kolchew wants the second time to be the charm.

Kolchew, 18, is the two-time Canadian Junior under-19 billiards champion and she is looking to learn from the experience of her first world championship last year in Austria.

“I went 0-2, it was my nerves,” Kolchew tells ThoroldToday, at her home-away-from home, In the Corner Billiards in St. Catharines. “I still shot well, it was just my nerves got the better of me.”

With one world tournament under her belt, she now knows what to expect as she prepares for her second WPA Predator World Championship taking place in September in Hamilton, N.Z. where she will be competing in the under-19 tournament.

“The players I played, I shoot pretty equal to them,” she says. “I have that basic idea of how they play and now I know what to do. I knew what to work on for this year.”

Kolchew’s coach, Glenn Seesemann, has watched her develop as a player after meeting her at a tournament a few years ago. He says Kolchew will be much more prepared this time around.

“She has a much better chance this year,” Seesemann tells ThoroldToday.

Kolchew got her start playing the game when her family moved from Stoney Creek to Thorold when she was 10 and the previous owners of the home left an old pool table behind. She began to learn to play the game strictly for fun but in 2020, when she was 14 and just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, she entered a junior tournament in the United States.

“I came second. It was one of my very first Junior tournaments,” she says. “So, I'm like, OK, I love this game. I really want to start doing this’ and then COVID came a couple of months later.”

While her interest waned a little during the pandemic, as soon as things opened back up her passion was reignited, and she entered the Canadian junior championships in 2022 and came second.

She had had gone undefeated until she missed a shot on the final ball of the deciding match.

“I thought, ‘OK, things are going to change now,’” she says. “I'm going to find my stroke and start playing a whole lot more.”

And play more she did, entering countless tournaments over the past two years. That work paid off with the two national championships.

Seesemann says Kolchew has a lot of potential and her focus on the game has helped her develop her game.

“She has a willingness to learn," he says. "Sometimes it's boring and monotonous but she keeps going through it. Starting here [at the pool hall] with the basics, working the way up not starting too far ahead has really helped her develop that core for the way she shoots.”

Getting to the championships can be expensive, however, and a GoFundMe campaign has been started to help raise funds for Amber to get to New Zealand for the championships.

A fundraiser is also being held at In the Corner on Saturday, Aug. 17 starting at 2 p.m. The event will feature a raffle for prizes -- including a lesson taught by Canadian women’s billiards champion Brittany Bryant -- door prizes and a chance to play a game against Kolchew for $2 a game.

Donations are also being sought from businesses and individuals for door prizes and raffle items. For more information, or to donate, Kolchew can be reached by email [email protected]. Potential donors can also contact In the Corner Billiards owner Penny Devos at 905-401-4304.