Norma (wearing a blue sei flower) and husband Geoff Black (second from right) with members of the Mangawhai pool club.
Norma (wearing a blue sei flower) and husband Geoff Black (second from right) with members of the Mangawhai pool club.
Billiards is a sport that women were not always welcome to play for many years - but times are changing and the sport is now attracting more female interest.
Norma Black-Pita Leota Toala will be the first Samoan woman to enter the World Pool-Billiard Association’s Oceania Championships tournament this year, held in Auckland.
The 55-year-old, from Kaiwaka in Northland, was born and raised in Samoa and grew up understanding that girls were not allowed to be in the billiards room - it was always men who went to pubs or clubs.
“I would walk past the pool table slots at the markets in town and turn my back to look from the corner of my eye so that my cousins and the males would [not] see me,” she said.
“It was not an easy road for me. I was only able to hold a cue once I moved to New Zealand.”
Black-Pita Leota Toala acknowledged the role of a tama’ita’i Samoa (Samoan woman) and her traditional role to maintain the home and take care of parents and aiga (family).
“I had to uphold [that] and look after my grandparents; which meant daily chores and being out gathering crops from the land so they could eat and survive. I put my life on hold.”
She eventually had her own family to care for and, having relocated to New Zealand, she decided to take up the sport she had always been interested in since she was a young girl.
These days, she is the director of her own cleaning company - Norma’s Cleaning World - and by day, she is in the pub honing her billiards table skills.
As a young girl growing up in Samoa, Norma Black-Pita Leota Toala was told girls were not allowed to be in the billiards room. Photo / Getty Images
In the last 13 years, she has won many medals, playing against men from different cultures and backgrounds - particularly in the 10-ball game.
“Ten-ball is similar to nine-ball, but object balls numbered one through 10 are used in this game,” Black-Pita Leota Toala explains.
“The goal of 10-ball is to be the last player to sink the 10 ball after all the other balls have been pocketed.”
‘It’s not just a game. It involves concentration, math and angles’
Many billiards games have been played since the 15th century. Straight pool and other pool games are less popular than nine-ball and 10-ball.
Because it is harder than traditional pool, this modern version has slowly gained popularity among players.
In the 10-ball game, they must call the pocket before making their next ball after the break. Overall, 10-ball requires more skill and strategy than nine-ball, she said.
“I’m usually either the only female, sometimes two others, but it doesn’t phase me, because I’m in my zone then.”
Norma Black-Pita Leota Toala.
“It’s always important to shut everything out when you’re playing; that’s how I get through my games.”
The 2023 Predator WPA Oceania Women’s 10-Ball Championship will take place from Friday, December 1 to Sunday, December 3.
