12-05-2025
Kiwi aims to bring the world to our snooker tables
Agnes Kimura is fundraising hard to head to China for the 2025 World Women's Snooker Championship, but playing against her peers isn't the most important part of the trip. Instead, she has a much bigger goal in mind.
With the men's world championships just completed in England, it's less than a month before the women's version takes centre stage, with the annual highlight of the World Women's Snooker Tour, taking place in Dongguan, from May 20-27.
With Kimura being a board member of the New Zealand Billiards & Snooker Association (NZBSA) she's made it clear that she'll be going all out to network around her playing schedule.
'I've let my board know that my intention is to go to China and come back with a date or a year that we are going to hold a world event. The bonus is playing and being amongst these ladies,' says Kimura, who is currently ranked number 41 in the world.
Currently, the closest world event to New Zealand shores is the Australian Women's Open, which will take place in Sydney this October. That event provides world ranking points to participants and Kimura knows that if she can get a similar event in Aotearoa, it will make a huge difference to the sport here.
'I'm very close with [women's world ranked number one player] Mink Nutcharut and I'm in touch with some of the other ladies as well, and the Australian ladies,' Kimura says.
Kimura winning a world amateur title with her team in Las Vegas in 2018. Photo: Supplied
'If you're wanting to promote something coming into your country, how are they supposed to know what your country is like if there's no-one from there at your event? I'll [also] talk to players that I've never met before.'
In February 2024, Kimura played a key role in setting up the New Zealand Women's Open to take place for the first time in over 20 years, which opened up the competition to female players outside New Zealand.
'With my friendships and bonds that I have with the Australian ladies, I managed to get nine of them to travel over here and we had a big field of 30 which we haven't seen for years.'
The event took place over two days at the Papatoetoe Cosmopolitan Club in Auckland, with a key reason for that choice of venue being that it has eight world class tables, a big deal for the best players in the world, and something that the NZBSA would need to provide for a world ranking event.
'World class players, the first thing they're going to do is hit that ball around the table and if they don't like it, they're not coming back. They know the cloth, they know the run of the table, they know the pockets, all that sort of stuff. A lot of people don't realise that, but that's what they look at, they're used to playing on quality tables,' Kimura says.
Kimura started playing about 20 years ago and the sport became an integral part of life for her and her family.
Coach Stanley Bunn, now retired, with Kimura. Photo: Supplied
'I started watching my partner [Lee Hildred] play. He used to play a lot of snooker back when we were younger. Stanley Bunn, the national coach, owned Cue Sports in New Plymouth, and we used to go there all the time. I just used to go and watch, I had no idea what they were doing. Then I got asked if I wanted a job and I said yes and next minute I'm refereeing at the table and I'm pulling the balls out of the pockets and it went from there,' Kimura says.
Bunn then started to show Kimura different shots on the table and asked her to practise them for 15 minutes every day and gradually her game started to develop and improve.
'I suppose you don't know if you've got it until people actually start telling you, because you don't see it [yourself]. Others notice it via your shot selection, or your stance. Personally, I just love the game. There's always learning and there's so much to being on top of your game with cue sports. I think it's the hardest sport you can play.'
Her son Mario Hildred has also represented New Zealand, winning the Oceania U21 singles championships in Sydney in 2018, to go alongside his mother's sole New Zealand national title to date, which she won in 2016, in Gore.
Kimura with husband Lee and son Mario. Photo: Supplied
Finding time to practise is now one of the hardest parts for Kimura. She works as a security guard for 24/7 Security Solutions in New Plymouth, has two grandchildren and has her work for the NZBSA board, all on top of playing. Being time poor is also a reason it can be a struggle to get other women involved in the sport.
'It doesn't suit everyone. It's really, really hard to get these ladies to come and play snooker and stay. They might like a quicker game like 8-ball (pool). It takes a specific type of woman to enjoy it [but] once you do fall into liking it, you turn into loving it,' Kimura says.
'I know women who want to play, but they just need a push. I spend time encouraging women to play more snooker and how to go about it, and who to get help from, because if they don't know where to get help from, they're not going to play.'
After helping so many women take up snooker and keeping them interested, Kimura now heads to China looking for the sport in New Zealand to take the next step. If hard work and dedication has anything to do with it, she'll get her break.
