KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Sam Cheong Tin Sam’s mission was to give snooker and billiards a kiss of life as he went about setting many firsts to emerge as Malaysia’s brightest talent in the sport.

The 53-year-old Sam, who was introduced to the game as early as when he was seven, however, had many hiccups before making it to the top.

It was a time when snooker and billiards were considered a parlour game with no recognition in the world of sports.

The Perak-born Sam took to the game at his father’s canteen which had a table played with four balls.

“I helped pa in the canteen after which he allowed me to play. I got hooked to it and played for three years, before our family moved to Kuala Lumpur,” Sam said, recalling his early days at the game.

“I stopped playing for two years in Kuala Lumpur, then returned to the game only to stop again when I was looking for a job,” he said.

“Back again at 23, my first tournament was in 1987. On winning my first two tournaments I wanted to play snooker fulltime.

“This was the beginning of my long and uneasy journey which saw me train hard, get disciplined and make sacrifices.

“As part of my regimented training I locked myself in a snooker room and trained for hours over 10 to 11 days.”

“It was my mission to change the perspective of the sport, just like tenpin bowling which was also regarded as a parlour sport.”

Sam said it was difficult to change the image of snooker despite the mushrooming of centres throughout the country.

“That is a problem because with so many centres the business competition is stiff and they need to have other entertainments to attract customers.”

Sam said the Malaysian Snooker and Billiard Federation (MSBF) played a key role in introducing the sports at schools with grassroots programme that ran from 2002 till about 2005 involving five schools.

But Sam has played a vital role in popularising the sport at the excellence level which has seen him become five-time national champion in 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995 and 1999.

And among his many firsts, Sam was also the first Malaysian to join the WPBSA professional ranks in the United Kingdom in 1991.

In his two years in England, Sam’s best ranking was when he reached the last 64.

“I had to win nine matches and only made round 64. It was tough, but was an experience which made me a better player.”

Sam has a proud eight gold-medal winning record in SEA Games with two in Singapore (1993), four in Chiangmai (1995), one in Jakarta (1997) and one in Palembang (2011).

His gold medals came from the nine-ball pool single and team events in Singapore, single, doubles, team events and 15-ball pool team in Chiangmai, nine-ball pool team in Jakarta and doubles in Palembang.

Sam, who made his SEA Games debut in Jakarta in 1978, raised eyebrows in 2011 when he returned to the table aged 49 for his eighth Games and win the gold.

Sam is also the first Malaysian to win the Asian Snooker championship, defeating Hong Kong’s Stanley Leung 8-1 in a best of 15-frame final in Jakarta in 1990.

In his international career, Sam twice won the Alocock Bentleigh Invitational in Melbourne, Australia, in 1990 and 1993.

He also made it to the quarterfinals of the 1995 World Amateur Championship in Bristol.

He was also a member of the national team which qualified for the final rounds of the 1996 Castrol World Cup in Bangkok.

In 1996 he was awarded the “1995 Malaysian Sportsman of the Year”, the first ever snooker player winning the award, the same year brought him the AMN award from the King, got inducted to the Olympic Council of Malaysia Hall of Fame and won the OCM Olympian and Sportswriters award.

Sam moved his base to Johor from 1988 to 1999 and in 1998 he was the Johor Sportsman.

In 1998, he won the 13th Asian Games snooker singles silver medal and partnered Ooi Chin Kay to win the doubles gold in Bangkok.

Sam has also been the national coach from 2005 to 2007.

After doing much for the sport, Sam is still unsatisfied and hopes to lead the sport to new levels.

The sport ran into turmoil recently when it was suspended for more than a year following a leadership tussle between ex-president Prof Datuk WY Chin and the organisation’s then secretary Melvin Chia. This led to the suspension of the federation by the sports commissioner.

But now that it is expected to be reinstated, Sam wants to play a key role in its resurrence.

Sam believes Malaysia has what it takes to do well in snooker.

“We just need to change the mind-set of players, get them focussed and be disciplined and train hard,” said Sam.