MALVERN pool star Mark Stephenson was inspired by the New Zealand flag during his international debut at the Embassy World Pool Championships at the Hilton Hotel, Blackpool.

Mark, aged 35, from Poolbrook, only knew he was playing in the championship 24 hours before the event but took his chance with relish and scored two superb victories before bowing out in his third match.

Representing New Zealand for the first time Mark felt a bit isolated when the rest of the team failed to turn up, but alongside the team event is the individual championship and he played in that.

He said: "There was some last minute internal management problems so the team did not travel from New Zealand but I was told that it is all sorted out now."

Mark applied for the NZ team because it was his father's home land but was told he would have to improve his World ranking due to him being unable to play in qualifying tournaments due to the obvious travel problems.

At the time Mark was ranked at 115 but in one season he has jumped to 72, which makes him the highest ranked player in the whole NZ team.

Having been a spectator at the last eight World championships, it was like a dream come true when Mark found himself playing in the event for the first time.

"I've played on the World tour for four years but this was a bit special playing for the first time as an international instead of yourself and it was fantastic when I walked out for New Zealand."

In Mark's opening game at Blackpool he met the experienced Australian Sonny Lister, who recently topped the averages in the Australian national championships, and pulled away from a four frames all scoreline to win 7-4.

In his next game he met rising French star Benjamin Varvat, a former European junior champion in 1998 and tipped by many as a future World champion.

Mark said: "There was a lot of noisy support for the French player and I felt quite alone when the national anthems were played but I just concentrated on the NZ flag and when the match started I was really pumped up."

Mark charged into a 6-0 lead in just 35 minutes and said even the French supporters were applauding his play.

Varvat then asked for a five minute break and won the first two games when the action restarted and the watching crowd increased noticeably but Mark took the next to run out a shock 7-2 winner.

"It was only then that I realised that I had beaten one of the top players when so many people came up to me and said what a great win and there was quite a buzz around the place," Mark said.

In his next game Mark met England's Mickey Lambert and at four games all, Lambert got out of a full table length snooker to pot the winning black for the frame and this proved to be the turning point as he went on to win 7-4.

Mark said: "It was a fantastic shot and turned the game but I feel I came so close to taking that ninth frame and then who knows."

Lambert was eventually beaten in the quarter-finals by England captain Lee Kendall.

In the final, watched by over 1,000 spectators, Chris Melling (England) picked up the £10,000 first prize when he defeated twice former champion Rob Mckenna (Scotland) 11-10.

Now established as a New Zealand player Mark will play in the World Sevens in Australia at the end of this year. The World team championships and the Commonwealth Games in Sydney, Australia next year with a chance of playing at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, now that pool has been recognised as a World sport.

Mark said: "It's been an awesome experience and I can't believe what has been going on over the last week or so but it's just starting to sink in that some dreams may be coming true."