Graham Grange grew up in England and started cue sports as a 13-year-old in the church billiard league.
"We had an eight-man team and a prayer was said before each match," he said. "To qualify for the team we had to attend church at least twice a month."
He lived in the city of Wigan in Lancashire and said the league was a way of recruiting teenagers into the church. .
Grange (76) emmigrated to New Zealand in 1965 and worked at Barton's Butchers in Dunedin for a few years.
He now lives in Christchurch but has been coming to Masters Games in Dunedin since 2000.
He competes in pool and snooker at the Games but billiards is his favourite cue sport.
"Billiards takes more skill," he said. "To me pool is too easy."
He also likes ballroom dancing and participates in the discipline four or five nights a week in Christchurch.
At the Masters Games, he competes in the classical sequence ballroom dancing in addition to cue sports.
In this year's pool competition he won a silver medal in the nine-ball singles and a bronze medal in the eight-ball singles.
His two gold medals came in the eight- and nine-ball doubles with his Christchurch mate, George Wright.
Wright (72), a retired dairy owner, also won a gold medal in the eight-ball singles.
He started playing billiards and snooker at the Sydenham Rugby Football Club and won the club's billiards title at the age of 15.
He started pool at the age of 50.
He has been a regular at the Masters Games in Dunedin since 1996.
"I enjoy coming to the Masters Games to meet the people," he said.
Since retiring from his shop at the age of 60, Wright has kept himself fit by walking regularly on the Port Hills in Christchurch and by working out in the gymnasium he made at his home in Halswell.
He lost his chimney and there were cracks in the walls of his brick house in the Christchurch earthquakes.
He is not able to shut the door of his garage because the foundations have moved.
Insurance paid for his path to be fixed but it cracked again in the next earthquake.
"I have suffered with a little liquefaction and there is still $175,000 worth of damage to be fixed in the house," he said.
"But I'm better off than people who have been red-stickered and are not able to pay the cost of a section to build a new home," he said.
Grange lives at Bishopdale and has been lucky not to have been affected by the earthquake.
The Masters Games have been a tonic to both cue players and are helping them to forget about the continuing earthquakes at home for 10 days.
