About Chenman

Lee Chenman, known worldwide as "Orient Express", is the highest-ranked pool player in Hong Kong, and is one of the top-ranked upcoming young professional players in the world today.

Chenman, a native of Leicester, England, was born in Scotland in 1979.  He started playing the game of Snooker at an early age and played professionally for four seasons in various tournaments in the UK and overseas.  Chenman turned to American pool in recent years.  His snooker career halted when the decision to go to University in Cambridge was made rather than to follow his dream of becoming a snooker professional.  It was during this period that he first saw an American Pool table when out socialising with his fellow student friends and since then he has never looked back.

Eager to explore new avenues and learn new techniques in the world of American pool, Chenman visited the USA in the year 2001 for a brief stay and was introduced to the top-tier of American game of 9-Ball, by his host.  Chenman returned to England and joined the professional 9-Ball UK Tour in 2002, and within 2 years he rapidly made it into the top 10 ranking of the UK domestic rankings; winning titles along the way to his credit.  The progress did not stop here.  To further improve his game and distant himself from the rest of the pack, he decided to return to USA to pursue the game of 9-Ball in 2004/5 and compete with the top players as well as playing his trade later the same year in Europe on the European Professional pool Tour.

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His progress has been nothing short of remarkable and Chenman's breakthrough finally came in January 2005 when he really established his name on the International Scene with a major upset win in the 2005 Weert Open from a World Class field of 351 players.  Until now this remains the biggest Open event that Europe has ever seen.  Chenman was a complete unknown, going through various stages of qualifications and before he knew it he was in the final 64 of this event.  Then the Cinderella story really began, big names after big names getting beaten and along the way Chenman found himself dispatching them without really any fear even though the people at the tournament were unsure of who he was.  He went on a remarkable run to beat Oliver Ortmann (European No.1 at the time), Thomas Schober (5 Times World Championship Rep for Germany), Alex Lely (2000 World Pool Masters champion) and also Nick Van Den Berg (European Mosconi Cup player and Europe No.3 ranked) on his way to clinching his 1st International Title.  And it was after this event that Chenman decided to turn fully professional.

As if that wasn't enough, on 5th of July of the same year, Chenman went to Taiwan (which at that time didn't have a spot in the world pool championships) and won his way through a quality field of 128 players from all over the world, winning 7 consecutive matches and earned his place amongst the world's best 128 into the World Championship 2005; therefore making his debut in that event.  In doing so, he was the only European-based player who managed to win one of eleven available world championship qualifying spots.  To cap off a sensational year, Chenman was further selected to be one of the 150 participants in the newly set up International Pool Tour.  This is the 1st pool tour that had guaranteed prize fund of $1million dollars per event.  Chenman was the only China, Hong Kong player to get this nomination.

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In March 2006, Chenman signed his management contract with Pixel Perfect Ltd which included the sponsoring through the Hong Kong Pool Club, Hong Kong.  With this step Chenman became a fully registered and acknowledged professional pool player.

In the beginning of 2006 the word came around that an Asian-looking player from UK was starting to make waves in the 9 ball world and it was during this year that the HKBSCC, Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council, got in touch with Chenman to ask about his background.  Fortunately Chenman's parents who are based and live in the UK, are Hong Kong citizens that moved to the UK in the early 1970's and therefore Chenman was eligible to compete for Hong Kong in any International competition.  Not only the HKBSCC is happy to have a player like this calibre aboard.

After weeks of decision making, Chenman finally accepted the offer of change of nationality for eligibility to play for Hong Kong.  He cannot represent another country after this change for a minimum of three years.  The UK's loss is Hong Kong's gain.  Pool players from Hong Kong were widely non-regarded and were not respected at all, however, this has changed since Chenman had decided to represent Hong Kong.  His automatic selection for the Hong Kong National Team for the 15th Asian Games in 2006, which is the 2nd biggest sporting event in the world after that of the Olympic Games, had caused some controversy at the beginning, since so many Hong Kong players have tried to go thru selection stages to get this prestigious position.  Nevertheless, all the complaints have all been long forgotten as soon as Chenman started playing in and for Hong Kong.  His style and game was recognised as different class to any player from Hong Kong, so it was not long before Chenman became the household name of professional pool within the local pool scene and is respected as world class play by everyone who plays any pool.  His play attracts people even when he just practices.  That is how special he became, how special he also became for Hong Kong's world of pool today.

He started traveling and taking part in tournaments across the USA fulltime in the year 2005/6 and he soon earned the nickname "Orient Express" from his opponents.  His consistent improvement has seen him reach a career high ranking of 23 so far.  And with numerous great players acknowledging that Chenman will surely keep reaching higher, we all know that the limits for the game of this Hong Kong pool sensation are not reached yet.

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 Hong Kong

Hong Kong has become home for Chenman where he lives alone, only to concentrate at his moment pool career and helping thru his sponsor in the development of pool sports in Hong Kong.

2006 was a break through year for Chenman, making several TV appearances.  Most notably one in front of over 200 million viewers who watched Chenman making his country debut for Hong Kong in the World Cup Of Pool in Great Britain, featuring the best 32 teams pool-players in the world.  It is to note that Hong Kong only got an invitation through Chenman's overseas performances.  His astonishing move to Hong Kong and becoming its representative player has meant that for the 1st time of Hong Kong's history this country won any international pool match.  Bobby Chenman's Hong Kong pool team went even to the quarter-finals of that World Cup of Pool before losing to the team USA.  Therefore a 5th place finish and a major performance from a small country that was not known for pool sports at all.

Chenman's success has also meant that even as not being permanently invited part of the Asian Pool Tour because of his busy International schedule, he was only invited especially by ESPN and San Miguel to compete in the final leg of the 2006 Asian 9-Ball Tour.  Surely more invitations will follow and maybe even tour schedules in the USA might be amended to attend further Asian high profile tournaments and we can be sure we will hear more of the "Orient Express" Bobby Lee Chenman in the coming months of 2007 and beyond.

More recently Chenman has surprised the field at the annual World Summit of pool in Las Vegas where he finished 5th place and was one match away from making another live TV appearance in the United States.  His list of victims at this event has confirmed to the world that Chenman is a threat to win any tournament on his given day.  Some notable names beaten along the way in his 7 games winning streak includes, former world champions Thorsten Hohmann, Mika Immonen and Corey Duel.

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To mark the 10th Anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China, a challenge match event was set up by Chenman's manager Mr.  Toni B Jantschar.  This match scheduled Chenman to play against the Hong Kong 9-ball champion with a twist - Chenman was going to give the Hong Kong Champion 7, 8 and 9!  And once and for all Chenman has cemented his place in Hong Kong pool scene as the player to beat.  His class was imminent throughout this match winning very comfortably 21-15.  The fans were treated to some great pool that has never been seen from any Hong Kong player and Chenman again demonstrated his world class game in front of a huge crowd of home fans.

2007 should be a promising year for Chenman as he still is under the sponsorship of Hong Kong Pool Club and Pixel Perfect Ltd.  His manager and great friend Toni B Jantschar will foresee all non-playing side of Chenman's dealings in the coming years whilst Chenman solely remains playing pool and reaching new heights for himself and for Hong Kong, in many International pool competitions.

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Please visit Lee's blog to see what he has to say about the 2006 Asian Games, 2007 Korea International, his birthday and new year celebrations......