Natalie Stelmach

Biography Natalie Stelmach's father Joe, was a minor-league baseball player who later played semi-professionally in the Nickel Belt senior league in Sudbury, Ontario. Stelmach started playing snooker in 1973, at a newly established family recreation centre, when she was aged 13. At 14, she won the Canadian Women's snooker title. She lost in her first match to Lettie Haywood.

According to an article in Maclean's magazine in April 1979, Stelmach had never lost a match to another woman in Canada. She had won the Canadian national title each of the four times that it had been staged. Also in 1981, Stelmach and her playing partner Cliff Thorburn won the World Mixed Pairs Championship. They beat Vera Selby and John Virgo on total points scored, 262–239 in the final, after beating Grace Cayley and Tony Meo 267–200 in the semi-final.

Stelmach reached the final of the 1984 Women's World Amateur Snooker Championship, defeating Lynette Horsburgh 3–0, Maggie Beer 3–1, Gaye Jones 4–0 and then Caroline Walch 4–0. She lost in the final 1–4 to the 15-year-old Stacey Hillyard.

In a 1987 interview with Paul Patton for The Globe and Mail, Stelmach reflected that it was hard to promote snooker in Canada because there was not a culture of children playing the game, and added that "There is still a lot of sexism towards women playing." 1981 World Mixed Pairs Championship (with Cliff Thorburn) 1984 Amateur World Women's Snooker Championship runner-up.