Nick Phillip Schiller and Bob Dumont are some of the most experienced players at the 91Ô­´´ Seniors Resources Society centre snooker room, the nickname given the space that accommodates all types of pool table games. 

Schiller, 90, and Dumont, 86, both 91Ô­´´ City residents, started playing as kids growing up in small Saskatchewan communities about 70 years ago. 

Now grandparents, they are friendly competitors who still place high in competitions, and often play against each other at tournaments.

Schiller is likely the oldest active player at the centre.

"As far as I know, I am, yeah," he said. "I don't know of anybody 90, here. There's 87, 86, a number in that age."

Schiller has fond memories of the Prairie barbershop and pool hall in Goodsoil, where he started playing as a kid.

"A guy by the name of Joe Olinberger, he got a barbershop in town, and he decided to build a pool room," Schiller recalled.

"There was about five tables in it, and on one side, one corner of it, he had his barber chair and did haircuts while people played pool."

Schiller smiles when he recalls besting his father. 

"He played pool before I was born, when he thought he was a good pool player."

When Schiller was in his 20s, "we started talking about pool and he was saying he could beat many, many in pool. [So] we went to a pool hall one day, him and I, and the first game we played I beat him. And I had no trouble beating him."

"My son plays pool once in a while," Schiller added.

"He thinks he can beat me, but he doesn't have a chance of beating me," he laughed.

The easy-going Dumont, who started playing in Lloydminster, thrives on competition play, whether its snooker or other table games.

"When you're playing for competition, then there's a whole new ball game type of thing. You try not to let the guy have a shot, and you try to make them all. And there's some really good pool players out there, you know."

Dumont considers himself "maybe a B player" who is still getting the rust out of his game after some forced time off during the pandemic.

"I'm not aggressive," Dumon remarked. "When I get aggressive, that's when I make mistakes and people take advantage of my mistakes."

"Phil here is such a good shot," he said of his sometime-rival.

Neither Schiller, a retired commercial truck and bus driver and commercial pilot, or Dumont, a former longshoreman, need glasses.

"I think probably my eyes are really okay at my age," Schiller commented.

"I still have a Class 1 licence. I still can drive semi-trailers or bus, and I get a medical every year."

Dumont credits his time on the docks for his good health.

"When you're working hard, you get in very good condition," Dumont explained. "And I mean very good condition, you know. I could light a match on my hands they were so hard."

Dumont also used to bowl and play hockey, a goaltender at a time when masks were not worn – and has a few faint scars to prove it, what he describes as "little souvenirs."

For information about the snooker room and other programs at the 91Ô­´´ Seniors Resources Society centre, people can visit the centre during regular hours at 20605 51B Ave., phone 604-530-3020, or go online at

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