A trick-shooting pool star secured his place as Britain’s number one and improved his ranking on the world stage at a recent contest.

Adam Nickels, of Cadhay Lane, battled it out with the top players at the World Artistic Pool Competition in Georgia, America, and clinched the ‘Rising Star’ award for achieving the highest score as a newcomer.

The former King’s School pupil recently returned as 27th in the world after only his second competition, having taken up the niche sport just five months before last year’s championship.

Artistic pool is played on a large American table and competitors are expected to perform a repertoire of 56 trick shots that demonstrate a range of skills.

Adam, 35, said: “The competition was a lot harder this year.

“We were performing on professional 9ft diamond tables (not 7ft as was the case last year) with a harder shot programme, which omitted some of the easier shots from last year with new harder ones.”

The professional player – who qualifies as the third best in Europe – managed to bump his position in the world rankings up from 34th last year to secure a place in the top 30.

He is now working on organising a show with friend and new world champion, Gabi Visoiu (known as Mr Perfect), having put on a one-off performance together in Exeter last year.

There are even talks of an English championship to raise the profile of the sport closer to home.

Adam, known as ‘Carnage Pool Tricks’ – a favourite comic book character from his youth – is humble about his quick rise to stardom and credits his fellow players for supporting him along the way.

He said some time training with Andy Segal (The Magic Man’) – who is ranked number one in the world – helped him lock down one particular shot, scoring Adam an extra six points.

It was also an unexpected phone call from Andy that got him to the world championships in the first place after the top player saw some of his trick shot videos online.