Na­tion­al Pool League (NPL) ti­tle hope­fuls Ri­valz, jumped to the top of the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion af­ter dis­pos­ing of their sta­ble­mates Sicar­ios four games to one in week two of the NPL 9 Ball com­pe­ti­tion at Bil­liards Place in Aranguez.

Com­ing off an im­pres­sive win over NPL 10 Ball cham­pi­ons ‘D’ Un­der­dawgs in week one, Ri­valz took on a Sicar­ios team, which was mak­ing their de­but in the up­per di­vi­sion af­ter be­ing pro­mot­ed from the First Di­vi­sion.

Ri­valz, play­ing on their home ta­ble, got off to a win­ning start with Fieaz Ali drawn to play Al­bi Knights in the open­ing game. Knights won the lag and opened the en­counter with a break and run. The Sicario vice-cap­tain went on to win the sec­ond frame and could have pushed his lead fur­ther but some ba­sic er­rors in the third rack al­lowed Ali back in the game and that was all the chance he need­ed. Ali went on to win five unan­swered frames, much to the de­light of his Ri­valz team­mates.

Clint Bachan, who was next for the home team, came up against Fred Gra­ham. Bachan, stand­ing in as cap­tain in the ab­sence of Rea­gan Low Chew Tung, wast­ed no time in win­ning five racks on the trot. His su­pe­ri­or play was high­light­ed with two break-and-runs in racks three and five.

The dou­bles en­counter was next with the Ri­valz pair of Shameer Ali (vice-cap­tain) and Fa­reed Abra­ham com­ing up against Sicar­ios cap­tain Adri­an Lo­gie and for­mer cap­tain Kevin Browne. Ali and Abra­ham took an ear­ly lead on­ly for their op­po­nents to re­spond quick­ly to make it 1-1. The home pair won frames three and four be­fore and were 4-2 af­ter six frames.

Lo­gie and Browne showed re­al fight to tie things up at four each and some op­por­tu­ni­ties to keep Sicar­ios in the match but Ali and Abra­ham held their nerve to se­cure the win and with it give Ri­valz an unas­sail­able 3-nil lead.

An­oth­er thriller fol­lowed be­tween Ricky Isaac and Muham­mad Rah­man. The two split the first two frames be­fore Isaac ran out to a 4-1 lead. Rah­man dug deep to draw even at four but the task proved too much as again, the Ri­valz play­er showed more com­po­sure to com­plete the win. The on­ly suc­cess for the Sicar­ios came through their newest mem­ber, Kaz­im Daniel, who over­came a nor­mal­ly steady Kr­ishen­dath Heer­alal 5-3.

Ri­valz now has a record of two wins and no loss­es, the same as week 1 lead­ers, Unit­ed Stars. Both teams have sev­en wins and three loss­es in games but the Ri­valz have a su­pe­ri­or frames dif­fer­en­tial.

In Oth­er Games: Unit­ed Stars de­feat­ed Cen­tral Stars 3-2; ‘D’ Un­der­dawgs shut out The An­ni­hi­la­tors 5-0; Cuetrollerz beat Gold­en Arch­es 3-2. Shoot­ing Stars were on a bye.

In First Di­vi­sion News: Unit­ed Stars con­tin­ued to lead the first di­vi­sion af­ter de­feat­ing Ago­ra Stingers 4-1; Pock­et Preda­tors al­so made it two wins in two match­es by get­ting the bet­ter of Dekko All Stars 3-2; Rox­bury Shot Callers main­tained their per­fect start to the league with a 3-2 win over Pan­thers; JJ Shoot­ers sur­prised Shoot­ing Stars 3-2; Crazy 8’s al­so had a 3-2 win over Lucky Sports; Sicar­ios reg­is­tered their first win by beat­ing Ken­ny’s 3-2 and Scotchie’s Nu­bian Kings downed Top Shoot­ers 4-1.

NPL Week 3 Sched­ule:

Tues­day (De­cem­ber 1)

First Di­vi­sion

Shoot­ing Stars vs Unit­ed Stars at Pyra­mid Sports Bar, Gas­par­il­lo

Ago­ra Stingers vs Sicar­ios at Ago­ra Bar & Lounge, Ch­agua­nas

Pock­et Preda­tors vs Ken­ny’s at Echo Lounge, Ch­agua­nas

Rox­bury Shot Callers vs JJ Shoot­ers at Rox­bury Sports Bar, Cunu­pia

Lucky Sports vs Pan­thers at Lucky Sports Bar, Ec­clesville

Scotchie’s Nu­bian Kings vs Crazy 8’s at Bil­liards Place, Aranguez

Dekko All Stars vs Top Shoot­ers at Dekko Bar & Lounge, Princes Town

Wednes­day (De­cem­ber 4)

Pre­mier Di­vi­sion

‘D’ Un­der­dawgs vs Sicar­ios at Lucky Sports Bar, Ec­clesville

Cuetrollerz vs The An­ni­hi­la­tors at Ago­ra Bar & Lounge, Ch­agua­nas

Gold­en Arch­es vs Unit­ed Stars at Gold­en Arch­es II, Curepe

Shoot­ing Stars vs Ri­valz at Pyra­mid Sports Bar, Gas­par­il­lo

Cen­tral Stars Bye