The Cen­tral Stars' first di­vi­sion team is back at the top of the Group B stand­ings af­ter round sev­en of the Na­tion­al Pool League 8 Ball com­pe­ti­tion.

The Nand­lal Ram­lakhan cap­tained ‘Stars’ pre­vi­ous­ly led the group in rounds 1 and 4 be­fore Cue Mas­ters seized the top spot. But a win against Rox­bury Shot Callers in the lat­est round of match­es on Tues­day, cou­pled with back-to-back loss­es for the ‘Mas­ters’ sees the two teams switch places at the top of the ta­ble.

Cen­tral Stars, play­ing at home at Ken­ny’s Sports Bar in Ch­agua­nas, host­ed the NPL 9 Ball cham­pi­ons, the ‘Shot Callers’ and de­fend­ed their home ad­van­tage, win­ning the en­counter three games to two. Daniel Ram­sawak was drawn to play Roger Stew­art in the first game and de­spite falling be­hind 0-1, Ram­sawak bounced back to reg­is­ter three straight wins for a 3-1 vic­to­ry.

Adri­an Jat­tan was next for the hosts but did not both­er the scor­ers as his op­po­nent, Ken­rick ‘Mon­ty’ Roop­nar­ine, won the en­counter 3-nil, ty­ing up the match at one apiece. Bisham Ram­sun­dar and Dar­i­on Bis­soon teamed up against the vis­it­ing pair of Steve Bi­pat and Pe­ter Ga­jai, with the Ram­sun­dar/Bis­soon pair ek­ing out a 3-2 win to give the hosts a 2-1 match lead. Kendell Per­sad was next for the hosts against Jonathan Gor­ing and like the pre­vi­ous sin­gles game, Per­sad failed to se­cure a frame and Gor­ing eased to a three-nil win to force a de­cid­ing fifth game.

The Rox­bury team looked to be head­ing for an all-im­por­tant win with Ud­desh Har­ri­ram jump­ing out to a 2-nil lead against Randy Deo. But the steady Deo kept his com­po­sure and hit back with three frame wins, on the trot, to help the Cen­tral Stars to their fourth straight win. Cen­tral Stars now have five wins from six match­es. The loss push­es the Rox­bury team from third to sixth on the ta­ble.

Cue Mas­ters now find them­selves in sec­ond spot af­ter los­ing their sec­ond match in a row. The Princes Town-based Cue Mas­ters trav­elled to the Lucky‘s Sports Bar in Williamsville to take on the Knight Rid­ers' first team, look­ing to bounce back from a week 6 loss to the Top Shooterz Krew. Un­for­tu­nate­ly for them, the home team seemed to want it more with wins in the sec­ond, third and fifth frames.

Fran­co Her­nan­dez, the pair of Ron­nie Moral­li and Clay­ton Ja­goo, along with An­drew Har­ri­lal, were vic­to­ri­ous for the hosts, while Hec­tor Par­ra and Pra­ha­l­ad Ramhit won for the vis­i­tors. In­ci­den­tal­ly, the fifth and de­cid­ing frame made for an in­ter­est­ing sto­ry as Har­ri­lal was drawn to play his for­mer Dekko All Stars team­mate Ryan Son­ny and they did not dis­ap­point as that game went down to the wire, with Har­ri­lal edg­ing to an ex­cit­ing 3-2 win. Knight Rid­ers are cur­rent­ly fourth on the ta­ble with four wins and two loss­es.

Orinoco B, one of three new teams com­ing out of San­gre Grande, are mov­ing in the right di­rec­tion, mov­ing up from fifth to third on the Group B Ta­ble. The Chan­dradeo Singh-led Orinoco squad paid the Top Shooterz Krew a vis­it at their Bil­liards Place home and emerged with an im­pres­sive 4-1 win. Orinoco B now joins Cue Mas­ters and Knight Rid­ers I on four wins and two loss­es. Top Shooterz drop from sixth to sev­enth with three wins from sev­en match­es. There could be an­oth­er shake-up in round 8 with the top two teams in Group B set to meet. In the oth­er Group B Game: Pan­thers de­feat­ed Mu­cu­rapo Mus­ke­teers 4-1; Crazy 8’s was on a bye.

The big sto­ry in group A is Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club win­ning their sev­enth match on the trot. The Sikar­i­oz first di­vi­sion team re­mains un­de­feat­ed and reg­is­tered their sec­ond shutout of their 8 Ball cam­paign, a five-nil drub­bing of Ago­ra Stingers. John East­man and Clint Mara­jh were pre­fect with 3-nil wins, Sachin Ram­nar­ine lost one frame, while the pair of Al­lan Per­sad and Dy­lon King in the dou­bles and An­dre Creece in the fifth game need­ed all five frames for their wins. The loss push­es Ago­ra down one spot to fifth.

Pock­et Preda­tors re­main sec­ond with a 3-2 win over Scotchie’s Spar­tans; third-placed Jhao beat fourth-placed Spe­cial Brew 4- 1, and Knight Rid­ers II hand­ed JJ Shoot­ers a 4-1 de­feat. Knight Rid­ers II hold down the sixth spot while the Shoot­ers from Jer­ry Junc­tion are eighth in Group A. Ex­pend­ables, who are sev­enth, were in­ac­tive in round sev­en.

Tues­day's match­es (Round 8)

Group A

Ago­ra Stingers vs Scotchie’s Spar­tans at Raj Bar, Ca­paro

Spe­cial Brew vs Ex­pend­ables at Spe­cial Brew, McBean

JJ Shoot­ers vs Zhao at Jer­ry Junc­tion, Cara­pichaima

Pock­et Preda­tors vs Knight Rid­ers II, Ah Boi, San Juan

Sikar­i­oz BC are on a bye

Group B

Cue Mas­ters vs Cen­tral Stars at Bar­code, Princes Town

Rox­bury Shot Callers vs Crazy 8’s at Rox­bury, Cunu­pia

Orinoco B vs Knight Rid­ers I at Reno’s, San­gre Grande

Mu­cu­rapo Mus­ke­teers vs Top Shooterz Krew, On Mu­cu­rapo, St. James`

Pan­thers are on a bye