The Bil­liards Sports Or­gan­i­sa­tion of T&T (BSOTT) kicked off its Na­tion­al Pool League (NPL) 8-Ball Team Com­pe­ti­tion with a his­toric start, as a record-break­ing 31 teams en­tered the tour­na­ment. This re­mark­able turnout sur­pass­es the pre­vi­ous high of 23 by a wide mar­gin, un­der­scor­ing the rapid rise of cue sports in T&T.

The 2025 sea­son sees the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion re­stored to its tra­di­tion­al 12-team for­mat, while the First Di­vi­sion boasts a league-best 18 teams, set­ting the stage for in­tense com­pe­ti­tion, ex­cit­ing ri­val­ries and the un­earthing of fresh tal­ent.

First Di­vi­sion: Among the new en­trants are: Cue Mas­ters, rep­re­sent­ing Bar­code in Princes Town; Lucky’s Sports Bar, now field­ing two teams - Knight Rid­ers 1 & 2; Spe­cial Brew Sports Bar of Mc Bean, Cou­va, adds a sec­ond team, Spe­cial Brew, to join their more es­tab­lished Crazy 8’s; Cen­tral Stars, a vet­er­an club that has par­tic­i­pat­ed in every league to date, now de­but­ing a First Di­vi­sion side as well.

They will be play­ing out of Ken­ny’s Sports Bar in Ch­agua­nas; Zhao is a com­plete­ly new name but fea­tures some fa­mil­iar faces from the Shoot­ing Stars Di­vi­sion One ros­ter of the pre­vi­ous NPL 9-Ball sea­son. They will call Pyra­mid Sports Bar their home; Mu­cu­rapo Mus­ke­teers are mak­ing their de­but and their venue is on Mu­cu­rapo Road, in St James; The Ex­pend­ables are mak­ing a re­turn af­ter sit­ting out the pre­vi­ous 9-Ball league; Scotchie’s Spar­tans B, for­mer­ly known as Scotchie’s Nu­bian Kings, will make Shindig Restau­rant & Lounge in Curepe their home and an­oth­er com­plete­ly new team, Orinoco B, one of three teams hail­ing from San­gre Grande.

These new­com­ers will chal­lenge a strong line-up of re­turn­ing con­tenders, in­clud­ing the First Di­vi­sion 9-Ball cham­pi­ons Rox­bury Shot Callers, Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club, Pock­et Preda­tors, Pan­thers, Top Shooterz Crew, JJ Shoot­ers, and Ago­ra Stingers, all of whom are ea­ger to stake their claim to the 8-Ball crown.

Pre­mier Di­vi­sion: The Pre­mier Di­vi­sion promis­es top-class ac­tion with an im­pres­sive blend of sea­soned play­ers and am­bi­tious debu­tants.

New teams join­ing the elite ranks in­clude: Orinoco A and The Un­touch­ables, both rep­re­sent­ing San­gre Grande; The Mer­ce­nar­ies and Cen­tral Pre­mier Pool Club, each com­pris­ing play­ers seek­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties af­ter stints with oth­er top-tier squads; Rox­bury Hus­tlerz, a new Pre­mier en­try formed af­ter sev­er­al Rox­bury play­ers earned A-Class pro­mo­tion; Scotchie’s Spar­tans A are adding a top-flight squad to the Scotchie’s and Shindig fam­i­ly and UD As­sas­sins are mak­ing a wel­come re­turn to league play af­ter a long ab­sence.

They will play out of the Up­per Deck Sports Bar & Lounge. These new names will share the spot­light with es­tab­lished heavy­weights such as Unit­ed Stars, Ri­valz, Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club, Cen­tral Stars, Princes Town Un­der­dawgs (for­mer­ly “D” Un­der­dawgs), and Shoot­ing Stars.

League ac­tion be­gan last week, with First Di­vi­sion match­es played on Tues­day and Pre­mier Di­vi­sion match­es on Wednes­day. The First Di­vi­sion sees play­ers race to three, while the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion play­ers will race to four. The match con­sists of four sin­gles games and one dou­bles en­counter, which is played third. All games must be played. Ac­tion con­tin­ues Tue­so­day and Wednes­day in the re­spec­tive First and Pre­mier Di­vi­sions.

Re­sults

Tues­day

First Di­vi­sion

Cue Mas­ters 3 bt Crazy 8’s 2

Orin­io­co B 3 bt Rox­bury Shot Callers 1

Pock­et Preda­tors 4 bt Ex­pend­ables 1

Pan­thers 4 bt Top Shooterz Krew 1

Sikar­i­oz BC 3 bt JJ Shoot­ers 2

Spe­cial Brew 4 bt Ago­ra Stingers 1

Cen­tral Stars B 4 bt Mu­cu­rapo Mus­ke­teers 1

Zhao 3 bt Knight Rid­ers B 2

Scotchies Spar­tans B, bye

Wednes­day

Pre­mier Di­vi­sion

Unit­ed Stars 4 bt Scotchie’s Spar­tans 1

Sikar­i­oz BC 3 bt Shoot­ing Stars 2

Mer­ce­nar­ies 4 bt Rox­bury Hus­tlerz 1

Un­touch­ables 4 bt UD As­sas­sins 1

Ri­valz 5 bt Princes Town Un­der­dawgs 0

Cen­tral Stars 3 bt Orinoco A 2