It was an­oth­er defin­ing mo­ment for bil­liards in Trinidad and To­ba­go as Shaz­ara “Zara” Baksh, who stormed through the field at the 2025 Vir­go Vendet­ta Dou­ble Elim­i­na­tion Com­pe­ti­tion held at the Top Strykaz Pool Bar and Sports Lounge in Kingston, Ja­maica, last week­end.

Baksh, who an­nounced her­self on the re­gion­al stage with a top-four fin­ish at the Queen of the Green (QOTG) tour­na­ment in Bar­ba­dos in 2023 was sim­ply un­stop­pable this time around.

Over the course of two days, she went un­de­feat­ed, win­ning all six of her match­es to lift the ti­tle in com­mand­ing style. Her re­lent­less per­for­mances earned her a new nick­name among play­ers and or­gan­is­ers: “The Tri­ni Freight Train”.

Her path to glo­ry was any­thing but easy. In her open­ing match, Baksh was drawn against home favourite Ker­ri­an Pow­ell Robin­son, KPR, the 2023 Queen of the Green cham­pi­on.

Many ex­pect­ed a tough bat­tle, but Baksh sig­nalled her in­tent ear­ly, get­ting the bet­ter of her op­po­nent 5–3.

Next came an­oth­er for­mi­da­ble op­po­nent, Ba­jan-born Ali­cia Archer, the very play­er who had elim­i­nat­ed Baksh in the se­mi-fi­nals of the last edi­tion of the QOTG. In a nail-bit­ing con­test, Baksh dug deep to edge Archer 5–4. Rid­ing that mo­men­tum, she then faced an­oth­er Bar­ba­di­an in Va­lerie Layne. Layne, al­so known as the Iron Maid­en, found her­self in the wrong lane and was beat­en 5–3.

With those vic­to­ries, Baksh ad­vanced to the race-to-sev­en se­mi-fi­nals, where fate once again paired her against Archer. In what proved to be the most gru­elling match of the tour­na­ment, Baksh showed grit and de­ter­mi­na­tion to pre­vail 7–6, set­ting up a fi­nals show­down with Ja­maican Francine Car­doza.

The cham­pi­onship match be­gan on even terms, with both play­ers trad­ing frames in a tense open­ing spell. But once Baksh found her rhythm, there was no stop­ping her. With poise and pre­ci­sion, she pulled away and closed out the match 7–4 to claim the Vir­go Vendet­ta crown.

Baksh was not the on­ly T&T cueist in ac­tion.

Karen Ram­cha­ran and Krys­tle Khan al­so trav­elled to Ja­maica to test their skills against their re­gion­al coun­ter­parts.

Ram­cha­ran, who is the reign­ing Na­tion­al 9-Ball cham­pi­on, start­ed in blis­ter­ing fash­ion, win­ning her first two match­es 5–0 and ad­vanc­ing to the quar­ter­fi­nals with a con­fi­dent 5–3 vic­to­ry.

She seemed poised for a se­mi-fi­nal spot, but af­ter jump­ing out to a 4–0 lead, that quick­ly turned in­to 5-1, Archer found an­oth­er gear, and Ram­cha­ran’s trans­mis­sion failed as Dou­ble A won six unan­swered frames to win 7-5.

Mean­while, Krys­tle Khan, who was al­so a par­tic­i­pant in the 2023 Queen of the Green, showed some fight but en­dured a dif­fi­cult run, los­ing a tight open­ing match 4–5. That loss pushed her in­to the losers’ brack­et, where she bowed out 3–5.

Look­ing Ahead, The next ma­jor re­gion­al women’s event will be the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed Queen of the Green.

Tour­na­ment in March 2026, where Baksh, Ram­cha­ran, and Khan are all ex­pect­ed to fea­ture again, along with sev­er­al oth­er promis­ing ladies, all ea­ger to rep­re­sent for the Red, White and Black.

For now, though, the spot­light be­longs to Shaz­ara “The Tri­ni Freight Train” Baksh, who rolled through the Lau­rz Pro­mo­tions event and proved once more that T&T’s women are a ris­ing force in re­gion­al bil­liards.