History was made on Wednesday evening as fans witnessed the first women’s clash in the National Pool League (NPL). The historic occasion took place at the Upper Deck Sports Bar and Lounge in St James where Upper Deck hosted Pit & Pub in the NPL 10 Ball competition.
Both teams had a women's player in their ranks, Priya Gomes for the hosts and Britney Jagdeo for the visitors and as fate would have it, they were drawn to play each other in the fourth game of the night.
Gomes has featured several times this season for Upper Deck while Jagdeo was making her first appearance in the league. You would never have known that this was Jagdeo’s first dance as she showed no nerves in a comfortable three-nil win, which gave Pit & Pub an unassailable lead in the match. It was the perfect fillip for the women’s game in T&T. Currently, there are seven women registered to play in the NPL.
Pit & Pub were on fire early on racing to a two-nil lead without conceding a frame. Adrian Mangaroo (4) was a 4-nil winner over Ian McCall (3) in the first game of the night and Shaheed "Fly" Kondiah (4) replicated that result against Nigel St Clair (3) in game 2. The doubles encounter was next and the visitors were on course for a major blowout when Pit & Pub captain Ravy Joseph and Anil Ramadhar made it nine unanswered frames but Anlsem Villafana aka Villas and Adrian Mora, the Upper Deck captain, gave the hosts their first frame of the night in the second rack.
The P&P duo, who were racing to four, went up 2-1 but the home pair, racing to three, won the next two frames to give Upper deck their first game win. The final game of the night saw another Pit & Pub debutant Richard Pereira (3) taking on Keris "Pantz" Carew(4). Pereira won the first frame but that was his only success as Carew, despite taking his time to settle down, took the next four for the consolation win.
In Princes Town, Headquarters maintained their position at the top of the standings with a 3-2 win over Fearless (formerly Punishers) at the Dekko Sports Bar. Damian Solomon, Leslie Sammy and Amar Ramlal secured the win for Headquarters. Ramlal played flawless pool winning 3-nil against Shazzard Mohammed with Mohammed not getting a single shot. For Fearless, Roopnarine Latchman won the second game, while Ryan Sonny and Sunil "Elvis" Latchman won the doubles encounter.
In other games, United Stars kept the pressure on Headquarters with a 3-2 win over Spar United at the Boardroom in Debe; Kenny’s defeated Liquidatorz 3-2 in Chaguanas and The Specialists downed the Reel Steel Shotters 4-1 in Fyzabad.
NB: Handicap System: (Numbers in brackets are the amount of frames needed to win the individual games, which is a race to five wins. National players (5), A-Players (4), All others (3).
Wednesday matches
Round 11 (Start time 8 pm)
Headquarters vs Pit & Pub, Headquarters, Penal
United Stars vs Upper Deck, Boardroom, Debe
Spar United vs Reel Steel Shotters, Spar Sports Bar, Reform Village
The Specialists vs Kenny’s, Golden Arches, Curepe
Liquidatorz vs Fearless, Club Liquidz, Duncan Village