Orinoco A, one of the newest teams in the Na­tion­al Pool League Pre­mier di­vi­sion, com­plet­ed its ninth round on Wednes­day with a 3-2 win against the Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club, at Bil­liards Place in Aranguez. Play­ing away from home, the Shiv Moti­lal Orinoco team set­tled first, with Zachary Af­foon draw­ing first blood against Muham­mad Rah­man.

The open­ing game went down to the wire with Af­foon tak­ing the first two frames, the first of which could have eas­i­ly gone to Rah­man, but the Sikar­i­oz play­er in­ex­plic­a­bly missed a ball in hand eight ball, gift­ing the first frame to the vis­it­ing Af­foon. Rah­man, who would have been shak­ing off the rust af­ter sit­ting out the pre­vi­ous two rounds, found some form with three frames on the bounce, but Af­foon joined Rah­man on the hill and went on to win the ‘Race to Four’ con­test af­ter a sev­en­ty-two-minute bat­tle.

The one-nil lead quick­ly be­came a two-game cush­ion with Michael Lochan dis­pos­ing of Al­bi Knights in four straight frames. The next two games would of­fer some much-need­ed re­sis­tance for the hosts. The Sikar­i­oz dou­bles pair of Kevin Browne and Karen Ram­cha­ran took on Navin Be­sai and Kem­lin Ram­nar­ine. The home duo, again start­ed on the back­foot, but came back from a first-frame loss to win four straight racks, and put the hosts on the board. Sikar­i­oz cap­tain, Adri­an Lo­gie, then en­sured his team would have a fight­ing chance by win­ning the fourth game and re­turn­ing a four-nil re­sult against Sal­isha Lochan.

The fifth and fi­nal game was be­tween Adri­an Mo­ra and the Orinoco cap­tain, Moti­lal. Moti­lal won the lag and wast­ed no time. He sank five balls on the break and pro­ceed­ed to run the ta­ble for a one-nil lead. Mo­ra could have re­turned the favour with a break and run of his own but still did enough to tie things up at one apiece. Moti­lal, as if to say, this is how it’s done, broke and ran off yet an­oth­er frame in quick time. Mo­ra could not cap­i­talise on his break and the Big Bloods skip­per went fur­ther ahead at 3-1.

The vet­er­an Mo­ra did have enough for one more frame win, a winzip in the fifth frame but Moti­lal sealed the game 4-2 to give the vis­i­tors the all-im­por­tant away vic­to­ry. With the win, Orinoco A move up one spot in­to tenth with two wins and sev­en loss­es, while Sikar­i­oz BC holds at num­ber nine with three wins and six loss­es.

In oth­er Pre­mier Di­vi­sion match­es, Mer­ce­nar­ies and Cen­tral Stars were the most dom­i­nant of the round, reg­is­ter­ing 5-nil wins against their re­spec­tive op­po­nents. Mer­ce­nar­ies, who are third on the stand­ings with just one loss, were swept by Scotchie’s Spar­tans at their Rox­bury home in Cunu­pia. The Spar­tans were go­ing in­to the round on a high af­ter record­ing their maid­en vic­to­ry in the di­vi­sion in round eight.

Cen­tral Stars, who were on the wrong side of that Spar­tans win, host­ed league debu­tants UD As­sas­sins at Ken­ny’s in Ch­agua­nas. They were ap­par­ent­ly in­tent on hav­ing a good show­ing af­ter last week’s blip and did so in style, win­ning twen­ty frames to the As­sas­sins’ sev­en. The Cen­tral Stars are cur­rent­ly sixth on the ta­ble with four wins and four loss­es, while the St. James-based As­sas­sins have dropped fur­ther down the stand­ings and are now eleventh, with two wins and six loss­es.

Ri­valz con­tin­ue to hold down the sec­ond spot with sev­en wins and one loss, the same as the Mer­ce­nar­ies. In round 9, the Rea­gan Low Chew Tung cap­tained Ri­valz, who de­feat­ed Shoot­ing Stars 4-1. The loss for the Shoot­ing Stars sees them drop one spot down to sev­enth.

In oth­er re­sults, Cen­tral Pre­mier Pool Club, fourth on the stand­ings, de­feat­ed the Un­touch­ables 4-1. The Un­touch­ables are one game back in fifth. And Rox­bury Hus­tlerz beat Princes Town Un­der­dawgs 3-2. The Un­der­dawgs are not hav­ing the best of sea­sons, hav­ing lost eight of their nine games. The Hus­tlerz, mean­while, are four wins from five loss­es, and oc­cu­py eighth spot on the ta­ble. The Un­der­dawgs are 12th, while Scotchie’s Spar­tans are 13th, both with just one win.

Wednes­day’s match

Pre­mier Di­vi­sion

Unit­ed Stars vs Cen­tral Pre­mier Pool Club at Lucky’s, Williamsville

Up­per Deck As­sas­sins vs The Mer­ce­nar­ies at Up­per Deck, St James

Shoot­ing Stars vs Cen­tral Stars at Pyra­mid, Gas­par­il­lo

The Un­touch­ables vs Ri­valz at Reno’s, San­gre Grande

Scotchie’s Spar­tans vs Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club at Shindig, Curepe

Orinoco Blood A vs Princes Town Un­der­dawgs at Reno’s San­gre Gande

Rox­bury Hus­tlerz - Bye