There is a say­ing, ‘If at first you don’t suc­ceed, try and try again’. That is ex­act­ly what the Scotchie’s Spar­tans have been do­ing and af­ter sev­en rounds of be­ing on the wrong end of Na­tion­al Pool League (NPL) Pre­mier di­vi­sion re­sults, they record­ed their first win of the eight-ball cam­paign.

The Scotchie’s out­fit, for­mer­ly the Scotchie’s Nu­bian Kings of the NPL first di­vi­sion, is one of two teams which were forced to move up to the pre­mier di­vi­sion be­cause of the pro­mo­tion of cer­tain play­ers with­in their ranks.

In this case, Deck­lon Ash­ton, who was pro­mot­ed in the play­er rank­ings to the A class, could no longer be a part of the first di­vi­sion, as on­ly B class play­ers are al­lowed in the low­er di­vi­sion of the NPL. In a bold move by the team’s man­ag­er, Lind­say ‘Scotchie’ Whiskey, he de­cid­ed to put to­geth­er a sec­ond team to com­pete in the high­er di­vi­sion just so that his long-serv­ing mem­ber would re­main un­der Scotchie’s um­brel­la.

On Wednes­day, that de­ci­sion paid div­i­dends, as they not on­ly won but did so against the Cen­tral Stars, one of the teams in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion with def­i­nite podi­um pedi­gree. Play­ing at their home venue, Shindig Sports Club in Curepe, Sime­on David, rep­re­sent­ing the ‘Spar­tans’, showed se­ri­ous fight in the open­ing game against Anil Ra­mad­har.

David, al­so known as Sim­ba, was up against it from the jump with Ra­mad­har go­ing up 2-nil, record­ing a ta­ble run in the very first frame. David re­spond­ed with a ta­ble run of his own and fol­lowed that up with a winzip or WZ, where all sev­en of the op­po­nent’s balls are left on the ta­ble.

An­oth­er dom­i­nant dis­play, this time a break and run, saw Ra­mad­har take the lead again. But David was in­tent on giv­ing his team a win­ning start, tak­ing frames six and sev­en to win the hill/hill en­counter. Cen­tral Stars threat­ened to ren­der David’s ef­fort moot as they eased to a two-games-to-one match lead with their cap­tain Jesse Gan­garam al­so hav­ing to fight back from a two-frame deficit to de­feat Bar­ry Ash­meed Syne 4-2.

The vis­it­ing pair of Shiv­anand Bhag­wat and Anand Ram­roop start­ed on the back­foot as well, with Rishi Sam­path and Ray Ross tak­ing a 1-nil lead. That one-frame ad­van­tage did not last very long as the vis­i­tors eased to a 4-1 win to give the ‘Stars’ the 2-1 match lead. Spar­tans cap­tain Ash­ton was next, his op­po­nent Richard Pereira. Ash­ton drew first blood but Pereira took frames two and three.

With a sev­enth loss on the trot a re­al pos­si­bil­i­ty for the Scotchie’s team, Ash­ton dug deep to reach the hill first at three frames to two. Pereira proved to be a wor­thy op­po­nent and evened things up at three apiece. The Spar­tan play­ers and fans breathed a heavy sigh of re­lief when cap­tain ‘Ash­ton-ish­ing’ pre­vailed in the fi­nal frame to add to the sus­pense and force a fifth and fi­nal game. The de­cider, be­tween Spar­tan Lawren­cio El­liott and Car­los Poy­er, promised to be an­oth­er ex­cit­ing match-up with Poy­er win­ning the lag and start­ing off in a rush with a break and run. El­liott kept his calm and pulled even at one and then stretched the lead with fur­ther wins in frames three and four.

By now, a wor­ried look came over the faces of the vis­it­ing ‘Stars’. Poy­er was res­olute and gave his team some­thing to cheer about with an­oth­er break and run in rack five. This game would not be al­lowed to go the dis­tance as El­liott seemed to say enough is enough and end­ed the con­test at 4-2.

Un­bri­dled joy for the hosts and a re­al­i­ty check for the vis­i­tors. The win, un­for­tu­nate­ly, does not move the Spar­tans out of the base­ment but it def­i­nite­ly shows them what is pos­si­ble if they be­lieve. The loss does not af­fect the Cen­tral Stars’ po­si­tion on the ta­ble as they hold on to the sev­enth spot with three wins and four loss­es.

Unit­ed Stars con­tin­ue to be the team to beat as they romped to their eighth win on the trot. At the Lucky’s Sports Bar in Williamsville, the Aaron Raghoo­nanan-led Unit­ed Stars reg­is­tered a 4-1 win against their Lucky’s sta­ble­mates, Princes Town Un­der­dawgs, to stay clear at the top of the ta­ble. Ri­valz Bil­liards Club, in sec­ond place, paid a vis­it to Up­per Deck in St James to take on the UD As­sas­sins.

Rea­gan Low Chew Tung and his Ri­valz team were in a con­test for the first two games but in the end, eased to a com­pre­hen­sive 5-nil win. The Mer­ce­nar­ies, who oc­cu­py third, had a slight­ly tougher time against Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club but pre­vailed 3-2. The Ravi Goorah-led Mer­ce­nar­ies have the iden­ti­cal record as the Ri­valz with six wins and one loss.

In oth­er match­es: Cen­tral Pre­mier Pool Club in fourth de­feat­ed sixth-place Shoot­ing Stars 4-1 and Rox­bury Hus­tlerz, who are in eighth, de­feat­ed Orinoco A 4-1. The Un­touch­ables, who were on a bye in round 8, hold down the fifth spot, while Sikar­i­oz BC, UD As­sas­sins, Orinoco A, Princes Town Un­der­dawgs and Scotchie’s Spar­tans round out the last five po­si­tions on the stand­ings.

Wednes­day's Pre­mier Di­vi­sion Week 9 Fix­tures

Cen­tral Stars vs UD As­sas­sins at Ken­ny’s, Ch­agua­nas

Princes Town Un­der­dawgs vs Rox­bury Hus­tlerz at Lucky’s, Williamsville

Cen­tral Pre­mier Pool Club vs The Un­touch­ables at Rox­bury, Cunu­pia

Ri­valz BC vs Shoot­ing Stars at Bil­liards Place, Aranguez

Sikar­i­oz BC vs Orinoco A at Bil­liards Place, Aranguez

The Mer­ce­nar­ies vs Scotchie’s Spar­tans at Lucky’s, Williamsville

Unit­ed Stars - Bye