It was an ex­cep­tion­al week­end for the Na­tion­al Pool League Pre­mier Di­vi­sion cham­pi­ons, Unit­ed Stars. The league cham­pi­ons fol­lowed up their fourth Na­tion­al Pool League ti­tle with a third Bil­liards Sports Or­gan­i­sa­tion Na­tion­al Pool 9 Ball Team knock­out vic­to­ry.

Added to that, four of their play­ers fin­ished first and sec­ond in the Lucky Sports Bar dou­bles tour­na­ment and Sal­isha Lochan, who is al­so a Unit­ed Stars mem­ber, fin­ished first in the Lucky Sports fe­male tour­na­ment.

KNOCK­OUT: The Unit­ed Stars did the dou­ble yet again, se­cur­ing the Knock­out ti­tle to go with their League ti­tle. This is the third time the Aaron Raghoo­nanan led Unit­ed Stars have won both the league and knock­out ti­tles. They did the dou­ble in the in­au­gur­al 8 Ball league in 2019 and re­peat­ed the feat in 2022 with the 9 Ball ver­sion. They al­so won the 8 Ball league ti­tle in 2023.

On May 18 at the Pyra­mid Sports Bar in Gas­par­il­lo, the Unit­ed Stars de­feat­ed Cuetrollerz 4-2 in the Na­tion­al Pool 9 Ball Team knock­out fi­nal to claim yet an­oth­er ti­tle.

On their way to the cham­pi­onship match, they took care of Cen­tral Stars 4-3 in a nail-bit­ing semi­fi­nal and the Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club 4-0 in the last eight. They ad­vanced to the quar­ter­fi­nals by de­fault af­ter the Ti­tans failed to show up for their pre­lim­i­nary round en­counter. With the win, the Unit­ed Stars will add $4,000 (knock­out) to the $10,000 (league) they won in the NPL pre­mier di­vi­sion.

Cuetrollerz, mean­while, de­feat­ed Shoot­ing Stars 4-1 to reach the Cham­pi­onship match. Af­ter re­ceiv­ing a bye in the first round, they ad­vanced to the semi­fi­nals by beat­ing Ago­ra Stingers al­so by a 4-1 mar­gin. Cuetrollerz, who fin­ished just out­side of the prizes in the league, will not fin­ish the 9 Ball cam­paign emp­ty hand­ed. They will take home $2,000 for their sec­ond-place fin­ish. Cen­tral Stars de­feat­ed Shoot­ing Stars in the third-place play­off to pock­et $1,000. The top three fin­ish­ers will al­so re­ceive team tro­phies.

LUCKY SPORTS BAR: On May 17 in Williamsville, Aaron Raghoo­nanan and his sec­ond in com­mand Ke­shawn Rod­ney teamed up to take part in the Lucky Sports Bar 9 Ball dou­bles tour­na­ment. Sham Jagerssar and Michael Lochan, al­so from the Unit­ed Stars, par­tic­i­pat­ed as well. As fate would have it, those two com­bi­na­tions made it all the way to the fi­nals. Raghoo­nanan and Rod­ney were even­tu­al­ly de­clared win­ners, af­ter the four team­mates de­cid­ed to split the first and sec­ond prize purse. The Raghoo­nanan/Rod­ney pair de­feat­ed Dami­an Solomon and Sime­on David in the semi­fi­nals and the Jagerssar/Lochan pair beat An­dre Creece and Clint Mara­jh to reach the fi­nal. Solomon and David fin­ished third by way of a bet­ter win/loss record.

LADIES’ 8 BALL: Al­so last Sat­ur­day, the ladies held the spot­light as the Lucky Sports man­age­ment team held a Ladies 8 Ball dou­ble elim­i­na­tion tour­na­ment. Unit­ed Stars, again, were in the main frame as Sal­isha Lochan, who hap­pens to be the wife of Michael Lochan, was crowned cham­pi­on.

On her way to the fi­nal, she de­feat­ed Keisha Sco­bie 3-nil, Re­hana Ram­rat­tan 3-nil, Brit­ney Jagdeo 3-1 and Jamie Mo­hammed 3-2. Those four wins sealed her spot in the fi­nal where she would await the win­ner from the los­er’s brack­et. That los­er’s brack­et win­ner was Brit­ney Jagdeo. Jagdeo had ear­li­er de­feat­ed Rav­ina Boodoo 3-0 and Sh­er­nice Ma­haraj Leza­ma 3-1, be­fore be­ing sent to the los­er’s side by Lochan. On the los­er’s side, Jagdeo again beat Rav­ina 3-0, Ma­haraj Leza­ma 3-1 and reached the fi­nal match by edg­ing out Jamie Mo­hammed 3-2.

In the fi­nal match, it was Jagdeo who drew first blood beat­ing Lochan 3-1. But in true dou­ble elim­i­na­tion fash­ion, a play­er must lose twice to be knocked out, so there was an­oth­er go around, this time, Lochan tri­umphed 3-1. Jamie Mo­hammed placed third while Ma­haraj Leza­ma fin­ished fourth. In all, thir­teen ladies took part and both the Ladies’ and Dou­bles tour­na­ments ran si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

NPL FIRST DI­VI­SION: In oth­er cue sports news, there are two rounds left in the Na­tion­al Pool League first di­vi­sion team com­pe­ti­tion. Rox­bury Shot Callers are in pole po­si­tion to cap­ture their first NPL ti­tle. The Shot Callers lead the stand­ings, one match ahead of the Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club, with twen­ty-one wins and three loss­es.

Round 25 plays off on Tues­day (May 27) at venues across the coun­try.

NPL Round 24 Re­sults (May 20)

Rox­bury Shot Callers def Scotchies’ Nu­bian Kings 3-2

Sikar­i­oz Bil­liards Club def Pan­thers 5-0

Pock­et Preda­tors def Lucky Sports 3-2

Ken­ny’s def Crazy 8’s 3-2

Ago­ra Stingers def Top Shooterz Krew 4-1

Unit­ed Stars def JJ Shoot­ers 3-2

Dekko All Stars def Shoot­ing Stars 4-1.