Chelsea's Calhoun Melville Takes The 2nd Title In Mandeville!
Calhoun Melville from Chelsea Pool Club in Kingston won the 2nd
Open 8 Ball Pool Tour held at the Upper Level Sports Bar in
Mandeville on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th 2010. Melville
collected one of the 7 main prize trophies along with $80,000
cash and gift basket from Cals Manufacturing Limited.
With a cool head coupled with an array of shots Melville brushed
aside each opponent starting with Elvis "Mr. Safe" Newman 4-2,
then made mince meat of 2 "B" class players Carlos Barrios 4-1
then Fernando Ruiz 4 Nil. In the quarter finals Calhoun stepped
up the pace and disposed of one of the parish favourites Gary "Mr.Smooth"
Manning. The semi-final match up saw Melville facing the
reigning champion Noel "School Boy" Blagrove who, on his own
rise to semi-finals , showed why he is a force to be reckoned
with by defeating both "A" & "B" class. Melville, however,
played tactful in the first two games and came up with a 2 nil
lead. The 3rd game saw School Boy carving his name in the
scoreboard with a comfortable win after Melville started to look
like a runaway winner. The 4th game Blagrove chose the defensive
route and broke the rack softly with only two balls hitting the
rail. Melville appealed the obvious foul break and referee Ruth
Salmon awarded him a re-break. In no uncertain manner Melville
drove through the rack downing balls to continue his turn at the
table and handed Noel a "flawless", putting the pressure on the
young star but Calhoun proved to be too much and finished the
set 4-1.
On the other side of the semi finals Ewart Hall who was beaten
in his 1st match of the day by Carlos Barrios 3-1, was sent to
the re-entry round for another chance to boost back his name
after that "B" class upset. Hall had another encounter with a
truly determined "B" class player Andeous Gillings in the semi
finals who had the luck of the draw until this point with a
string of "B" class clashes. Gillings made sure to make good use
of this propelling him to the semis on his 1st go in the tour.
This match up was dubbed "The Clash Of The JBA" due to positions
held by both players on the association board. Ewart Hall, Vice
President and Andeous Gillings Sports Director. The end of the
trail came for Gillings as he was comprehensively beaten 4-nil
by Hall who was making it his second consecutive finals of the
tour.
The finals between these two old rivals saw the replica of the
semis between Melville & Blagrove as similar results were to
realised when Melville won the 1st & 2nd games. Hall then pegged
back 1 in the third match to see the score 2-1. Melville who was
playing like a well oiled machine could do no wrong as he put
last years former #1 player Ewart Hall to sleep with back to
back classical performance in the last two games to win this
memorable tour.
The play off for 3rd place was played prior to the finals which
saw Andeous Gillings giving the crowd something to cheer about
as he gave Noel Blagrove a late challenge after being down 3-0.
Gillings won the 4th match of the set and followed up in his 2nd
win with a bank shot exhibition on the 8 ball to make the score
3-2. In the 6th game Gillings tried to end the match with a
possible flawless but failed as School Boy ran the rest of the
table to capture the 3rd place prize of $15,000 cash plus trophy
and gift basket from sponsors Cals Manufacturing Limited, makers
of Real Vibes Party Wine and Cals Spring Water.
Overall this stop on the seven month long tour quickly
established itself as one of the favourites by virtue of support
shown from Mandeville patrons as well as for an event free
tournament. The tour was also aired on live radio broadcasting
from KLAS FM89 via telephone on both days with reports of each
round at intervals and a round up of the final results on Monday
afternoon. Television Jamaica was also on the scene to record
matches from the semi-finals up and highlights were shown on
Monday evening during the sports news.
The presentations were made by Cal's General Manager, Mr. Nugent
Ximinies and Managing Director Mr. Carlton Watson along with
Catherine Maxfield who assisted with the consolation prizes and
referee presentation.
On a sad note however, young veteran Jahrel "Hype Up" Stephenson
passed away at 2PM on the 26th while the tournament was in the
last stages. A moment of silence was acknowledged by the
audience and condolences were extended to his family by the JBA..
