As it was, Chirino proved unstoppable on the pool tables in this event, sweeping aside all opposition on his way to the final of the winners’ side – including a 6-0 win against Paul Mullins. The final saw Chirino up against Chris Gentile, who himself came into the match off the back of a thumping 5-0 victory over Raymond Linares. The game proved to be worth the wait, with both players demonstrating mastery of safety play and potting before Chirino eventually ran out the winner by 7-4.

Meanwhile in the 10-ball open event, it was Hunter Lombardo who set the pace amongst the 42-strong field of competitors, storming towards the finals with victories on the Cunningham’s pool tables that included 6-1 and 6-0 thrashings of John Ditoro and Mark Coates respectively – results which saw him grab the hot seat. Given his form to this point, Lombardo would have gone into the final against Tony Crosby full of confidence. So it proved, in a nail-biting battle that ultimately needed a sudden death one rack shootout to decide it, which Crosby claimed with a fast 2-10 combo.

The Flamingo Qualifier operated as a double elimination tournament, a variation on the previous version, with a redraw being held at the last eight stage. This redraw saw Fields take on a tough opponent in Shanelle Loraine, a player making significant improvements to her game this season. However, Fields proved to be too strong for her and marched on to a semi-final match against Jeannie Seaver – the player regarded as the pre-event favourite.

Adding to Fields’ underdog status going into this semi-final were the statistic showing that she had never defeated Seaver in any of their previous meetings on the pool tables. Despite this, she overcame the odds to claim a 7-5 victory and a place in the final. By this stage Fields clearly had the momentum behind her, which was always going to make the task of her opponent in the final – Nicolle Cuellar – that much more difficult. In the end, Cuellar never looked like she would overcome this hurdle, as Fields eased her way to a comfortable 7-2 win, to take the winners cheque for $370.

Further adding to Gray’s frustration will be the knowledge that he had been in dynamic form on the way to the final, seeing off some tough opponents, including Chris Hall in the semi-final. This could have been a tricky match against a rival who is on top form at the moment, but Gray showed real mettle in a 9-6 win, to set up his final contest with Melling.

The holder of the Medati Trophy had to struggle a little more at times during his journey to the final, especially in his second round match when a tenacious Chris Waddingham made life difficult for him; but having scraped through this match 9-8, Melling subsequently faced down all-comers on the pool tables, as he sought to defend his crown. The final proved to be a closely matched affair for the initial 12 racks, which saw a six each tie, before Melling stepped up a gear to take charge of the match beginning with rack 13. He finally sealed his second successive Medati Trophy by 11-7, to claim the gold medal and £2,000 cheque.

Standing in his way at this point was Chance Chin, a player who had already despatched Matt Tetreault in their hill-hill match, ensuring that Tetreault was consigned to the loss-side; but Inness managed to overcome Chin in a hotly contested battle, to emerge the winner by 9-7 and retain his unbeaten status. Elsewhere, in the west side of the field Yesid Garibello saw off both Jeff Smolen and Zuglan, before eventually being eliminated in fourth position, when Jeremy Sossei overcame him by 9-6.

Sossei was building some serious momentum with his pool cues by this point and when he came up against Chin in their semi-final, he continued to demonstrate impressive form with a 9-5 win over his competitor, to earn a final meeting with Inness. This promised to be a showdown between two players who were on top form and proved to be every bit as closely-matched a contest as would be expected. Ultimately however, it was Inness who emerged from the hill-hill match undefeated to claim this leg of the Tour.

Chan and Khan met each other in the hot seat game, with Khan having secured his place there thanks to a win over Arturo Reyes in their winners’ side match, while Chan booked his place with a closely contested 6-5 victory against Luis Jimenez. In this first match-up, it proved to be Khan who came out on top under the Carom Café’s pool table lights, grabbing a 7-6 win in another thrilling contest for the audience at the event.

There was more disappointment for Reyes on the losing-side of the tournament chart as he fell to a 7-6 defeat at the hands of Bryan Jziorski, while Jimenez recovered from his loss to Chan with a win over Ramon Feliciano by a score of 6-3. In the end, Jimenez had to settle for fourth place however, as Jziorski saw him off 7-4, to set up a semi-final meeting with Chan. Ultimately, he was unable to overcome his opponent on the pool tables and Chan advanced to a final re-match against Khan. Here, he banished memories of the earlier defeat with an emphatic 9-3 triumph to claim the title.

Rodriguez began his path to success in this latest bout of the Joss Northeast Tour with an easy 9-2 win against Hunter Lombardo, while Dechaine overcame Mika Immonen of Finland by 9-8 in a closely fought contest, before defeating Rodriguez with surprising ease in their hot seat match. There was some consolation for the Finnish player when he saw off Jeremy Sossei by 9-7, before he was eliminated by Zion Zvi at the quarter final stage by a score of 9-4.

In the semi-final game, Zvi found himself unfortunate to be up against an opponent in Rodriguez, who was determined to make amends for his earlier thrashing by Dechaine by securing a re-match on the Raxx pool tables. Having defeated Zvi by 9-6, Rodriguez was clearly motivated by the embarrassment of his previous game against ‘The Fireball’ as he claimed a 9-7 victory in the opening set, before wiping away all memories of the earlier match with a convincing 9-3 second set win to secure the title and the $1,500 first prize cheque.

However, prior to this, Hatch had to overcome a number of formidable opponents from the 27-strong field of players attracted to the tournament. Hatch began by seeing off Spencer Auigbelle by 9-5, which led him to a game against Bucky Souvanthong in the winners’ side final. Souvanthong had already defeated Oliveira 9-3 in their game, but Hatch was approaching the top of his form on the Salt City pool tables by this point and came out on top in a closely contested match, by 9-7.

With Russ Philp knocking out Auigbelle by a score of 9-8, at fifth place, Mike Zuglan – who was also the promoter of the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour – was next to be eliminated after he went down to Oliveira in a 9-4 defeat. At this point, Oliveira appeared to be hitting peak performance with his pool cues, as he swept aside Philp and Souvanthong in the next two games – both by scores of 9-3 – to set up the final game against Hatch. In the end however, he was undone by the brilliance of ‘The Hatchet Man’ in the final.

This latest victory on the pool tables saw Biado pick up a winners cheque for $5,000, following swiftly on the heels of his triumph in the Green Garden 9-Ball Open at the end of February, enabling him to reduce Team Philippines’ deficit in the PBB Face Off series. However, they still trail Team Asia by a single point following the most recent round of matches.

This latest series saw another top Filipino pool star, Efren “Bata” Reyes, go down in defeat at the hands of Pin-yi Ko, while Jung-lin Chang of Team Asia performed heroics on the pool tables to see off first Lee Vann “The Slayer” Corteza by a score of 9-7, and then follow it up with victory over Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, by 9-8.

There was some good news for Team Philippines prior to Biado’s win, as Francisco “Django” Bustamante came from behind in his match against Ko to emerge the victor by 9-7.

Alongside the exhibitions of custom-made pool cues and different pub style and coin operated pool tables on display at the Expo, the attendees witnessed a vintage display by Van Boening, beginning with a remarkable 10-1 victory over Raj Hundal – who was left as little more than a spectator throughout the match. This set the pattern for the subsequent games, with Darren Appleton – a two time former winner of the US Open – meeting the same fate, as Van Boening assumed complete dominance of the table, giving Appleton no way into the match and leaving him on the wrong end of a 10-2 defeat.

Following these two crushing victories, Van Boening was left with one more game to overcome to get his hands on the trophy – against Stevie Moor, who was undefeated and thus full of confidence. However, this counted for little in the early stages, as Van Boening stormed to a 7-0 advantage under the pool table lights at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Centre venue. Although Moor rallied to battle back to 12-6, Van Boening held his nerve to claim the Players Championship by 13-6.

“This time I will not disappoint my countrymen,” he told reporters ahead of the match.

However, despite Orcollo’s reputation as one of the top players currently competing on the professional pool tables, Chang is set to prove a difficult opponent to overcome. The Taiwanese player recently saw off another big name in Lee Van Corteza, defeating the Filipino in a Face Off contest by 9-7, a win which saw Team Asia take a lead of 2-1 against Team Philippines in a tussle that the press have labelled “Philippines vs. Asia”. Speaking via an interpreter, Chang showed Orcollo every respect in his pre-match comments:

“Dennis is a very tough opponent. I will do my best,” he stated.

However, despite the modesty demonstrated in his comments, Chang is building a strong reputation for himself with his pool cues, having claimed the World 8-Ball Championships held in the United Arab Emirates in February – defeating fellow Taiwanese player Chei Wei Fu for the trophy.