Afternoon all, Reggie here. Lunchtime takes us somewhere we don't get to often enough: a club final in Malta, where a blackball team went through a whole knockout without losing a match. There's also a loss-side marathon in New York, round two under way in Ho Chi Minh City, finals day for the 10-ball in Warsaw, and Group Two getting going in Leicester.
MALTA — BIRKIRKARA BOCCI TAKE THE REGIONAL KNOCKOUT
Birkirkara Bocci are the Malta Blackball Pool Federation's 2026 Regional Knockout champions after beating Cospicua Rangers B 11–6 in the final at the Juventus Club in Birkirkara, per the Times of Malta. They won every match they played in the competition.
Cospicua made the better start and went 2–0 up, but Birkirkara took the opening session 3–2. Then came the decisive spell: they won all five frames of the second session to lead 8–2. Cospicua fought back, winning the third session 4–1 to close to 9–6, before Marcel Micallef and Jason Micallef won the last two frames to finish it.
How they got there
- Birkirkara Bocci beat Siggiewi Montekristo 12–8 and 21–13 in the semi-finals
- Cospicua Rangers B beat Floriana 14–6 and 21–9, with Mason Mifsud winning 11 of his 14 frames
- In the final, Marcel and Jason Micallef won three frames each, with Matthew Vella and Darren Schembri on two apiece
- Schembri was Birkirkara's standout over the whole competition, winning six of the seven frames he played
NEW YORK — VERGARA DOES IT THE LONG WAY
Mhet Vergara lost his very first match at Stop 8 of the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour, then won nine in a row on the loss side to take the title, per AZBilliards' Skip Maloney. The event drew 38 players to Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, New York, on 7–8 November, with $1,500 added.
The man who sent him over was the room's owner, Holden Chin, who beat Vergara double-hill in round one. Chin then played four straight double-hill matches while also running the room, and went out one match short of a rematch.
Yesid Garibello went unbeaten to the hot seat for the second Joss stop running, beating Kirill Rutman 9–7. For the second stop running, he was then beaten twice in the final. Vergara got past Rutman double-hill in the semi-final, won the first set of the true double-elimination final 9–3, and then won a double-hill second set. It is his second Joss title this season after Stop 2 in September, and he has also won twice on the Sullivan Open Tour this year.
The last stop of the 2026 part of the season is the 38th Ocean State 9-Ball Championships on 21–22 November at Snooker's Sports Bar & Grill in Providence, Rhode Island, with $4,500 added. It will be streamed free on the room's Facebook page.
HO CHI MINH CITY — ROUND TWO AND THE FIRST ELIMINATIONS
With all 64 first-round ties done at the Universal Open, the winners' side second round has been going on since this morning. The first block included Aloysius Yapp against Nien Rong Chih, Wu Kun Lin against Chang Tzu Chien and Luong Duc Thien against Chang Yi Wei. Next up are Duong Quoc Hoang against Zhuang Zhi Yu and Carlo Biado against Trinh Van Binh. Hoang Thai Duy's reward for beating Dennis Orcollo is a match with Michael Feliciano.
The one-loss side starts today too, and that is where players start going home. Orcollo, James Aranas, Bernie Regalario and Jeffrey Ignacio are all on that side, playing races to eight with no second chances left. I haven't got confirmed second-round scores yet, so you'll get them tonight. It's live on WNT TV, with scores on DigitalPool.
WARSAW — 10-BALL FINALS DAY
The 10-ball titles in both the standing and wheelchair divisions are due to be settled today at the EPBF Parasport European Championships at the BOSS Hotel, according to the EPBF schedule. The 8-ball starts alongside it and runs to Saturday. Poland's Adam Wilk is defending his standing 10-ball title on home soil. In the wheelchair division, Sweden's Henrik Larsson won the 10-ball at last year's Euros in Tallinn, which was his 16th European title. I'll have the medallists tonight.
LEICESTER — GROUP TWO
The last group at the Champion of Champions starts at 1pm with world number one Zhao Xintong against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, with Kyren Wilson against Ali Carter in the other best-of-seven. The two winners play a best-of-11 at 7pm for a Saturday semi-final against Shaun Murphy, who hasn't dropped a frame all week. It's on ITV.
Coming up
- Tonight: the Champion of Champions Group Two final, the Warsaw 10-ball medallists and the HCMC round-two scores
- Friday: Stage 1 men's qualifying starts at the IBSF World Snooker Championships in Indore
- Friday, 7pm: Champion of Champions semi-final, Chris Wakelin v Neil Robertson
- 17–21 November: the Universal Bangkok Open, the next World Nineball Tour stop
- 21–22 November: the Ocean State 9-Ball in Providence
That's lunch. Back this evening. Reggie.
Feature image: “Eight Ball Side On (Pool Billiards)” by Stuart Kerr, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.
