Chris Melling (pool player)

Last updated

Chris Melling
Pool player Chris Melling.jpg
Melling in 2012
Born (1979-01-27) 27 January 1979 (age 45) [1]
Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire. [1]
Sport countryFlag of England.svg  England
Nicknamethe Magician [2]
Professional1998
Best ranking finishQuarter finals 2013 WPA World Nine-ball Championship
Tournament wins
World Champion English eight-ball (2001, 2003)

Christopher Melling (born 27 January 1979) is an English professional pool and snooker player from Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire. [1] He's a former world number 1 at World Rules British Eight-Ball. He won the WEPF World Eightball Championship twice, in 2001 and 2003. He was ranked #1 in 2003 by the World Eightball Pool Federation. [3] Melling has also twice won the International Pool Masters (2001 and 2002) and the European Professional title (2002). He was the first player to win two International Tour events back to back. His entrance by walk-on music is from the song “Wannabe” by Spice Girls. Melling is also the only cue sports player to hold professional status in English 8 ball, American pool and snooker.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Career

In 2001, Melling reached the last 16 of the 2001 WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Cardiff, beating Steve Davis along the way. [4]

Melling tours worldwide to pursue his 9-ball pool career. In October 2010 he won his first European 9-ball event, the Portugal Open. On 12 June 2011 Melling was crowned China Open champion and received $40,000. This was his first major 9-ball pool tournament victory.

In December 2011, Melling participated in the 18th annual Mosconi Cup, and won four of his six matches. [5] A year later he won the Most Valuable Player Award in the 2012 Mosconi Cup. [6]

In January 2013, he reached the final of the Chinese 8-Ball Masters, losing to Gareth Potts. He also lost to Potts in the final of the 2005 World Rules 8-Ball Championship. Also in 2013 he reached the quarter finals of the 2013 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, the World Masters, World Cup of Pool and finished 5th in the US Open 9-Ball Championship.

In May 2014, Melling entered the snooker 2014 Q School in an attempt to regain his professional status and defeated the likes of former professionals Daniel Wells and Chen Zhe 4–3 and 4–1 respectively, before winning his quarter-final match against Duane Jones 4–3 to earn a two-year tour card for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons. [7] This saw him become the first person to have been a professional in 8-ball pool, 9-ball pool and snooker at the same time.

His first match as a professional saw him beat 2003 UK Championship winner Matthew Stevens 5–4 to qualify for the 2014 Wuxi Classic, but he lost 5–1 to Zhao Xintong in the first round. [8] Melling also played in the first round of the International Championship by defeating Luca Brecel 6–5 and was knocked out 6–1 by Zhou Yuelong. His first victory at the venue stage of a ranking event came at the Welsh Open after he edged out Nigel Bond 4–3, before being whitewashed 4–0 by home favourite Michael White in the second round. [8]

The 2015–16 season proved harder for Melling as he could only win four matches all year. [9] He dropped off the tour at the end of the season and could not win enough matches at the 2016 Q School to win his place back. [10]

Snooker performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 2000/
01
2001/
02
2002/
03
2003/
04
2004/
05
2006/
07
2014/
15
2015/
16
Ranking [11] [nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 3] 79
Ranking tournaments
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not HeldLQA
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not HeldLQLQ
International Championship Tournament Not Held 1R LQ
UK Championship ALQALQALQ 1R 1R
German Masters Tournament Not HeldLQLQ
Welsh Open ALQALQALQ 2R 1R
World Grand Prix Tournament Not HeldNRDNQ
Players Tour Championship Finals Tournament Not HeldDNQDNQ
China Open ALQNot HeldALQLQLQ
World Championship LQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters AAALQAAAA
Former ranking tournaments
Thailand Masters ALQNRNot HeldNRNot Held
Scottish Open [nb 4] ALQALQTournament Not Held
British Open ALQALQANot Held
Irish Masters NRALQANRNot Held
Malta Cup [nb 5] NRLQALQALQNot Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not HeldLQNot Held
Grand Prix [nb 6] ALQALQALQNot Held
Wuxi Classic [nb 7] Tournament Not Held 1R NH
Indian Open Tournament Not HeldLQNH
Performance table legend
LQlost in the qualifying draw#Rlost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)
QFlost in the quarter-finals
SFlost in the semi-finalsFlost in the finalWwon the tournament
DNQdid not qualify for the tournamentAdid not participate in the tournamentWDwithdrew from the tournament
NH / Not Heldmeans an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
PA / Pro-am Eventmeans an event is/was a pro-am event.
  1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. 1 2 3 He was an amateur.
  3. 1 2 3 4 New players on the Main Tour do not have a ranking
  4. The event was called the Players Championship (2003/2004)
  5. The event was also called the European Open (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  6. The event was also called the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  7. The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)

Pool titles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Drago</span> Maltese snooker and pool player

Tony Drago is a Maltese former professional snooker and pool player.

Lynette Horsburgh is a Scottish-English semi-professional, world champion pool and national champion snooker player, as well as an international-class player of English billiards. In sport, she represents Scotland. Outside sport, she is a professional Web content producer and journalist at BBC News Online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niels Feijen</span> Dutch pool player

Niels Feijen is a Dutch professional pool player, from the Hague. His nickname is "the Terminator". In 2014 he won the WPA World 9-ball championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl Strickland</span> American pool player

Earl Strickland is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He has won over 100 championship titles and three world titles. In 2006 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. In 1996, Strickland won the largest cash prize to date winning the PCA $1,000,000 Challenge by being the first player to run 10 consecutive racks in a tournament. He is also known as one of the sport's most controversial players for his outspoken views and his sometimes volatile behavior at tournaments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Lely</span> Dutch pool player

Alex Lely is a Dutch former professional pool player. Lely won the 1999 World Pool Masters after defeating Efren Reyes 7–5, and reached the final in 2000 but lost to Ralf Souquet 7–3. He is a two-time European champion having won the nine-ball and eight-ball at the 2005 European Pool Championships.

Pat Holtz is a Scottish professional pool player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Alcaide</span> Spanish professional pool player

David Alcaide Bermúdez is a Spanish professional pool player. He is a two-time winner of the World Pool Masters, winning the 2017 event, defeating Jayson Shaw 8–7 in the final, and again in 2019 defeating Alexander Kazakis 9–8. Alcaide is a three-time world championship semi-finalist having reached the stage at the WPA World 10-ball Championship, in 2009 and 2015, and the WPA World Eight-ball Championship in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick van den Berg</span> Dutch pool player

Nick van den Berg is a Dutch professional pool player. He was the runner up at the 2005 WPA World Eight-ball Championship, where he lost to Wu Chia-ching 11–5 in the final. He is a multiple time winner of events on the Euro Tour, winning 10 tournaments between 2002 and 2017, the fourth highest in the history of the tour. A six-time winner of the European Pool Championships, Van den Berg has represented Europe at the Mosconi Cup on eight occasions, winning the event on six occasions as well as tying the event in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michaela Tabb</span> Scottish Snooker Referee

Michaela Tabb is a Scottish snooker and pool referee. She established significant milestones for female officials in professional cue sports, beginning in pool, where she officiated at top tournaments such as the WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the Mosconi Cup. She qualified in 2001 to referee on the World Snooker Tour and was the sport's highest profile female referee for the next 14 years. She became the first woman to officiate at a professional ranking snooker tournament at the 2002 Welsh Open, and the first woman to referee a ranking tournament final at the 2007 Welsh Open. As of 2022, she is the only woman to have refereed the World Snooker Championship final, which she did twice, in 2009 and 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcus Chamat</span> Swedish pool player, born 1975

Marcus Chamat, is a Swedish professional eight-ball and nine-ball pool player. He was nicknamed "Napoleon" due to his personality and standing at 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) tall. He is a two time European Pool Championships winner, and one of the most successful players on the Euro Tour, winning four events, and finishing runner-up on twice. Chamat reached the semi-finals of the 2004 WPA World Nine-ball and the 2008 WPA World Eight-ball Championships, but did not reach the final of a world championship event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eight-ball pool (British variation)</span> Pool game

The English-originating version of eight-ball pool, also known as English pool, English eight-ball, blackball, or simply reds and yellows, is a pool game played with sixteen balls on a small pool table with six pockets. It originated in the United Kingdom and is played in the Commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa. In the UK and Ireland it is usually called simply "pool".

Daryl Peach is an English professional pool player, from Lancashire, who resides in Blackpool, England. He won the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, where he defeated the Philippines' Roberto Gomez 17–15 in the final to become the first British player to win the WPA World Nine-ball Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Massey</span> American pool player

Michael Massey, professionally known as Mike Massey, is an American professional pool player From 1989 to 1991 he served as a contributing editor of The Snap Magazine. Massey was born in Loudon, Tennessee, and for several years lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he owned a pool hall. He has the nickname of "Tennessee Tarzan", but he now lives in Midway, Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Appleton</span> English pool player (born 1976)

Darren Appleton is an English professional pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.

Gareth David Potts is an English pool player, nicknamed "the Golden Boy". He is a two-time amateur and four-time professional world champion in British-style eightball/blackball, a co-champion in that discipline's pairs (doubles) event, and a three-time champion of a leading Chinese eight-ball competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Gray (snooker player)</span> British pool and snooker player

Mark Gray is an English professional pool player and former professional snooker player.

Michael Hill, commonly known as Mick Hill, is an English pool player. He was WEPF men's world champion of British eight-ball pool in 2004, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019, the first person to win it six times. Frequently described as a genius by his peers, he is one of the most successful players of the sport in his generation.

Joshua Filler is a German professional pool player from Bönen, Germany. In 2018 Filler defeated Carlo Biado 13–10 to win the 2018 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. In 2017 he was the youngest player to win the China Open, and in 2018 he also won the 10-ball European Pool Championships. Filler became WPA and Euro Tour world number 1 in 2019, and later he reached the final of the 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship before losing 10–7 to Ko Ping-chung.

Francisco Sánchez Ruíz is a Spanish professional pool player, nicknamed "The Ferrari" and by his initials "FSR". He won both the 2022 WPA World Eight-ball Championship and the 2023 WPA World Nine-ball Championship.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Chris Melling". azbilliards.com. Retrieved 31 December 2020.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. "Chris "The Magician" Melling joins the Cuetec team". Cuetec. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  3. "Men's Individual Rankings". World Eight-ball Pool Federation. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2009.
  4. "2001 WPA World Pool Championship" (PDF). csns.ca. Cue Sports Nova. July 18, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  5. Yates, Phil (January 2012). "Europe regains Mosconi Cup". Snooker Scene. pp. 43–44.
  6. Yates, Phil (January 2013). "Europe hold off USA to retain Mosconi Cup". Snooker Scene. pp. 38–40.
  7. "Melling / Steadman / Tian / Zhang Qualify". World Snooker . Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Chris Melling 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  9. "Chris Melling 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  10. "Q School Order of Merit". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  11. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 February 2019.