CHRIS Melling is an Ultimate Pool Pro Series winner once again, as he blew Callum Singleton apart in the Event Two final on Sunday night.

He nearly failed to make it to the showpiece though, throwing away a big semi-final lead against Luke Gilbert before scraping through in a six-red shootout.

Keighley potter Melling served notice of his threat in his opening game, destroying young Geo Edgar 8-0 in the last-64.

He was given more of a test in the last-32, but beat Phil Harrison 8-5.

Melling then went up against Neil Raybone, who won his Champions League group last Monday, a week after his Keighley opponent won the opening one.

In the battle of the two in-form players, Melling came out with an 8-4 win.

The 43-year-old then beat Irishman Cormac Kerr 8-5 in the quarter-final, before romping into a 7-2 lead over Gilbert in the semis.

But young Gilbert roared back to make the score 7-7, meaning a six-red shootout to determine who went through.

Melling had to defeat the same opponent in a shootout to win his Champions League group a fortnight ago, and he did the same again here, easily beating Gilbert's marker of 30.76 seconds with a time of 22.45 seconds.

Singleton is a new professional, who was competing in his first Pro Series weekend, so had done brilliantly to get to the final.

But the experience of Melling showed in the showpiece, as he won it 8-3.

The victory over Singleton gives the Keighley potter his second Pro Series crown, and his fourth Ultimate Pool title in total.

In Event One earlier in the weekend, Melling crushed Carl Morris 8-0 in the last-64, before losing a thriller 8-6 to Simon Fitzsimmons in the next round.

Fitzsimmons made it all the way to the semis, losing to Phil Harrison by less than half a second in a six-red shootout.

Harrison was beaten 8-5 by Tom Cousins in the final.

That run of Fitzsimmons to the last-four saw him beat Melling's fellow Keighley potter Arfan Dad 8-3 in the quarter-finals.

Dad beat Chris Day (8-4), Josh Kane (in a six-red shootout after a 6-6 draw) and Cormac Kerr (8-6) to reach the last-eight.

But the Keighley man did not get far in Event Two, bowing out straightaway with a heavy 8-2 defeat at the hands of Jon McAllister.

As for Bradford native Karl Boyes, he lost 8-7 in a gripping last-64 clash at Event One to Jimmy Carney.

He went out in the last-64 of Event Two as well in another exciting game, going down 8-6 to Marc Fleming.