MANY of the region’s sportsmen and women are relaxing and enjoying their Christmas breaks by now, but Keighley pool ace Chris Melling is hard at work until Saturday.
It has been a manic few months for the former world champion, with events in Asia, record-breaking tournament successes at home and a raft of exhibitions meaning he is playing four or five hours of pool per day.
He finally gets a rest after one more exhibition this weekend, before returning to action on Saturday, January 6.
Not that Melling is complaining about his workload, excitedly telling the Keighley News: “I was doing exhibitions in Ireland all last week and I am again this week.
“But I flew back to London over the weekend to take part in Ultimate Pool’s Clash of the Titans event.
“It was basically an exhibition for eight of the top Ultimate Pool players, so we all had our own individual 30 minutes on the table, before taking part in a shootout, where I lost to (eventual winner) Tom Cousins after a random draw.
“So many fans turned up, there were about 350 people there, and I’ve never seen anything like that for an exhibition.
“The Brentwood Centre in Essex where the event was held was an unbelievable arena too.”
Ultimate Pool, which was only formed a few years ago, continues to push the boat out, with the Clash of the Titans event coming just days after the circuit announced its inaugural British Open, which will take place next summer.
Melling said: “In a meeting us players had with Ultimate Pool, they said they’d be announcing two big new events.
“We now know one is that British Open, and I imagine the other will be something like a European Open.
“They’ve also told us that, by 2025, there’ll be a couple of tournaments where the prize money will be in six figures.
“Ultimate Pool are doing such good work with social media, subscriptions and viewing figures, the only shame is they’ve lost coverage on BT Sports.
“That means the TV schedule is a bit up in the air currently, but they’re talking to all the right people about a new deal, like Sky, Eurosport and ESPN.”
Melling has always been forward-thinking when it comes to helping the game to grow.
He has plenty of commercial nous, but he is still box-office on the table too, reflected by his remarkable romp to the Ultimate Pool Pro Series 10 title in Blackpool last month.
He said: “I’ve been doing a lot of exhibitions over the last couple of months and I use those as practice.
“It’s meant I’ve been playing four or five hours of pool every day, so I felt great heading to Blackpool and told a few people that I felt I’d win.
“I lost 7-5 in event nine to Jimmy Carney, but I had four breaks where I didn’t pot, and he was so good when it came to clearing those openings up.
“I was unbelievable in event 10 later that weekend though.
“The previous record time for winning a match in that first-to-seven format was 26 minutes, but I won my last-16 match in event 10 7-0 in 20 minutes, then my semi-final 7-0 in 18 minutes.
“My two opponents in those games didn’t pot a single ball.”
Melling's success in England and exhibitions in Ireland have come straight off the back of an autumn largely spent competing in Asia.
He reflected: “It is exhausting doing all that travelling and since September 21, I’ve only spent five days at home.
“My friends and family tell me how lucky I am to be doing what I love, playing pool, for a living, but what they don’t always realise is that I’ve been doing this as a job since I was a boy.
“Other lads my age would be up at the park, messing around, while I was inside, practicing playing pool.
“I’m playing every day still and it’s what I’ve been doing since I was nine.”
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