KEIGHLEY potter Chris Melling is used to getting to the sharp end of pool tournaments on his own.

But he showed his strength as part of a team on Monday night, as he and Tom Ford stormed into the last-16 of the Ultimate Pool Pairs Cup.

Sixty-four pairings enter the tournament, which is initially split into 16 groups of four.

The victorious duo in each group go through to the last-16, split into four groups of four, with the winner of each of those heading into the semi-finals, with a final to follow.

The Pairs format is more associated with Melling’s friend and fellow Keighley native Arfan Dad, but it was the two-time world champion who took centre stage on Monday.

He and Ford came up against Chris Douglas and Anthony Jeffers in the night’s opening group game, and won 4-0 in what proved to be a total mismatch.

They then went up against Scott Anderson and Riley James, who had beaten Jez and Jordan Graham 3-1 in their opener.

With this game looking likely to decide who progressed, it was Melling and Ford who came out on top, winning a tight encounter 3-2.

But with Anderson and James thrashing Douglas and Jeffers 4-0 in the penultimate game of the night, and the Grahams beating the rock-bottom pair 3-2 before that, Melling and Ford were not yet home and dry.

They needed to win their final match in order to avoid a three-way six-red shootout, where only the team with the fastest time would progress.

But Keighley ace Melling and his partner Ford ensured there would be no need for extra time and a shootout, beating the Grahams 4-3 in a dramatic finale to the night.

This was the fourth of the 16 initial first-round groups to be played, meaning Melling and Ford join Andy Blurton and Neil Raybone, Rikki Jones and Jordan Shepherd, and Michael Gibney and Craig Waddingham, the latter usually Dad’s Pairs Cup partner, in the last-16.