Quick Facts
Biography
Chris "The Magician" Melling is a British professional pool and snooker player and former world number 1 at World Rules British 8-Ball.
He won the English Pool Association World Rules World Championship twice, in 2001 and 2003. He was ranked #1 in 2003 by the World Eight-ball Pool Federation. He 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.
Career
In 2001 he reached the last 16 of the World 9-Ball Championship in Cardiff, beating Steve Davis, along the way.
Melling currently lives in Keighley, England, although he 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 4 of his 6 matches. A year later he won the Most Valuable Player Award in the same event.
In November 2012 Chris took on part-time pool player Bobby Gwyther from Exmouth, Devon in a race to 25 for a £10,000 prizepot and was beaten 25-21. Afterwards he called his opponent "the most naturally gifted cueist" he'd ever seen.
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 World 9-Ball Championship, the World Masters, World Cup of Pool and finished 5th in the US Open 9-Ball Championship.
In May 2014, Melling entered snooker 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 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons. 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. 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.
The 2015/2016 season proved harder for Melling as he could only win four matches all year. He dropped off the tour at the end of the season and could not win enough matches at Q School to win his place back.
Snooker Titles
Non-Ranking Wins (1)
- Challenge Tour, Event 1 - 2003