A senior geography teacher at Fourways High School has been named the number-one women’s blackball player in South Africa as of August 23.
Michelle Rabe participated in a blackball singles tournament in late August and won the competition.
She made her debut in the blackball fraternity in 2012, and two years later she represented Gauteng. Blackball pool, also known as reds and yellows, is played with a cue, 15 balls and the eight-ball. Played in either teams or individually, the main object of the game is to pot the player’s or team’s own group of object balls and then legally pocket the black eight-ball to win.
She said the announcement of her new ranking had not quite sunk in yet but she was delighted about the news. “It’s honestly a wave of different emotions. It’s something I have been working towards for a very long time. I think the best thing about it was having all my friends who are in and out of the game, as well as loved ones, watch me win that event,” she said.
The process of placing in the blackball rankings is first to be selected for a provincial side. Round-robin tournaments are hosted where players must win as many frames [games] to get points for their team and individually.
The top five players in the province make up a provincial side and the top five in the country make up the national team to represent internationally.
Rabe, who also plays eight-ball, made her national appearance in 2017 for blackball and has since had some standout moments. She recalled the nerve-wracking shot she played to get South Africa into the final in the 2018 World Blackball Games in England.
“We had to play France in the semi-finals and I had to play a very difficult shot that put us in the final which we unfortunately lost. In eight-ball, the South African ladies won the 2019 World Championships in England.”
With her new ranking and prior achievements, Rabe said she still had a number of goals in blackball that she wanted to achieve.
“I’d absolutely love to win a world individual champion. Next year, we are supposed to be going to Ireland for the Eight-Ball World Championships. We are reigning champions, and I’d love for us to defend our world title.”
