19-year-old Jaden Billingham took down his 4th Ultimate Pool Pro title with an incredible six-red-shootout victory over Tom Cousin's in Monday's showpiece final.
It continues Jaden's remarkable rise in 2026, reaching a Pro Series Final in 4 successive weekends - winning 3 - and now taking down the UP No.1 for one of the biggest titles in the Ultimate Pool calendar.
Full Report below.
Finals Night Report
Semi Final 1
The 5th Champions League Finals Night got underway on Monday night with a mouthwatering clash between Tom Cousins and Shaun Chipperfield.
It was Top Cat who started the quicker with a couple of lightning dishes to set the standard. The opening set was over in a bit of a blur, as Cousins wrapped things up promptly following a Chipperfield error to take the first set 4-1 with plenty of time left on the set clock.
Chipperfield rallied in the second set, having being gifted frame 2 with Cousins making the 8 ball early, he took out excellent finishes in frames 2 and 5 to lead 3-2 with 4 minutes left on the set clock.
Cousins got the first visit, but missed a glaring red into the top left pocket which opened the door for Chipperfield to take the game to a six-red-shootout. With just 60 seconds left, Chipperfield ran out of position on his counter clearance and then played an incredible shot. Knowing he had the next break, he deliberately fired Tom's red in over the pocket to deliberately foul and forfeit the frame, backing himself to break and clear in 60 seconds.
His ingenuity was not rewarded however - the break came out sticky, and a couple of shots later a missed yellow would lead to the concession and a narrow semi final victory for Cousins.
Final Score: Tom Cousins 2-0 Shaun Chipperfield (4-1, 4-3)
Semi Final 2
Rob Wharne and Jaden Billingham then took to the stage at the Cue Club, with Jaden seizing the initiative early.
A spectacular finish in frame 1 set the tone for the Jewel, who raced out of the blocks to fly into a 3-0 lead. Rob's first shot in open table came at 0-3 down and he cleared handily before Jaden took frame 5 to win the first set.
It was a tough one to take for Rob who simply didn't get the chances to win - his break didn't provide him with enough first visit opportunities, and that matched with the quality of Jaden's play meant the Whacker was playing catch up.
Rob did rally in set 2, coming to the table at 2-3 down with a good chance, however a missed yellow opened the door for Jaden to produce another classy clearance to take the second set 4-2 and advance to the final.
Final Score: Jaden Billingham 2-0 Rob Wharne (4-1, 4-2)
The Final
The final was played to an incredible standard with both players operating at such a high level. It was Cousins who got the quicker start, seizing on a Jaden dry break in frame 1 with a fantastic clearance, before breaking and running frame 2.
Jaden responded with a super dish of his own before a Top Cat golden break took him to the hill at 3-1. Jaden then responded again to close the gap to 3-2. Tom then missed his opening yellow in frame 6 which allowed Jaden the chance to take it to a decider.
Tom then got a huge slice of luck as Jaden broke dry to allow Cousins the first opportunity at a presentable looking layout. Tom then rattled his final red in the corner pocket jaws before it dramatically dropped in to gasps from the watching crowd.
Knowing the only way he could win was via a six-red-shootout, one could have forgiven Jaden's head dropping, but the youngster started set 2 by winning the opening frame.
A tricky tactical battle seemed to be won by Cousins as he forced Jaden to chase a tricky finish with a double on the 8-ball which the Jewel missed. Cousins wasn't able to capitalise though, with a big miss on his final yellow to give Billingham a tap in black to go 1-0 in front.
The first frame had eaten a large chunk of the set clock up, and despite Tom dishing frame 2 to level the scores, frame 3 began with just 5:39 left on the clock.
A spectacular early yellow dubbed "shot of the championship if he gets out" by commentator Liam White set Cousins up for victory, before Top Cat then missed an inexplicable yellow to the bottom right to allow Billingham back to the table who took out a nerveless counter clearance to lead with less than 2 minutes to play.
Cousins would have one more chance to halve the set and take the title, but had to chase a finish in what would be the final frame of the set, missing a yellow once again to the bottom right to allow Jaden to see out the clock and take the final to a six-red-shootout for the 3rd successive season.
Jaden won the lag and opted to go first, with a slightly sticky break an obstacle. The Jewel recovered really well to submit a time of 24.64 - his quickest competition time in the shootout and put him right in contention ahead of Tom's turn.
Cousins looked to have done it however, with an excellent break backed up by some clever positional play to allow him to take 2 reds back to back with barely any cueball movement. He took his time on his penultimate red to make sure of the pot, setting up a do or die red to the top left corner pocket to win the title.
In a moment that drew shocked cries from the watching crowd and heads on hands around the venue, Tom jawed the red, dropped his cue on the table and offered Jaden a handshake.
Final Score: Tom Cousins 1-1 Jaden Billingham (4-3, 1-2)
Six Red Shootout: Jaden Billingham: 24.64 vs Tom Cousins DNF
A hugely dramatic ending to what was a magnificent finals night. Afterwards, Tom said:
"My phone will be pinging like you wouldn't believe - my mates will be ripping me for that one. Jaden played great, I missed way too many balls tonight to beat Jaden. I was perfect on the six-red and just chucked one in at the end.
I was a bit nervous because I had my back to the timer but I obviously had enough time and just twitched. Fair play to [Jaden] and I'm sure we'll have many more finals."
Before collecting his trophy, Jaden spoke to Steven Jamieson out in the arena:
"Definitely [a stressful experience]. I set 24 seconds and I thought 'I think it's done' - obviously it's not nice to see what Tom's done but I'm glad he did! I'm so proud of the performance, I played perfect against Whacker in the first set and just a couple of mistakes in the second that I managed to claw through. I played perfect really in the final apart from one or two white ball errors, I'm just lost for words really. [My supporters] follow me everywhere and I wouldn't be able to able it without them behind me. It's a big boost for me that atmosphere"
It's a result that takes Jaden to 3rd in the rankings, and he still has four events of 'free' points to improve his ranking as he completes his first 2 years on the circuit. He said:
"I'm 3rd now I know, so 2nd will be the goal now. Next event, a couple of good runs and keep piling the pressure on them"
An incredible night at the Cue Club, with a huge crowd and a fantastic atmosphere. The next event on Monday Night Pool will be the NXT GEN National Knockout Finals on Bank Holiday Monday followed by the 5-week Future Stars event as UP Pros team with some of the best NXT GEN talent around.
Ultimate LIVE Members can head to our YouTube channel to watch the full night's broadcast back.
