Paddy English took the honours in Newbridge on Saturday when he beat Andrew Yeates 3-2 in the final of the second Intermediate of the season. 26 took part in the event and with the likes of Joe Corrigan, John O’Sullivan and James Fennessy turning up with the regulars from the first event it was a fairly high quality field on the day.
The first round itself even gave a few shocks as Kilkenny youngsters Keith Walsh and Stephen Bateman were both on song with Walsh defeating Ex-National Intermediate Champion Joe Corrigan 3-0 and Bateman running out a 3-2 winner over Paul Ludden. In other prelim games of note James Bateman was beat by James Fennessy 3-2, John O’Sullivan beat U-21 No.1 Karl Fitzpatrick 3-1 and Michael Walsh beat Dylan Scully 3-0.
Eventual winner Paddy English reached the semi final with a fine string of 3-0 wins over Adam Nolan and then John O’Sullivan and then faced No.1 seed Ray Power in the semi. It was a replay of the first event semi final where Power ran out the winner but this time round Paddy eventually ran out a 3-2 black ball winner and would then face Andrew Yeates in the final.
Yeates had reached the final with wins over Eugene Maloney, Benny O’Brien and then Richie Flynn in the semi finals. Like the last event in Carlow Yeates faced Flynn in the semi but as with Paddy the result was reversed this time round and Yeates ran out a 3-1 winner.
The final saw Yeates go 2-0 up but Paddy was not giving up on this one and after a long days play eventually came back to win 3-2 and take the 150 ranking points and winners prizemoney. The next Intermediate event in this region is back again in Newbridge but this time round in Sharkx Snooker Club.
The top four in the rankings have now reached the semi finals for two events in a row giving them a clear lead over the chasing pack with Power and English both on 250 points apiece with Yeates and Flynn just behind them on 220 points each.
