The final of this years championship took place in the Midlands premier venue St.Mary’s Snooker Club Mullingar,it was to be another war on the green baize as Richie Toal was trying to win the event for a court time while O’Connor was training to win his fifth in the events history since 1981.
Only 9 people in the events history have lifted the cup sponsored by Ger O’Connor’s late father Shane O’Connor back in 1981 and still is the event to win in Westmeath Snooker circles.
Mick Kane Chairman of St.Mary’s Snooker Club and representing our sponsors Cleaning Contractors Ltd Dublin got the final under way and Anthony Cleary acted as scorer for the final.
Richie Toal raced into what looked like a strong lead to win the the first two frames but O’Connor managed to scrape the next two frame to level at two frames all and they share the frames to reach four frames all. O’Connor managed to win the ninth frame on the black to lead for the first time in the match. Toal went into overdrive and murdered O’Connor in the tenth frame to level at five frames all.
The final was down to the deciding frame and O’Connor made the first mistake and let toal in and after a red and pink Richie potted the next red but snookered himself on all the colours and after five miss he was deflated. O’Connor got his chance and took it with a 38 break under severe pressure to lead by sixty points but Richie was still hungry to win and there were enough reds left to win but been forced into going for his shots Riche made a 28 and missed and O’Connor slotted in a red and pink to secure a large lead ,the frame finally went to O’Connor and he became champion for the fifth time eleven years since he last won the title.
Frame Scores O’Connor first:
33-64,47-66,43-35,46-25,22-72,66-17,17-65,53-46,53-47,3-63,88-2
