The 2023 National Billiards Long-up Championship qualifiers was held in Celbridge Snooker Club on Sunday 23rd April where the event featured 12 players, once the day’s play finished it was no surprise that the two serial title rivals Aidan Murray and Wayne Doyle came through to book another final showdown as well as their short format final meeting still to be decided.
Aidan got to the final playing sublime billiards in a convincing quarter final win against Anthony O’Flaherty with little over 200 points to spare that included breaks of 104, 124 and 50. Aidan then continued where he left of by easily dispatching Aonghus McAnally who got to the semi-finals with wins over Annette Newman and Brendan Devlin but met an in form Aidan who added breaks of 85 and 76 unfinished to seal the win by 600-260.
Wayne’s path to the final was just as impressive when he knocked out former multiple national billiards champion Eugene Hughes in the pre quarters compiling breaks of 78 and two 60s before getting the better of John Kehoe and Joe Doheny in the quarter and semi-finals respectively to produce further breaks that included 131 in the semi-final which is now the highest break standing this billiards season.
The billiards season will now conclude with Aidan and Wayne in both the long up and short format finals to be fixed at a later date in what promises to be an exciting finale to the 2022-2023 season.
Thanks to John Kehoe as Tournament Director and Celbridge Snooker Club once again for hosting the event and all players throughout the season for making this another entertaining and memorable year for Irish domestic billiards.
Pre Quarters: 500up/2.5 hrs:
- Annette Newman 211-500 Aonghus McAnally
- Robert McCrum 157-500 John Kehoe
- Eugene Hughes 280-500 Wayne Doyle
- Larry Drennan 415-500 Joe Doheny
Quarter finals: 500up/2.5 hrs:
- Aidan Murray 500-285 Anthony O’Flaherty
- Brendan Devlin 376-500 Aonghus McAnally
- John Kehoe 194-500 Wayne Doyle
- Joe Doheny 500-488 Jason Dowling
Semi-finals: 600up/3hrs:
- Aidan Murray 600-260 Aonghus McAnally
- Wayne Doyle 600-421 Joe Doheny
Final:
- Aidan Murray v Wayne Doyle – TBC
High Breaks:
- Wayne Doyle 78, 60, 60, 74, 68, 102, 131, 89
- Aidan Murray 104, 124, 50, 85, 76unf
- Joe Doheny 81
- Jason Dowling 75
- John Kehoe 73
- Larry Drennan 68
- Aonghus McAnally 50
