The last 16 round was played last night in the World Under 21 Snooker Championships here in Montreal Canada with bad results for all our three RIBSA players Vincent Muldoon, Greg Casey and David Cassidy.
Vincent Muldoon was beaten 5 frames to 4 by Declan Brennan from Northern Ireland in a high quality match.
Muldoon won the two opening frames, back came Brennan to win the next three frames before Muldoon levelled it at 3-3.
The Northern Ireland man won the seventh frame and was 63 ahead in the eight frame and was one ball away from victory when Muldoon made an unbelievable 64 clearance to force the match into a deciding frame.
In the Deciding frame Muldoon got in first with a break of 32 and played safe but Brennan knocked in the red to make a 72 break to win the match 5-4.
Greg Casey was also beaten in a superb match against Zhang Anda from China 5 frames to 2.
Greg won the opening frame with a 68 break before Anda made a total clearance of 137 to level at 1-1, He also made a 75 break in frame 2 before the Irish man fought back to level at 2-2 with a 71 break.
After the interval the Chinese player went up the gears with fantastic scoring with five breaks over 60 to win the match and book his Q-Final spot.
David Cassidy played an outstanding match against Number 1 seed Nick Jennings from England.
The English man won the first two opening frames before the cork man fought back with a 61 break to close the gap to 1-2, again Jennings showed his class to win frame four to lead 3-1 at the break.
After the interval Cassidy knocked in a superb 101 break to narrow the score to 2-3 before the Number one seed forged further ahead at 4-2.
Back came the current National Under 18 champion to win frames seven and eight to force another match into a pressure frame decider.
Jennings got in first and was 28 ahead on the green leaving Cassidy needing snookers, The young Irish man then played one of the shots of the championship to send the cue ball in behind the blue.
Jennings failed to hit the green but Cassidy missed the long green and Jennings jumped on the chance to book his Q-Final place which will be played on Thursday.
As the National Snooker Coach I was proud of all four players and they played great snooker throughout the event.
If we are to dominate the game and win World Junior titles we have to train harder and better in Ireland. We have got to be technically stronger and improve our break building, long potting and safety.
This is a message I want all our up and coming juniors in Ireland to understand if they want to compete at this level over the next few years.
