The 1st ladies ranking event of the season was held in Celbridge Snooker Club on Sunday 20th October. There were a fantastic 9 entries in the competition. Two of these were complete newcomers,14yr old Emirjeta Doda from Dublin and 13 year old Emily Bolger also from Dublin. We also welcomed the return of Irish ladies veteran player Annette Newman, who made her return to the ladies game after far too long of an absence.
Catherine Fitzsimons played Emily Bolger in the prelim round; Emily showed straight off that she is definately a player to be reckoned with in the future, the youngster who is only playing since February this year pushed the veteran player the whole way in this match. Catherine won 3-0, but the first 2 frames were only won on the pink and black and the 3rd was very close aswell. Emily showed superb knowledge of angles, and her table etiquette was that of a player who has been around the circuit for years. Quarter final one was Claire Mill V Emily Talbot. Emily was still buzzing from her week at the world championships, she made a welcome return this season after coming in at the tail end of last season; another young very talented player.
Claire was in good form today though and won the match by a comfortable 3-0. Quarter final 2 was Annette Newman V Emirjeta Doda. Emirjeta showed great calm and coolness when she lost the 1st frame and potted a great respotted black in the 2nd frame to make it 1-1, Annette although around the game for over 25 years seemed the more nervous of the two players.
The match went to 2-2, but in the final frame Annette showed her pedigree and experience and pulled away comfortably to win the final frame and the match by 3-2. Emirjeta had put up a fantastic show against the former Irish number 2, and also showed great knowledge of the game by someone who is also only playing a short while. Quarter final 3 seen Catherine Fitzsimons take on Irish number 1 Michelle Sherwin. Michelle was in good form in the match and the ball was aslo running in her favour, she ran out the winner of this match 3-0. The last quarter final seen world Cahmpionship teammates Michelle French and Sandra Bryan take each other on.
These 2 always have great matches and today didn’t dissapoint either. The match went all the way to the end with Sandra eventually winning 3-2 on the blue ball. Semi Final 1 seen Claire Mill take on Annette Newman. Claires long potting game was in fine flow today and Annette had calmed her nerves by this stage, so it made for a good match. Although Claire won the match 3-0, Annette and shown some good form in this game, and marked her return with a semi-final position and joint 3rd spot in the rankings.
The other semi-final was a repeat of this years national championship final between Michelle Sherwin and Sandra Bryan. Michelle won the first frame well, but the 2nd frame was a much closer affair, which Michelle only won on the pink. Michelle got slightly ahead in the 3rd frame and held onto her narrow lead throughtout, eventually winning the frame by taking the brown and blue, at which point sandra conceeded the frame needing snookers, giving a result of 3-0 to Michelle on the day.
The final was very much a one sided affair, Michelle won the 1st frame in under 15 mins. Claire had a great chance to win the 2nd frame, she was ahead and took a lovely yellow and green and looked set to clear when she unfortunately narrowly snookered herself on the brown; she got out of the snooker but Michelle cleared to the pink to win the frame. The 3rd frame was also very close but Michelle closed it out to win the match 3-0 and the first ranking event of the season. Thanks to Phil and the staff at celbridge for all of their help. The 3 new youngsters who played todayhave showed great promise and as they continue in the game, we can be assured that the future of Irish ladies snooker is in safe hands.
The next ranking event is is Gorey on 17th November. There will be a skills event at this tournament which will be open to all players who get knocked out before the semi-finals. The skill will be potting the yellow, green or brown off their spots,in any order as many times as possible, gaining the appropriate points for every ball potted. Each player will have 5 turns as this,the player with the highest total will win.
