The 7th Senior Snooker Ranking Event of the Senior Series The RIBSA Talbot Classic was played in Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow over the weekend. Brendan O Donoghue won the event to secure another RIBSA senior ranking title with great victories over Stephen McSherry 3-0, George Tierney 3-2, Daniel O Regan and Colm Gilcreest 4-3 in the semi final. Keith Sheldrick had a great event with fantastic victories over weekend in beating Leonard Shanahan 3-2, Colvin O Brien 3-1, Rodney Goggins 4-1 and David Hogan 4-3 in the semi final.
The Final
It was a great quality final between Brendan O Donoghue and Keith Sheldrick who both played great snooker to reach this final. The final was refereed by John Doherty from Letterkenny. In the final, Brendan won the first frame on the pink, but Keith fought back to win the next two to go 2-1 up. Breaks of 33 & 37 won Brendan the fourth frame to level the match at 2-2 at the midsession interval.
After the 10 minutes Brendan got in first with a 40 break to win frame five to go 3-2 up. Back came the Dublin man with a 69 break to level the match for the third time at 3-3. Frame 7 went to Keith after a long safety battle frame to move him one frame away for his first ever senior title. Frame 8 Brendan got in first with a 44 break followed by 40 to level the match for the fourth time at 4-4 to entertain the crowd to a thrilling deciding frame. In the decider Keith lead 20-6 but Brendan got in to make a 56 Break to help him get over the line and win the Talbot Classic Title
Semi Finals
In the Semi Finals Brendan from the New Institute Club in Nenagh beat Colm Gilcreest from Celbridge SC 4 frames to 3 and Keith from Roadstone SC in Dublin beat current number 1 David Hogan from New Institute in Nenagh 4 frames to 3 in high quality semi match.
Q-FINALS
David Hogan 4-0 John O Sullivan
Keith Sheldick 4-1 Rodney Goggins
Clinton Franey 0-4 Colm Gilcreest
Brendan O Donoghue 4-0 Daniel O Regan
There were a number of shocks in the event with Colvin O Brien beating Robert Murphy 3-1, Keith Sheldrick beat Rodney Goggins 4-1, John Sutton beat Vincent Muldoon 3-2. Daniel O Regan beat John Sutton 3-1. The Highest break prize went to Colm Gilcreest with a fantastic 112 break which was almost a maximum break when he had 14 reds and 14 blacks. Other high breaks in the event were 109 by Robert Murphy, 101 by David Hogan.
This ranking event was the cut off point for the European Championship in Bulgaria with Top 2 players qualifying for the event. PJ Nolan will be contacting the players on Monday to confirm the players availability. RIBSA would like to thank Jim & Marian Leacy from The Ivy Snooker Club for the excellent facilities and all their help over the weekend. Finally I would like to thank all the players for another great snooker display and I look forward to seeing them again in 2011 Irish Championships in Carlow on Saturday / Sunday 7th and 8th of May.
