The third tournament of the Senior Scratch Billiards series was played at the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow on Sunday, 13th of November 2011. Aidan Murray (Wicklow) beat Wayne Doyle (Dun Laoghaire) in a superb final.
Billiards Scratch series, Aidan Murray makes it two in a row.
The third tournament of the Scratch Billiards series was played at the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow on Sunday, 13th of November 2011. Last season’s No 1 ranked player Aidan Murray (Wicklow) more than made up for his poor start to the season by taking both the second and now the third Senior Billiards tournament titles.
In the two preliminary rounds in the top half of the draw, Timmy Murphy (Cork) and Eugene Hughes (Kilkenny) won through to the quarter finals with 2-0 wins over Joe Doheny (Borris-in-Ossory) and current Champion Larry Drennan (Kilkenny) respectively. In his quarter final, Timmy ran somewhat out of steam against a high scoring Eugene, who made decisive breaks in both games, including the day’s highest of 101. The other semi finalist in this half of the draw was Aidan Murray (Wicklow), taking a good quarter final win over Dun Laoghaire veteran Victor O’Gorman. In a protracted semi final between ex-professional Eugene and Last season’s No 1 ranked player Aidan, with plenty of safety exchanges punctuated with good breaks by both players, Aidan won through to his place in the final on the deciding game.
The semi finalists in the bottom half of the draw were Brendan Devlin (Celbridge), who won a close quarter final battle with Lloyd Myers (Cork) which went all the way to the deciding game and Wayne Doyle (Dun Laoghaire), who had a good win on his way to the semi final against Aonghus McAnally (Portmarnock). By contrast with the semi final in the top half of the draw, the semi final between Brendan and Wayne was a free flowing and closely fought match, Wayne taking two close scoring games in succession to secure his place in the final.
In the Final, Wayne made a flying start, building up an early lead in the first game, which he maintained until well past the 100 points mark and looked favourite to take a 1-0 lead. Aidan, however, responded with a timely and telling break of 70, completely closing the deficit, from which point he won the sprint to the finish. The second game was somewhat similar, Aidan coming from behind to within 8 points of Wayne’s lead. An unfinished break of 57, scored under pressure, secured his second tournament title in succession for Aidan.
The next Scratch Billiards round of the season takes place at the Ivy Rooms, Carlow on Sunday, 11th December 2011. The format will be back to the standard 400 Up, 90 minute time limit seeded draw. Entries will be accepted before 10.30am on the morning of the event.
Our thanks are due to Jim Leacy for the excellent facilities at The Ivy Rooms and Marian and staff for their help on the day.
The best of luck to the RIBSA Irish Team in the forthcoming Four Nations Billiards Trophy to be held in Celbridge Snooker Club on the weekend of 19th and 20th November next.
Results(all matches best of three 150 up):
Pre-Quarters
Joe Doheny (138, 54) 0 – 2 Timmy Murphy (150, 150)
Larry Drennan (86, 122) 0 – 2 Eugene Hughes (150, 150)
Quarters
Victor O’Gorman (52, 132) 0 – 2 Aidan Murray (150, 150)
Timmy Murphy (48, 13) 0 – 2 Eugene Hughes (150, 150)
Brendan Devlin (115, 150, 150) 2 – 1 Lloyd Myers (150, 141, 134)
Wayne Doyle (150, 150) 2 – 0 Aonghus McAnally (95, 145)
Semi-Finals
Aidan Murray (109, 150, 150) 2 – 1 Eugene Hughes (150, 110, 137)
Brendan Devlin (119, 149) 0 – 2 Wayne Doyle (150, 150)
Final
