Friday, 24 January 2025 / Published in Billiards

Hughes wins Billiards Event 4

Celbridge Snooker Club was once again the setting for the 4th billiards ranking event of the season that took place on Sunday 19th January with 11 players taking part and the format was best of 5x100up which was an open draw.

8-time Irish Billiards Champion Eugene Hughes rolled back the years to win the event in impressive style which also was the first ranking event in 9 years that neither Aidan Murray or Wayne Doyle have won which has seen the pair dominate the billiards scene ever since that time.

The day started with last 16 wins for past SBI Chairman Dylan Rees, Larry Drennan and Darren Ryan. John Kehoe had the compensation of claiming the highest break of the day of 54 after narrowly succumbing to the potting exploits of Dylan Rees.

Quarter final drama witnessed Eugene Hughes easily dispose Dylan 3-0 and local Celbridge man Dara Martin defeat Robert McCrum. In the other quarter final matches there were wins for Larry Drennan and Joe Doheny who won a close game against Rathkeale clubman Jason Dowling 3-2.

There was no letting up from Eugene Hughes as he made short work of Dara Martin while Larry Drennan’s win over Joe Doheny was the closest game with just 16 points in the deciding game separating the players.

The final turned out to be one-way traffic even though the first game was extremely close before Eugene edged out Larry by 6 points. Eugene dominated the second and third game and after a long day and tiredness creeping into Larry’s game he conceded the match to Eugene when the chances of Larry coming back into the game diminished with Eugene playing solid billiards from start to finish without dropping a game to take the 4th billiards ranking event of the season and move up to 11th place in the National Rankings.

Thanks to Phil Martin and Celbridge Snooker Club as always in hosting another great event and John Kehoe as Tournament Director. The next billiards event is the Pat O’ Sullivan Memorial which will also take place in Celbridge Snooker Club on the 9th February and entry fees can be paid on the morning of the event to Tournament Director Brendan Devlin.

Pre Quarters: