A smaller field then expected started the last ranking event of the season before the Irish National championships. Every player had notions on being seeded for the big one. The four last 64 matches got underway with John Farrell, Ken Byrne, Alan O’Connors and Sean King going through to the last 32. This round threw up some great matches with the seeded players having to pull out some serious breaks to get through.
Eric Pei gave Davy Morris one hell of a battle and even Davy would agree that a final frame decider might have been a worthy result for the efforts of Eric, but it wasn’t to be with Morris coming out a 3-1 winner. Jack Beecher played the match of his life so far in his young career with a super win against one of the greats of Irish snooker, Johnny Farrell 3-2.
This will give the young lad an amount of confidence going into the national championships, but Johnny will be back, class is permanent. Mark Gleeson found himself in another final frame decider against Steven Sherry and good match play from Mark saw whim get the better of Steven this time 3-2. The number 5 seed John Sutton fell to ever improving Noel Gleeson 3-0.
Daniel Merrigan bringing Philly Browne to a final frame decider but just can’t get a little bit of luck when needed and yet again beaten 3-2, Dan is a really great talent and will be one to watch at this year’s championship, none of the seeds will want him. Young Max Kennedy had his best win of a young career with a 3-1 victory over Leslie Carroll. Into the last 16 where no big surprises happened, Jack Beecher, Tommy O Donoghue and Steven O’Reilly all fell.
The quarter finals on Saturday evening were all very one sided with Davy Morris, Mark Tuite, Philly Browne and an in-form Tony Seymour all making through with ease. The highlight being Mark Tuite’s fantastic 117 break to rob Tony Seymour’s 92 to win the high break prize.
The semi-finals were both one sided with Davy Morris and Philly Browne both winning 4-0. The final however was anything but one sided, Davy was never behind and only for his ability to go into the trenches when needed there is no doubt, he would have handed Philly back-to-back ranking event wins. 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3. Philly just couldn’t get ahead in frames, clutch clearances, 50’s and 60’s to win a frame and the highlight break of 93 by Philly who missed the final red with the rest, it all came down to the final frame.
Davy got the first big chance but missed an uncharacteristic red to the black pocket that left Philly a huge chance to make a frame winning break, however the red may have looked easy it was difficult to control for the black and Philly landed lower then he would have liked, but he was fully committed to the black and jawed it. Davy was back in and nerves were now showing from both players. Davy had a 42-point lead with 7 reds left and yet again got the vital chance both players wanted. There was to be no mistake this time and a superb 68 saw the Kilkenny man rubber stamp his number one ranking going into the Irish amateur championships.
Philly can be proud of his performance and will most definitely be a better player after this. He is now seeded two for the big one after another superb showing. Would you back against Philly winning the title, I doubt you would. It’s going to be one of the hardest fought championships in a long, long time and we can’t wait to watch it unfold.
Well done Davy on another title
