The Senior Billiards Championships was played down to the semi-finals to-day 29th April in the Ivy Rooms The line-up for the finals weekend in Letterkenny is Larry Drennan v Aidan Murray and Rodney Goggins v Eugene Hughes.
A total of 12 players contested the event, which meant that byes were awarded into the quarter finals to the top four seeds, Aidan Murray (Wicklow), Eugene Hughes (Carlow), Wayne Doyle (Dun Laoghaire) and Larry Drennan (Kilkenny).
Among the first round eliminations were Robert McCrum (Celbridge), Lloyd Myers (Cork), Aonghus McAnally (Portmarnock) and Dun Laoghaire veteran Victor O’Gorman, losing in turn to Brendan Devlin (Celbridge), Joe Doheny (Borris-in-Ossory), Rodney Goggins (Wexford) and Cork veteran Timmy Murphy.
In the quarter finals, to decide the semi finalists who will play at the RIBSA National Championships at the end of May, the top two seeds, Aidan Murray and Eugene Hughes had easy wins over Brendan Devlin and Timmy Murphy respectively. The No 3 seed, Wayne Doyle, bowed out in a close match against Rodney Goggins, which makes Rodney a contender for both Snooker and Billiards honours at the RIBSA Finals weekend. In the closest and most exciting of the day’s quarter final matches, with the balance of scores tipping one way, then the other, the No 4 seed, Larry Drennan was a mere 12 points ahead of Joe Doheny when time ran out.
In its previous format the Championship was played in a series of long matches down to the last two, requiring that the emerging finalists had to score a total of 1750 points, or seven and a half hours, in a single day’s play. It was felt that this format put heavy physical demands on players. By contrast, this year’s event was completed by late afternoon, which seemed more satisfactory to all.
Congratulations and best of luck to Aidan, Eugene, Larry and Rodney who won through to their places in the Final stages.
As always, our thanks to Jim and Marian Leacy and the staff at the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club for their help on the day and indeed throughout the season.
Results:
Pre-Quarters, 500 up, 2 hour time limit
Brendan Devlin 397 – 322 Robert McCrum
Lloyd Myers 274 – 500 Joe Doheny
Rodney Goggins 437 – 231 Aonghus McAnally
Victor O’Gorman 328 – 397 Timmy Murphy
Quarters, 500 up, 2 hour time limit
Aidan Murray (Brk: 68, 113) 500 – 199 Brendan Devlin
Joe Doheny 416 – 428 Larry Drennan
Wayne Doyle 295 – 341 Rodney Goggins
Timmy Murphy 283 – 500 Eugene Hughes (Brk: 89)
Semi-Finals, 600 up, 2½ hour time limit, 1:00pm 26th May 2012
Aidan Murray -v- Larry Drennan
Rodney Goggins -v- Eugene Hughes
