Wayne Doyle from Dun Laoighaire in Co. Dublin completed a remarkable double of winning the Irish Billiards titles in both the short format of best of 7x150s and the long up format featuring 750up / 3.5 hrs time limit. The finals were played on two consecutive Thursdays on the 14th and 21st September at the SBI HQ in Carlow.
Wayne’s opponent and defending champion in both formats was Aidan Murray who made the ideal start in the short format final taking the first two games that included a 64 break. Wayne slowly but surely got going and made a timely 60 break to take his first game. Aidan still made it difficult but Wayne still won the next two games against the run of play with breaks of 54 and 61 unfinished to go 3-2 ahead with needing just one game to take the title which he duly did with a break of 92 to clinch first short format crown since 2015.
Wayne Doyle 4-2 Aidan Murray
High Breaks:
Wayne Doyle 60, 54, 61unf, 92
Aidan Murray 64
The Long up final took place the following Thursday 21st September also at SBI HQ in Carlow. The first 30 minutes of the final was closely fought and the lead changed hands that featured a 58 break from Aidan to give him a 30 points lead before Wayne really started to play top notch devastating billiards that Aidan couldn’t match as the game wore on and Wayne had a 200 plus lead going into the half time break that included breaks of 58 and 52.
Wayne started off the second period where he had finished with excellent breaks of 56 and 60 before producing a 94 break with some impressive top of the table play. Aidan fought hard to stay in the match with some good mini breaks and with nothing to lose at this stage scored heavily in a series of visits when Wayne had a cold period and was stuck on 590 for around 15 minutes.
However Wayne ultimately could not be denied and eventually got over the line with 5 minutes on the clock to spare to finish a worthy winner to take his first irish long up title since 2018 to complete a remarkable double after winning the short format crown the previous Thursday. For good measure Wayne won the highest break of the season with 131 break in his semi final win over Joe Doheny from Borris in Ossory.
Wayne Doyle 750 – 445 Aidan Murray
High Breaks:
Wayne Doyle 58, 52, 56, 60, 94
Aidan Murray 58
John Kehoe presented the trophies to Wayne and also to Aidan who was a deserving runner up. Thanks to referees John Kehoe and Brendan Devlin as well as PJ Nolan for hosting the two finals at the outstanding venue that is the Snooker and Billiards Ireland Academy of Excellence.
