Sunday, 01 April 2012 / Published in Billiards

Goggins wins Senior Billiards No.7

Rodney Goggins won to-day’s event beating Aidan Murray in the final.

The seventh tournament of the Scratch Billiards series was played at the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow on Sunday, 1st of April 2012. This was the second of the season’s two special rounds, where the normal 400up game was replaced with a best-of-three 150up format. Wexford player, Rodney Goggins, well known for his achievements as a snooker player, proved that his cue sport skills are not confined to that game by winning last Sunday’s Senior Billiards tournament.

Among the day’s first round casualties were Robert McCrum (Celbridge), Joe Doheny (Borris-in-Ossory), Kevin Christie (Portmarnock), Lloyd Myers (Cork) and most notably, the season’s No 1 ranked player, Carlow’s Eugene Hughes, bowing out at the hands of eventual winner, Rodney Goggins.

In the quarter finals in the top half of the draw, current Champion Larry Drennan (Kilkenny) and Rodney Goggins (Wexford) claimed their place in the semi finals with good wins over Dun Laoghaire veteran Victor O’Gorman and Aonghus McAnally (Portmarnock) respectively. Rodney’s game got stronger in the semi final, where he was never really threatened by Larry.

The semi finalists in the bottom half of the draw were promising young Dun Laoghaire player Wayne Doyle and last season’s No 1 ranked player Aidan Murray (Wicklow), having solid quarter final wins over Derek O’Neill (Cork) and Brendan Devlin (Celbridge) respectively. In a gripping semi final, with never much difference in points throughout the two games, Aidan, perhaps drawing on his greater matchplay experience, succeeded in holding off a battling Wayne.

In the Final, Rodney was the first to show, making an early break of 63. In his response, Aidan had a surprising miss when only 27 points into his visit, allowing Rodney back in to widen the gap in scores. Seemingly unnerved by his mistake, an elementary medium range half-ball in-off which he struck almost full, Aidan never really recovered, conceding the first game 150-53. Aidan’s form fared no better in the second game. A series of missed shots, even from the occasional favourable leave, allowed Rodney to forge ahead, taking the second game and the match by a similar margin.

The next Scratch Billiards event of the season will be the National Championships down to the last 4 and will be held at the Ivy Rooms, Carlow on Sunday, 29th April 2012. Entries will be accepted before 10.30am on the morning of the event.

We would like to thank Jim Leacy for the excellent facilities at The Ivy Rooms and Marian and staff for their help on the day.

Results (all matches best of three 150 up, no time limit):