The 5th annual Timmy Murphy memorial took place on Sunday 3rd November at the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow, on this special occasion the winner came from Northern Ireland as Christian Kirk was deserving winner on the day and taking the Timmy Murphy perpetual trophy across the border for the very first time.
He registered wins over Brendan Devlin, John Kehoe and Anthony O’ Flaherty to book his place in the final. His opponent in the final was Dublin’s Robert McCrum who won two close games against Jason Dowling and last year’s holder Lloyd Myers before easily winning by 113 points against Tommy Denieffe to set up a clash against Christian.
The final saw Christian give Robert over a 150 points head start as Robert sustained his lead right down to the last 5 minutes, Christian however closed the gap with breaks of 73 and 89 as he seemed to be struggling to overtake Robbie but Robert missed several crucial shots that Christian responded to win by a mere 11 points to take the Timmy Murphy perpetual trophy up north for the first time.
This event was played in great spirit in honour of a great fellow billiards player and friend as Timmy’s family presented the trophy to Christian who made the long journey down to play in this special event and will have a somewhat easier trip back to Ards in Co. Down as a result of his victory.
Thanks must go to Marian Leacy and Ivy Rooms for hosting the event and Brendan Devlin on another job well done as Tournament Director as well as the Murphy family who was present to present the trophy.
Last 16:
Joe Doheny 420 – 429 Anthony O Flaherty
Christian Kirk 436 – 385 Brendan Devlin
John Kehoe 363 – 280 Larry Drennan
Frank Trainor 332 – 341 Lloyd Myers
Robert McCrum 461 – 439 Jason Dowling
Q- finals:
Sean Dunne 423 – 511 Anthony O Flaherty
Christian Kirk 469 – 312 John Kehoe
Lloyd Myers 398 – 441 Robert McCrum
Liam Byrne 351 – 400 Tommy Denieffe
Semi finals:
Anthony O Flaherty 368 – 515 Christian Kirk
Robert McCrum 467 – 354 Tommy Denieffe
Final:
Christian Kirk 406 – 395 Robert McCrum
Breaks:
Christian Kirk 61, 53, 99, 79, 89, 73, 68
Anthony O Flaherty 62
