Murray wins 2021 National Billiards Long-up title

Aidan Murray from Hollywood in Co. Wicklow won the 2021 National Senior Billiards Long-up title on Sunday 19th December at the new Snooker & Billiards Ireland HQ in Carlow to make it a remarkable double as he won the 150up championship in Celbridge 3 weeks previous. In the final against Kilkenny veteran Larry Drennan he played excellent billiards and scored heavily when on the table as Larry struggled to stay close to Aidan as well as getting to grips with the new table setup.

The players were neck and neck for the first 20 minutes but Aidan started to settle soon after and it wasn’t long before he got his first big break with an impressive 122 and was to be the highest break of the championship. He added further breaks of 58 and 78 to break away from Larry who scored little by little but wasn’t matching the scoring power of Aidan who marched on and duly secured victory on a scoreline of 750 – 264 with half an hour to spare on the 3 & half hrs time limit stipulation.

The referee for the final was John Kehoe and marker was Aonghus McAnally as history was made as this was the very first ever billiards game to be played in the new Snooker & Billiards Ireland Headquarters in Carlow that witnessed two Irish billiards stalwarts Aidan Murray and Larry Drennan battling it out for National honours once more with Aidan coming out on top to win his sixth national billiards long up title.