The Snooker and Billiards Ireland Academy of Excellence was the venue for the qualifiers of the National Senior Billiards long-up championship that took place on Sunday 10th March with 12 players competing for a place on finals weekend in May. The day’s play ended with the familiar pairing in the form of National Champion Wayne Doyle and current No.1 Aidan Murray booking their place in the final after comfortable semi final wins in impressive style.
In the pre quarters John Kehoe overcame Joe Doheny with 125 points to spare while Eugene Hughes had little trouble in his win against Annette Newman as did Lloyd Myers in a closer encounter with Robert McCrum, the game of the round was Brendan Devlin’s victory against Aonghus McAnally by 46 points in a game that was topsy-turvy all the way to the end.
The quarter finals saw reigning champion Wayne Doyle win by over 300 points against John Kehoe despite not hitting top gear, Aidan Murray did likewise against Lloyd Myers where it was a close game in the early stages but Aidan scored a lot heavier than Lloyd when he got going and won by 181 points margin.
Former national champion Eugene Hughes defeated fellow ex national champion Larry Drennan while No.4 seed Jason Dowling won a very close battle against a sporting opponent in Brendan Devlin by a mere 34 points when the clock sounded to end the match.
Aidan Murray in his semi final success against Jason Dowling was impressive to say the least when he hit breaks of 54, 64 and 75 to runaway from Jason who had a good start but struggled to compete with Aidan when he settled into the game and booked his final spot on a score of 600 – 317.
More impressively in the other semi final Wayne Doyle played top quality billiards in winning by over 400 points against past multiple national champion Eugene Hughes where Wayne hit three century breaks including the highest break of the day with 147 to wrap up the match at the halfway point of the 3 hour time limit stipulation to book his final meeting with Aidan Murray once more on finals weekend in May.
Thanks to John Kehoe once again as tournament director and Snooker and Billiards Ireland Academy of Excellence as host venue in what was an excellent day of billiards action.
Pre Quarters:
- Robert McCrum 304 – 500 Lloyd Myers
- Aonghus McAnally 411 – 457 Brendan Devlin
- Joe Doheny 375 – 500 John Kehoe
- Annette Newman 169 – 500 Eugene Hughes
Quarter Finals:
- Aidan Murray 500 – 319 Lloyd Myers
- Brendan Devlin 450 – 484 Jason Dowling
- Wayne Doyle 500 – 177 John Kehoe
- Eugene Hughes 500 – 317 Larry Drennan
Semi Finals:
- Aidan Murray 600 – 317 Jason Dowling
- Wayne Doyle 600 – 192 Eugene Hughes
Final:
- Aidan Murray v Wayne Doyle
To be played at finals weekend on 18th/19th May at the Snooker and Billiards Ireland Academy of Excellence.
Breaks:
- Wayne Doyle 147, 116, 117, 67
- Aidan Murray 66, 54, 54, 64, 79
- Eugene Hughes 63
- John Kehoe 52, 57
Rankings after Long-up championship qualifiers.
1) Aidan Murray
2) Wayne Doyle
3) Larry Drennan
4) Jason Dowling
5) John Kehoe
6) Lloyd Myers
7) Joe Doheny
8) Ross Doyle
9) Brendan Devlin
10) Eugene Hughes
11) Annette Newman
12) Aonghus McAnally
13) Robert McCrum
14) Alan O’ Connor
15) Dylan Rees
16) Tommy Murphy
