It was a memorable weekend for Irish Billiards as the Republic of Ireland pulled off a remarkable victory in the Annual North-South Billiards Challenge against a Northern Ireland team that had hoped to pull of 3 wins on the trot in Celbridge Snooker Club on the weekend of the 26th and 27th April, however the unlikely heroes of the Republic of Ireland side shone through in spectacular fashion.
The first session was crucial as the Republic won 6-2 and incredibly held on to that 4 point lead for the rest of the event to the very end. There were wins for John Kehoe, Aidan Murray and Lloyd Myers respectively. The second session saw reigning All-Ireland Champion Christian Kirk in scintillating form when he soundly beat Joe Doheny with breaks of 67, 87 and 95 in the 400up/90 minute session. There was also a very close game between Wayne Doyle and Paul Lindsay before Wayne edged it by 12 points on a score of 333-321 to share the session 4 points apiece.
The third session was another 4-4 encounter with little drama and then the fourth session continued to stay at 4 points all but there was a great match between Wayne Doyle and Christian Kirk which could have went either way, it was tit for tat for long periods and Wayne was 40 ahead with 5 points needed in the 150 format but Christian fluked a red when double balked and made a 40 break to level but he ran out of position on the red and missed a tough in-off Wayne’s ball before Wayne scored the 5 needed to win the first game and eventually win the second which was critical in the destination of the North-South trophy at the end of the weekend.
At the start of day 2 the tide look to have turned when both Wayne and Joe Doheny lost their morning matches against Kenny Campbell and Alastair McDonald after
establishing big leads early on especially when Wayne compiled breaks of 58 and 98, but the Republic still maintained their lead by 4 points. The second session saw Northern Ireland’s Christian Kirk claim the highest break of the day with 161 along with 92 in his impressive win against Aidan Murray by 400-202 with the Republic still 4 points in front with 2 sessions to play.
Wayne made up for his loss against Kenny Campbell by hitting breaks of 52 unfinished and 105 in a solid 2-0 win over Alastair McDonald in the 150s match in session 3 and debutant Darren Ryan had a very good display winning 2-0 against Keith Savage going into the final session of the event with Republic of Ireland leading 30-26 and needing just 3 points out of 8 to seal the deal.
The final session of the weekend was tense with everything to play for, Republic needing just 3 points and Northern Ireland needing 7 to win and just 6 to draw to retain the trophy. Lloyd Myers was no match for the formidable Christian Kirk who won 2-0 with breaks of 57 unfinished and 54. Republic of Ireland Captain John Kehoe lead the way and won a cagey first game against Dom Halligan while debutant and youngest player on the Irish team and event Ciaran Doyle won his first point against Northern Irish debutant Lawrence Denyer in the first of 2x150s and the Republic just needed one more point to cross the finish line which they did so and fittingly enough Irish Captain John Kehoe with a 50 break in the second game won the match and last point for the Republic to wrap up the event to give the Irish team it’s first win over Northern Ireland since 2018.
Aidan Murray won an extra point for the Republic in his draw with Paul Lindsay as well as a draw for Ciaran and Lawrence. A relieved John Kehoe and his Irish teammates were in jubilation after a gap of 7 years of last winning the event that was also held in Celbridge this time on scoreline of 34-30 in the Republic of Ireland’s favour.
A big thanks to Brendan Devlin as tournament director who was on hand to present the shield trophy to a proud John Kehoe on behalf of the Irish team and Phil Martin and Celbridge Snooker Club as wonderful hosts who was presented with a framed certificate of the event by Ciaran Doyle. Commiserations to Northern Ireland who never gave up and was there abouts to the very end with some great displays from the likes of Christian Kirk and Kenny Campbell as did debutants Mark Graham and Lawrence Denyer and will come again stronger and more determined than ever when they will host the event up North in 2026.
Debutants John Downey, Ciaran Doyle and Darren Ryan played a big part in the Republic’s victory and Captain John Kehoe was the only player in the event with a 100% record winning all his matches that help his team to cross the winner’s enclosure.
Republic of Ireland Team: John Kehoe – Captain, Aidan Murray, Wayne Doyle, Joe Doheny, Lloyd Myers, Ciaran Doyle, John Downey and Darren Ryan
Northern Ireland Team: Kenny Campbell – Captain, Christian Kirk, Alastair McDonald, Paul Lindsay, Keith Savage, Lawrence Denyer, Mark Graham, Dom Halligan
Full Results / Breaks
