The 6th Senior Snooker Ranking Event ‘ The RIBSA Grand Prix ’ was played in Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow over the weekend. In this RIBSA Senior Final it was Dublin Man Robert Murphy who reached the final to face Wexford man Rodney Goggins who both played superb quality snooker over the weekend.
Both players are on the Republic of Ireland team who will play for the Republic Of Ireland in the European Team Championship in Malta next month. It always going to be a hard battle in the final but it was Goggins who started strong building up a 3-0 lead only for Murphy to win the fourth frame to close the gap to 3-1.
Again the man from the 147 club in Wexford fought back to win the fifth frame to go 4 frames to 1 up and one frame away from the Grand Prix Title.Rodney kept his nerve to win the sixth frame to win the title and make it two senior titles in a row after winning the RIBSA Irish Masters last month.
Rodney moves again up in the rankings and the race is really on for the number 1 spot this year with a number of players in contention.Rodney had good wins over Sammy Monaghan, Johnny Williams, Vincent Muldoon and Brendan O’Donoghue who he played in the Semi Finals
Robert had a superb event with wins over Jonathan Friel, and Clinton Franey, Martin McCrudden and David Hogan who he played in the semis.
In the Q-Finals
- David Hogan beat TJ Dowling 4-2
- Robert Murphy beat Martin McCrudden 4-3
- Rodney Goggins beat Vincent Muldoon 4-2
- Brendan O’Donoghue beat Nigel Power 4-1
Semi Finals Results
- Robert Murphy beat David Hogan 4-1
- Rodney Goggins beat Brendan O Donoghue 4-2
The Highest break prize also went to Rodney Goggins with a 120 break, Phil Arnold had a 100 break and Vincent Muldoon had 95, 93, 95. Johnny Williams 84. RIBSA would like to thank Jim & Marion Leacy from The Ivy Snooker Club for the excellent facilities and all their help over the weekend.
Finally I would like to thank all the players for another great snooker display and I look forward to seeing them again in the next event in the Ivy Rooms on the 9th and 10th of April.
