The first Snooker & Billiards Ireland Amateur Tour event of the season was won by Rodney Goggins from Wexford when he beat Ryan Cronin in a high standard final played in the SBI HQ in Carlow over the weekend of the 5th and 6th of February. This event was open to any gender and we have 55 entries in the event.
Current National Champion Brendan O Donoghue was top seed and the event featured many top players from the rankings battling it out for the title. The players battled through a long days of play which ended after 11pm on the Saturday to qualify for the Q-Finals on which were played on the Sunday morning at 10am.
In the early round there were a number of outstanding performances which included Aaron Smith beating Frank Sarsfield, Dylan Rees beating Greg Casey, Robert Sourke beating Colvin O Brien, James Flaherty beating John Farrell and Noel Landers beating Jonathan Williams.
The line for the Q-Finals were:
- Brendan O Donoghue v Ross Bulman 3-4
- Andrew Doherty v Ryan Cronin 1-4
- Dylan Rees v Mark Walsh 3-4
- Rodney Goggins v Noel Landers 4-0
Semi Finals
- Ross Bulman 3 – 4 Ryan Cronin
- Rodney Goggins 4 – Mark Walsh
Final
Rodney Goggins V Ryan Cronin 4-0
Prize Fund
- Winner – €400
- R-Up – €200
- Semi Finalists – €100 x2
- Q-Finalists – €45 x 4
- High Break – €50
The final was a pretty one sided affair with Rodney taking it by 4 frames to nil with a 130 break in the last. Rodney would like to dedicated this win to his late mother Kay
They were a number of high breaks in the event but it was Rodney Goggins who won the high break prize with a 130 break.
SBI would like to thank TD Shane Mason for running the successful event and to Referee Conor Doyle and finally a big thank you to the players for entering and we hope all our members enjoyed playing in our new home of Irish Snooker. We look forward to seeing everyone again at event two and the entry is now open on the online system.
