The first Senior Ranking Tournament took place in the Ivy Rooms, Carlow this weekend 13th & 14th October. This tournament was run in 16 groups with the top 2 qualifying for the last 32 knockout stage, each grooup match was 2 frames.
79 players entered, 11 of them juniors with 6 no shows. After a long and tiring day on Saturday, the last match finishing at 12.45am Robert Redmond v Josh Boileau, David Hogan v David Morris, Robert Murphy v John Torpey and Phil Arnold v Jason Devaney emerged as the quarter-final pairings.
Josh won 4-3, David Hogan 4-2, Robert Murphy 4-1 and Phil Arnold 4-2. The semi finals proved to be contrasting matches, Josh getting home 4-3 in a very exciting match while Phil’s form deserted him with David winning 4-0.
The final began with David continuing where he left off in the semis racing into a 4-0 interval lead with breakd of 69, 79 and 95, however Josh came out fighting and won the fifth with a break of 56.
He looked like taking the sixth as well as David needed a snooker on the last red. David, however showed that as well as making big breaks he can play tough match snooker and completed a 35 clearance after getting the required snooker to win the match 5 frames to 1 and emerge as a very worthy champion.
Both players deserve congratulations for their excellent play over the two days and I am sure they will feature in many finals this seaso.
Our thanks to Marian Leacy and the Ivy Rooms staff for their usual help and hospitality.
Tony Thorpe
