The 3rd ladies ranking event took place in SBI headquarters in Carlow on Sunday 9th November. Margaret O’Driscoll and Sandra Bryan were absent on the day as they were representing Ireland in pool at an international event.
At the time of writing this report the ladies were doing fantastic, only sitting behind England in 1st place on frame difference. We all wish the ladies the best for the rest of the tournament.
We started the day in Carlow with a 2hr coaching session from the Ladies national coach Cathal Moore. Cathal has already put an enormous amount of work into the ladies and the results are starting to show as there is definite improvements among the ladies.
The first semi-final seen Paula Judge taking on Aishling Cawley who had reached the final of event 1. As these ladies hadn’t played before, it showed in frame 1 as both ladies tested each other out. Paula managed to get a few mini breaks and won the frame comfortably in the end, the 2nd frame was a lot closer, there was a lot of safety and tactical play, Paula was ahead coming to the colours but Aishling fought back and it went down to a black ball game. After a great tactical battle, Paula potted an amazing black with the white tied tight under the cushion to take a 2-0 lead. The 3rd frame went much the same way, going down to the black again, after missed opportunities from both players, Paula eventually took the black to win the match by 3-0. The score-line did not reflect the hard fought battle Aishling put up, she is definitely a player to be reckoned with.
The 2nd semi-final seen Ella O’Connor take on Michelle Sherwin. Ella pulled off some great pots in the 1st two frames. However, Michelle got the pace of the table quickly and won the first two frames comfortably. The 3rd frame was much closer with Ella playing some great safety and pulling off some great pots to push Michelle all the way, with Michelle just managing to take the frame on the pink to win the match 3-0.
In the final, Michelle took an early lead in the first frame and managed to keep her nose ahead to win it on the blue. The 2nd frame was tight until the colours, when Paula clinched it with a great clearance from green to pink to level the match at 1-1. Michelle took the next frame on the colours. Michelle started the fourth frame with a lovely 31 break but Paula hot back immediately with a 27 of her own. The frame was tight throughout, with Michelle getting the first opportunity of winning it with a pot into the yellow centre pocket, but she caught the gunk and 2 shots later Paula potted the pink to make it a black ball frame. After a couple of shots each Michelle cut a very thin black back into the corner pocket to win the frame and match.
Ex pro Michael Judge commented afterwards that both women had played amazingly on what is classed as the one of the most difficult tables in Europe, he said he had seen many men almost reduced to tears playing on the table and that he usually didn’t like watching snooker, but had been transfixed by the standard of both women.
Cathal Moore said he could see that the excercises and practice we were putting in were really paying off.
All of the girls would like to thank SBI for providing the facilities, also Cathal Moore for his dedication to us daily. You have provided so much for us already Cathal and hopefully we can do you proud in the Europeans next year.
