Mark Tuite from the Republic Of Ireland was within touching distance of reaching the IBSF World Championship final here in Bulgaria today when he played Glen Wilkinson from Australia in the semi final.
The Killarney man started off on fire and had breaks of 56 and 85 to build up a 2 nil lead. back came the Australian opponent to win the third only to see Tuite make a 51 break to lead 3 frames to 1 at the interval.
Frame 5 was a tight battle of safety and it was the Irishman who won it to stand one frame away from the World final against ex pro player Darren Morgan from Wales who eventually won the title later in the day. The Australian champion came fighting back with breaks of 42, 41 and 68 to foce the match into a decider.
The match came down to the last red and it was Wilkinson who potted the red down the cushion and clear up to win the match and deny Mark becoming the seventh Irishman ever to make an IBSF World final after Ken Doherty, Stephen O Connor, Colm Gilcreest, Rodney Goggins, Robert Murphy and Joe Delaney (Wexford) had previously made it to the world final.
A big well done must go out to mark who played an outstanding match and he proved this weekend that he has the overall game to compete at the highest level on the world stage. As National Coach I must say that all the players were superb to work with at the championship and if RIBSA players keep on putting in good performances it will not be long until we are lifting a world title again.
