Anna Lynch the current World Champion and representing Australia won the Inaugural Women’s Irish Open World Billiards Ranking event at the RILSA Academy Sharkx Newbridge recently against the current Irish Billiards Champion Annette Newman in a great final.

This is the first World Women’s Billiards Ranking event that will kick start the World Tour as we commence our promotions at World Billiards.  We envisage a number of Countries getting behind this initiative in the coming months and years to further develop female billiards and increase participation.

The next event will be the English Women’s Billiards Open at Kings Lynn in the UK on Sunday 10th October 202, we wish all the girls playing every success and a most enjoyable event.

The Irish Open was a great success indeed and everyone really enjoyed the event in Newbridge.

The first session got underway at 11.15am  with sessions at 12.15pm and 1.15pm to complete the round robin stage of competition.

Session 1 Group A  45 minute matches

Stephanie Foley and Valerie Maloney’s match was slow to start with little scoring in the first 10 minutes but Stephanie went ahead and maintained a good lead with Valerie struggling to score due to the positions left when she was at the table.  Stephanie 61 to Valerie 21 on the alarm.  Anna Lynch started with a number of small breaks each time she got to the table against Christine Carr who had chances to score but didn’t hit the mark on a number of occasions and as the clock ticked Anna finished strong with a good score of 142 to 32 to take the win

Session 1 Group B  45 minute matches

Annette Newman got off to a good start in her match against Jennifer Earle with a number of small scores towards the end of time taking the win 95 to 54.  Tina Keogh unfortunately had to withdraw from the main event due to having a small surgery on her back two days prior to the event.

Session 2 Group A saw Valerie improve her scoring against Christine in a close contest finishing with the win on the alarm 52 – 44, while Anna continued her good form against Stephanie with numerous small breaks and a 21 to finish on 164 to 33.  In Group B, Annette continued her form against Joanna Ward taking the win on the clock 84 to 55

The 3rd and final session saw Anna remain focused in her match against Valerie again making small breaks each time at the table however Valerie improved her scores also but Anna was too strong and finished with a 27 break to take the win 161-65.  Christine would take her first win of the competition against Stephanie on the alarm 61-52 in another close match.  Jennifer would keep her match close for the first 30 minutes against Joanna and finished strong with minutes to go to take the win 58 to 37 and complete the round robin stage of the event.

In the first Semi Final, Anna was on fire against Jennifer scoring heavy with breaks of 21, 28 and 44 to seal a great win with a fantastic 60 minute score of 276 to Jennifer’s 57 for a place in the final.  On the other table Annette stepped up her game scoring well with a number of small breaks including a 20 and 24 to finish on the alarm 137 to 45 to meet Anna in the final.

In the final Anna was consistent in her scoring against Annette who had chances to get closer making a number of small breaks but Anna finished strong with a break of 27 to finish on 178 to 87 and take the title of Women’s Irish Open Billiards Champion 2021.

Congratulations to Anna on her win and well done to Annette on a fine performance.  Annette was the first to congratulate Anna and wish her the best at the English Open in Kings Lynn and of course all the girls participating in the event next weekend.  Enjoy everyone

Well done to all the girls for their participation and making the event such a great success.  While the scoring was less than they are capable of, it was all on the day and they are all looking forward to competing in a number of these events over the coming months.

Well done to Joanna on winning the Challenge Cup against Valerie in another close 30 minute final 35-32

A special thanks to Chris Coumbe, Phillip Welham and Brittany Chambers, the sub committee of WBL for all their work in the background in helping these events to become a reality and we look to more countries getting on board in the coming years to add to the World Ranking list and encourage more females to take up this great sport.

Thanks to Jason Colebrook and the Board of WBL for their support to help us get this promotion off the ground.

Thanks to Aidan Murray, Dave  Earle and Rob Hall for their help refereeing during the event and thanks to Bernie, Paul and staff of Sharkx Newbridge for everything they do for female cue sports.  Thanks to Alison McDonnell of Dublin Trophies for her kind sponsorship of the participation medals