Annette Newman from Carlow received her Gold International Cap Certificate and Pin award at the RILSA Academy Sharkx Newbridge. Fergal O’Brien was on hand to present Annette with the award. The Gold International Cap award is for having represented Ireland on 20 or more occasions, a fantastic achievement for Annette.
Annette’s first taste of International competition was in 1993 in Woking UK at the World Ladies Snooker Championship, with an entry of 98 players it was one of the largest ever events for females. She has participated in 4 World Championships and 2 Senior World Championships having reached the Quarters of the Seniors in 2016. Annette reached the last 16 of the UK ladies Snooker Championship in 2016.
On home soil Annette made great progress in our International Irish Snooker Open making it out of the groups in 2015 to finish in the quarters, she went one better in 2016 making the semi finals and in 2017 Annette made it to the final. In 2018 she reached the semis and was part of the runner up team in the home nations against England.
As Annette dominated the main ladies Billiards tour here in Ireland, her attention went to playing on the World stage and in 2019 we sent a team of 4 players, Annette, Tina, Valerie and Christine to Wales for the Welsh World Open where they all enjoyed the competition and made history as the first females to represent Ireland on the World Billiards Stage.
Annette entered the Austrian World Billiards Open in September 2019 and again really enjoyed the event and by now was gaining great experience.
With the WBL promoting female billiards, a sub committee was set up and events were established with a women’s World tour. We held the Women’s World Irish Open in our Academy Sharkx Newbridge where Annette excelled to reach the final and was up against the current World Champion Anna Lynch from Australia, however Annette gave it her best and would return again in November 2021 to again reach the final of the Irish Masters World Women’s Billiards in our Academy where she was much closer to the winning line with only minutes remaining on the clock and Annette ahead on points it was all down to Anne who closed out with a break of 34 to seal the win on this occasion.
To mark her 20th event on the International stage, Annette played in the first European Women’s Billiards Open in Leeds recently reaching the semi finals on this occasion and in doing so is now the highest ever ranked cue sports female player on a World rankings at number 3
Annette should be very proud of herself in the way she played and represented Ireland at all these events. Her dedication and hard work towards female cue sports here in Ireland is astounding over 40 years. Annette now has the full set of International Pins a very rare achievement indeed, joining only a few other players having reached this award over the past 46 years that women have been representing their country on the International stage
Congratulations to Annette on this so well deserved award of the Gold Cap Certificate and pin for representing her country on 20 occasions.
