Carlow woman Annette Newman won the first Amateur Billiards Ranking event of the new season, the Stars Academy Masters at the RILSA Academy Sharkx Newbridge recently.
In this short timed round robin format, Annette Newman from Carlow who is the current National Champion and number 1 got off to a great start against Valerie Maloney from Laois who is a former National Intermediate Billiards Champion, taking the win on the alarm 62-35. Christine Carr from Kildare and Irish number 2 was in good form against Tina Keogh from Offaly and our current Intermediate Billiards Champion taking the win 64-26. Joanna Ward from Kildare had a close match against Stephanie Foley from Carlow just pipping the win on the alarm 45-43
Session 2 saw Annette continue her good form against Joanna finishing on 64 to 27 as the time ticked down. Christine got her second win of the evening against Stephanie on the clock 54-33 while Valerie got back into her stride as we know she can and produced good billiards against Tine to take the win 50-27 on the alarm.
In session 3 Annette would see off a challenge from Tina as the seconds ticked away to take her 3rd win of the evening 57-34. Valerie again took her second win against Stephanie in a close match 50-40 on the alarm while Joanna kept it close all the way to the final seconds and took her second win on the alarm 60-57
Session 4 Annette kept up her good form against Stephanie to make it 4 wins in a row finishing on the alarm 60-44. Tina got her first win under her belt against Joanna in another close encounter finishing 39-35. Christine had to dig deep against Valerie towards the end of time to take the win in a close match 54-41
The final session saw Annette finish on a clean sweep winning her match against Christine 63-43 on the alarm. Joanna upped her game against Valerie to take the win 57-36 and Tina got her second win against Stephanie on the clock 43-32 in a close match.
With the points tallied, Annette took the title of Stars Academy Masters Billiards Champion 2022 with 306 followed in second spot, Christine on 263, 3rd place went to Joanna with 224 and 4th was Valerie on 212
Congratulations to Annette on a fantastic performance once again playing consistently throughout and well done to Christine on a fine performance. Thanks and well done to all the girls for their participation and support. Thanks to Bernie, Paul and staff of Sharkx for all their support towards female cue sports
