As we at RILSA Celebrate 40 years in 2026 we are delighted to see our events gain much interest among females here in Ireland and the RILSA National Amateur Snooker Championship still going strong
Cathy Dunne from Dublin won the 2026 RILSA National Amateur Snooker Championship for a 3rd time this weekend at the RILSA Academy Sharkx Newbridge
Cathy first won the title in 2004 beating Michelle Sherwin 3-1 in the final and won it again in 2021 against Annette Newman and this time round took the win against Claire Mill in the final
At the last 16 stage the following players went into the Quarter Finals, Claire Mill from Dublin went through over Colette Cribben from Kildare, Christine Carr from Kildare won against Brigid Mulvany from Dublin, Tina Keogh from Offaly went through over Margaret Browne from Meath, Joanna Ward from Kildare went through over Jennifer Earle from Dublin, Annette Newman from Carlow advanced over Anna McKeown from Monaghan, Valerie Maloney from Laois advanced over Jess Curran from Kildare, Veronica Hallahan from Dublin won against Natalia Trochonowicz from Kildare and Cathy Dunne went through over Qianhui Ye from Wicklow
In the Quarters Claire had a good 2 nil win over Christine to advance to the semis and Tina had to dig deep against Joanna to get over the line to meet Claire in the semis. At the other end of the draw Annette had a 2 nil win over Valerie for a place in the semis and Cathy went through to meet Annette with a 2-0 win over Veronica
Claire was playing good snooker and continued her good form against Tina with a 2 -0 win went into the final, on the other table Cathy got the better of Annette and went through to meet Claire in the final
In the final Claire took frame 1 but Cathy responded well in frame 2 to level the match, the 3rd and final frame went to the colours with Claire needing blue to black, she potted a long blue got on the pink but missed to let Cathy back to the table and after a few bouts of play on the pink Cathy potted it for game and to win the National Amateur Snooker Championship for a 3rd time
Congratulations to Cathy on her win and well done to Claire on a fine performance. Well done to Annette and Tina on reaching the semis of the Championship
Just to say a special congrats to Annette who was in the final of the 1986 Championship 40 years ago and is still going strong on the RILSA Tour
Thanks to all the ladies who participated and supported the Championship in its 40 year
Thanks to Bernie, Paul and staff of Sharkx for all their support as always
Thanks to Ger Dunphy for his excellent work on fitting new cloths to all the tables for the Championship. Ger is the best in Ireland and his work is always exceptional
