Cathy Hunt from Wexford won her first National Snooker Ranking event the Maureen Butler Cup at the RILSA Academy Sharkx Newbridge recently, this was Cathy’s first outing on the RILSA Snooker Tour and immediately made an impact with this win having ousted a number of high profile amateur players on her way to the title
At the last 16 stage of the event Valerie Maloney from Laois got off to a good start with a 2-1 win over Stephanie Foley from Carlow to reach the quarters and current Irish Champion Margaret O’Driscoll from Kerry saw off newcomer Delia Keane from Dublin with a 2 nil win to go through to the quarters, Annette Newman from Carlow saw off newcomer Savannah Keane with a comfortable 2 nil win to go into the quarters. Newcomer Cathy Hunt had a good 2 nil win over Elizabeth Lynch from Offaly to complete the quarter final line up
The number 1 seed Sandra Bryan from Wexford had a good 2 nil win over Jackie Trulock from Dublin for a semi final place. Annette Newman from Carlow played good snooker to oust Valerie Maloney 2 frames to nil in their match to go through and meet Sandra in the semis. The other end of the draw saw Cathy Hunt from Wexford take the win against Claire Mill from Dublin in a close encounter on a pink ball in the decider to advance to the semis and Margaret O’Driscoll had a close match against Louise Maher from Kilkenny to take the win in the 3rd frame on the colours to meet Cathy in the semis
Annette and Sandra had a close match as usual between these two with Annette taking the 3rd frame on the colours to make it through to the final. On the other table Cathy and Margaret levelled at 1-1 and again it would come down to a pink ball decider in which Cathy potted to take her into her first ranking event final on tour
The final was close also as the first frame went down to the colours with Cathy taking it and the second would go to Cathy on a pink ball for match. Congratulations to Cathy on her win and well done to Annette on a fine performance
Thanks to all the ladies for their support and thanks to Stephanie Foley for refereeing the final. Thanks to Bernie, Paul and staff of Sharkx for all their support.
As this was our last ranking event for 2023 an update on the rankings will follow soon but we still have a number of events left on the calendar for 2023 and we will continue the tour in 2024 with a further two ranking events
