Joanna Ward from Kildare made it two in a row by winning the 3rd Intermediate Billiards Ranking event at Sharkx Newbridge recently.
This event has to be the closest contested Intermediate Billiards Competition to date with only 10 points separating 4th and 1st placed players after all the points were tallied.
Session 1 saw current champion Valerie Maloney from Laois take on Joanna Ward from Kildare in a close match, while the scoring was somewhat low at the final second there was some good billiards played by both players, however Joanna took the match 36-26. Stephanie Morrison from Carlow started very well against the youngster Jennifer Earle from Dublin, making breaks of 10, 11 and 13 to close out on the alarm with a score of 55 to Jennifer’s 25
In session 2 we saw Valerie make progress with good scoring against Jennifer to take the win 54-27 on the alarm. On the other table Joanna got the upper hand on Stephanie with good scoring to finish with the win 48-28. As the competition progressed, we saw the players improve each round as they got back into their stride.
The final session on the day, saw Stephanie and Valerie playing good billiards with the score level all the way to the final alarm when Stephanie just pipped Valerie on the clock by 1 point, 43-42, so very close indeed. Jennifer started very well against Joanna with breaks of 10, 11, and 14 to help her gain ground, while Joanna fought back it was not enough to take the win as Jennifer made her highest scoring in a 30 minute match so far taking the win 72-48
When the scores were tallied it was Joanna who took the title with 132 points closely followed by Stephanie on 126 to finish runner up. Jennifer finished on 124 and Valerie on 122, so very close in the end.
Congratulations to Joanna on her win and to Stephanie on a fine performance. Well done to Jennifer and Valerie on a great performance also. With one more Intermediate ranking event to go, it’s going to be very close to see who will take the top two places on the National Intermediate Rankings for 2020.
Thanks to Dave and Annette for helping out on the day and to Paul of Sharkx for providing excellent facilities. We look forward to seeing everyone again very soon.
