The Republic of Ireland Ladies Snooker Association have been busy over the past 10 years developing a plan and introducing young girls into cue sports.
Our National Primary School promotions have been very successful with 118 girls representing their schools at our National Primary School Championships commencing in 2014 – 2019.
Grace Byrne from Ballinabranna NS Carlow has been the most successful young player at this level, having won the title in 2017 and retained the title in 2018.
Our National Special Needs promotions are also very successful with 102 girls representing their schools at our National Special Needs School Championships commencing in 2014 – 2019.
Rachael Bradley from St Marks Newbridge won the National title in 2015 and in 2017 was the first player to win the title on two occasions with a great win over Shannon Wilson from St Laserians Carlow, however Rachael returned in 2018 to be the first player to retain this title and win it on 3 occasions.
Our National U21 Snooker Championship has seen many of these players from our Primary and Special Schools enter this Championship along with many entries from Secondary Schools and Youth Centres take part. Since 2014 when we introduced the U21 National Championship a total of 84 young girls from across Ireland have contested this event.
Emirjeta Doda from Dublin has dominated this event having won the 2014 Inaugural Championship against Laura Regan from Tipperary, she reached the final in 2015 to lose out to Danielle Randle from Kilkenny, however Emirjeta would take her second title in 2016 against Caitlin Tucker from Dublin but she wasn’t finished yet as she returned in 2017 to retain her title against Grace Byrne from Carlow and the first player to do this and win the U21 Championship title 3 times in 4 years.
Emirjeta would again make history when she won the title 3 times in a row in 2018 with a great win over Rachael Bradley from Kildare. In 2019 Emirjeta would reach her 6th final just losing out to Megan Randle from Wicklow
Certainly an amazing achievement by Emirjeta but also great results from Grace, Rachael and all those other players who won and participated in RILSA Junior Snooker over the past 8 years.
Jennifer Earle from Dublin is another young player who is making progress and will be in contention for the National U21 Championship later in the season.
We look forward to seeing our School Championships and U21 return this season as restrictions are eased.
Congratulations to all those who won events and a big thank you to all those young girls who supported and participated in our events.
