Valerie Maloney Wins Intermediate Billiards Ranking 1 at Sharkx Newbridge

The Republic of Ireland Ladies Billiards Association kicked off their new season of Billiard ranking events with the Intermediate Billiards Ranking 1 at their academy in Sharkx Newbridge recently.

Valerie Maloney from Offaly continued her winning form from 2019 taking this ranking event 1 of the season.  A great start for Valerie who has dominated the Intermediate Billiards scene over the past two season.

We welcome Joanna Ward from Kildare to our billiards organisation and wish her well for the season ahead.

The first session saw Joanna Ward (Kildare) up against the current National Intermediate Champion and number 1 Valerie Maloney from Offaly.  Joanna played well in her first outing but Valerie finished strong with minutes to go on the clock to win 44-31.  Stephanie Morrison from Carlow had a match on her hands with young Roisin Beale from Kildare who was ahead until the final seconds but Stephanie potted a good long red to win the match by 1 point on the alarm, 35-34

Session 2 saw the youngsters Jennifer Earle from Dublin and Roisin Beale (Kildare) having a battle as they struggled to score with the balls in awkward positions for over 12 minutes of this 30 minute match, however Roisin kept close to Jennifer as the alarm sounded to win on a low score line 20-16, we know these players are capable of much higher scores.  On the other table Joanna Ward upped her game against Stephanie Morrison to finish well with her first win 48-29

Session 3 Jennifer was to show her skills as she also upped her game against Stephanie finishing with a 50-21 win while Roisin who was behind against Valerie to finish with a few small breaks to take the win against Valerie 38-31

In session 4 Joanna had to dig deep to keep close to Roisin who was getting into her stride with some good scoring towards the final seconds but Joanna finishing with a 6 pointer just to take the win against Roisin 34-29.  Valerie again saw Jennifer step up to the plate to put pressure on the current Champion with a number of small breaks to bring it down to the final seconds on the clock to take the win against Valerie 40-36.

It was now all down to the remaining matches in session 5 as the scores were very close and Valerie had to try and recover from the two defeats by Roisin and Jennifer if she was to have a chance of taking the title.

Jennifer and Joanna’s match was a slow starter but as the clock timed down to the last 10 minutes, this is where the scoring increased with Joanna coming out the winner by 3 points against Jennifer 31-29.  Valerie now had to step up her game as she took on Stephanie in their last match.  Valerie went 20 points up before Stephanie got on the score board and was looking good to level when it was 24-16 however with a number of good scores Valerie took the match on the clock 47-18 to take the title of Intermediate Billiards Ranking 1 of the new season.

Congratulations to Valerie on her win and to Joanna on taking Runner up in her first ever billiards ranking event.  Well done to all the other players for their participation.  Thanks to Annette for her help in refereeing and Bernie & Paul of Sharkx for providing the facilities and support towards female billiards.

TOP 6 ON THE INTERMEDIATE BILLIARDS RANKING AFTER EVENT 1 2020