Annette Newman and Stephanie Foley represented their country with pride at the World Billiards Irish Open held at the new Snooker Billiards Academy in Carlow.
Our players joined with their counterparts from SB Ireland at the event in Carlow, Aidan Murray, Lloyd Myers, Joe Doheny, John Kehoe, Larry Drennan, Robert McCrum, Rodney Goggins, and Aonghus McAnally
Everyone really enjoyed the event that was hailed a great success by the organisers. Congratulations to SB Ireland on their new academy, its a fantastic venue and we at RILSA wish them well for the future.
While our players Annette and Stephanie didn’t qualify out of their groups, they enjoyed the experience and fantastic support from their male counterparts from many different countries and of course our male players who welcomed them and passed on much helpful tips on the sport of billiards.
In the Challenge cup both of our players reached the last 16 with Annette having a great chance to take a win against Robert McCrum with both players on 89 points with just a two minutes to play it was Robert who would just pip Annette on the alarm by 10 points so very little in it indeed.
Congratulations to Aidan Murray on reaching the last 16 of the Irish Open where he went out to Peter Sheehan from England having kept with him for most of their match with both players scoring in the 50’s but Peter knocked in a 118 to take the win. Congratulations to Rodney Goggins on his win in the Challenge Cup against Phil Davis in a very close final with just a few points in it as the alarm sounded.
In the main event Rob Hall from England ousted the David Causier also from England in the semis in a close match, this gave Rob great confidence going into the final as Dave has dominated the World Billiards tour for just over two years. In the final Rob was up against another great of the game in Peter Gilchrist from Singapore but Rob was in fine form scoring well with breaks of 77 and 195 to see off a comeback from Peter in the final minutes with a break of 101 but it was not enough as Rob sealed the win on the clock. A great result for Rob as he heads into the World Matchplay sponsored by the Talbot Hotel and Macau Casino from Monday 4th to Friday 8th April at the SB Ireland Academy Carlow.
We at RILSA wish all our home players and visiting players and organisers a great week in Carlow, enjoy everyone.
