Double National Snooker success for O’Donoghue and Gleeson

New Institute Snooker Club reaffirmed its status as one of the leading clubs in the county as Brendan O’Donoghue and Noel Gleeson were crowd national champions at the weekend in Carlow.

By Tony Seymour

Brendan O’Donoghue’s domination of the Irish Amateur Championships continued as he won the title for the seventh time and a fourth-in-a-row, getting the better of current Irish ranked no 1 Ross Bulman 7-5.

In a professional quality match, there were two century breaks and six further breaks of over 50. Brendan won the first frame with a break of 67, only for Ross to fire in breaks of 50 and 84 to lead 2-1. A very tight fourth frame came down to the black ball when Brendan slotted home for 2-2. A fine century break of 105 from Bulman and two forty-plus breaks from O’Donoghue brought them to the interval at 3-3.

Brendan won the next two frames with a fifty plus break. Another 74 from Ross reduced the arrears to 5-4 and in a race to seven, the next frame came down to the colours and went the way of the Nenagh man. Ross Bulman, showing his no 1 status, fired in another big break of 84 to reduce the arrears to one. However, the highest break of the tournament and match went Brendan's way with a fantastic 113 clearance to become national champion once again.

Also as the same event, Noel Gleeson won the Irish Under 21 Championship last Saturday with a fantastic performance against Alex Currid of Wexford.

Currid, another up and coming player under the tutelage of the legendary Rodney Goggins, put in some fine performances to reach the final against Ireland’s no. 1 ranked under 21 player Gleeson.

After a nervy first frame which went the way of Gleesonm followed by a close second decided on the pink ball to give Noel a 2-0 lead. A fine 40 plus break brought Currid back into it to make it 2-1. The next went the way of Gleeson on the blue ball and he controlled the last frame well to win the match and title 4-1. A great performance.

As well as two national titles, New Institute Snooker Club was also presented its first ever Club of the Year award, awarded last month by SBI (Snooker & Billiards Ireland) for their outstanding contribution to snooker in Ireland.

Apart from the many individual and team wins at national level, the club also have hosted very popular invitational events on the SBI calendar. As with any club in any sport it only survives if you have young players coming through. The clubs youth academy had just had its most successful year with consistent new young players coming to the club and enjoying the game.

I would like to thank my fellow committees members for all their great efforts through the year and of course our own club members and friends.