O'Donoghue keeps Nenagh Snooker Open title at home

By Thomas Conway

It had been known for some time that this year’s Nenagh Snooker Open would be unlike any other.

In bringing to life this expanded, upscaled version of the tournament, Andy McCloskey, Brendan O’Donoghue and the New Institute Club team had pulled out all the stops. There were late night meetings, flights across the Atlantic, and frantic phone-calls. The inside story is fascinating, but the story of the event itself - of the five days of high-quality snooker from Thursday to Monday - is even better. And of course, it had the perfect ending.

Fittingly, at around 6.00pm on Bank Holiday Monday, number one seed and New Institute stalwart Brendan O’Donoghue was crowned champion for 2025, defeating the 22nd seed Michael Judge by five frames to three in a best of nine contest.

A former professional, O’Donoghue was always going to be in the mix come the latter stages, but the fact that he held his nerve and got over the line - following a razor-thin semi-final victory over 12th seed Daniel Womersley (4-3) on Monday morning - must have been sweet on a personal level.

Speaking in the aftermath, O’Donoghue was selfless. He lavished praise on the club, on chairperson Tony Seymour, on AMC Cue Sports chief Andy McCloskey, and on the sponsors who helped make the competition a reality. His post-game interview was less of a post-game interview and more of a tribute - to all who had worked so hard to pull the event off.

Overwhelming success

Amongst the 48 players, the verdict was pretty much unanimous. The competition was an overwhelming success, not just for AMC Cue Sports and New Institute, but for the town of Nenagh itself. More or less every participant you encountered had a good word to say, and they were eager to say it.

Take Raymond Fry, the Antrim man who had shown a rich vein of form this season in reaching the final of the Northern Ireland open in May and subsequently winning an event in Newbridge at the end of August. He spoke effusively of the Open, and hailed Nenagh as well.

“Brendan invited me to this tournament a few years ago, and I just thought it was a great tournament, full of great players. Good conditions,” he said.

“And obviously this year, the tournament has expanded, it’s got bigger, with more players and better players. The conditions are perfect, the room is perfect, the tables are beautiful, and the hospitality is great as well. Credit to the club and credit to the town - it’s a fantastic place to come.”

Players have come for different reasons. Leaning on a sofa beside one of the tables was Ernst Bezemer. Originally from the Netherlands, he now lives in Houston, Texas, USA. He came to build experience, not just as a player, but as a referee.

“I’m a class-2 referee, and in order to get promoted as a referee, you need matches to ref. So, I’m not good enough to win this thing, but I came to get some games in as a player and then referee for the rest of the tournament. So that’s sort of my mission here,” he said.

Warm-natured and generous

Fortunately for Ernst - who refereed the O’Donoghue-Womersley semi-final - he had the best in the business to learn from. The Nenagh Open’s status was considerably enhanced by the presence of professional referee Desislava Bozhilova. The Bulgarian native took charge of this year’s World Championship Final at the Crucible, becoming just the second woman in history to do so.

Stern-faced and expressionless while in action, one might be inclined to form the impression that Bozhilova has a serious persona, but in reality, she is warm natured and generous with her time. Her evolution in the game has been extraordinary, and yet she makes it sound simple.

“I was playing mostly pool, nine-ball pool. But I was watching snooker, and at some point, I just decided to give it a go. So, I applied, became a ref, and from then on something that started as a hobby became a profession,” she revealed.

Bozhilova also praised the standard of Irish snooker, which was on full display throughout the course of the five days and reached its crescendo on Monday evening. In addition to the 100 people packed safely into the New Institute clubhouse, both the semi-finals and the final had almost two-thousand viewers online.

In the decider O’Donoghue raced into a 3-0 lead, and it looked for a time like he would romp home. But back came Judge to make it 3-2, and the momentum had suddenly shifted. O’Donoghue, to his credit, wrestled that momentum back again, edging 4-2 in front. Judge pegged him back to 4-3 but nobody was going to deny the Nenagh man victory. He zoomed through the eight frame to claim top honours. A memorable win, on his own home turf.