Billiards Ranking Event 2 2009/2010

DEVLIN WINS RANKING EVENT 2

The second handicap tournament of the season was played in Carlow on Sunday,
18th October 2009.

In the top half of the draw, Phil Martin (Celbridge) made a flying start, amassing a break of 105 in his opening match against Darren Ryan (also Celbridge), and gained his place in the semi finals with a good win over Larry Drennan (Kilkenny).

The other semi finalist in this half of the draw was Joe Doheny (Borris-in-Ossory), who gained his place in the semi finals after close tussles, first against Robbie McCrum (Dublin), which he won by the slender margin of 22 points and then against fellow Borris-in-Ossory player Tom Kearns, where the margin this time was 25 points.

The semi final between Phil and Joe proved to be the closest match of the day, a mere 10 points separating the two when the clock struck time.

The semi finalists in the other half of the draw were Shay O’Brien (Piltown) and Brendan Devlin (Celbridge). Shay earned his semi final place after a tight tussle with Victor O’Gorman (Dun Laoghaire) while Brendan had a good win in his opening match against Billy Talbot (Piltown) and a much tighter game in his quarter final against Aonghus McAnally (Portmarnock).

In the semi final there was never very much between the two, who had started on almost level handicaps but the balance of leaves, as so often is the case, seemed to fall in one player’s favour. Brendan, seizing this opportunity, gradually widened the gap in scores, finishing 42 points clear of Shay at the finish.

Brendan’s good luck carried through to the final, where a large proportion of the ‘Plan B’ element of his shots seemed to come off, whereas for Phil things refused to fall his way. By capitalising on his luck and by feeding off a succession of favourable leaves, Brendan thankfully accepted his first tournament win for quite a number of years.

The next Billiards Handicap round of the season will be held at the Ivy Rooms Carlow on Sunday, 29th November 2009. Entries will be accepted before 10.30am on the
morning of the event.

We would like to thank Jim Leacy for the excellent facilities at the Ivy Rooms and Marian and staff for their help on the day.

Semi-finals
Philip Martin 341 - 331 Joe Doheny
Brendan Devlin 400 - 358 Shay O’Brien

Final
Brendan Devlin 400 - 281 Philip Martin