Noel Gleeson is presented with the Under 21 trophy by SBI Chairperson Jim Lacey in the presence of final match referee Conor Doyle.
Finals of all levels of amateur snooker in Ireland took place in Snooker & Billiards Ireland HQ in Carlow last weekend.
Three members from the New Institute Snooker Club Nenagh represent the club with Brendan O’Donoghue looking to defend his senior title and win an unprecedented fifth-in-a-row. Mark Walsh took part in the senior over 40s, and Noel Gleeson was also in the main quarter-finals, intermediate semi-finals, and under 21 final.
The action began on Saturday with the senior quarter-finals. This is the main competition and has seen many go on to play professionally such as Ken Doherty, Fergal O’Brien, Rodney Goggins, Davie Morris, and current professional Aaron Hill.
Brendan O’Donoghue started out the defence of his title with a tense battle against Dublin native Phillip Browne, and eventually came out on top to set up a semi-final with Ireland team-mate Ryan Cronin. This turned out to be the match of the tournament with Brendan trailing 4-1 and 5-3 in the race to six. Brendan with all his experience in his twelfth semi-final at this level found something from somewhere and made breaks of 76 and 64 to level and got the job done in a final frame decider, winning 6-5 after a four-hour marathon.
This would see Brendan meet old rival Davie Morris for the fifth time in the final. From the word go, Morris was on fire, and just like when Tipperary stopped Kilkenny getting their fifth in a row in 2010, Morris claimed one for the cats stopping O’Donoghue from the five-in-a-row. A clinical performance from the Kilkenny man to claim another Irish amateur title.
Noel Gleeson was up against the current Irish no. 1 seed Ryan Cronin from the Crucible Club, Cork, who had won three ranking events this season with Cronin proving too strong for Noel.
However, it led to be a great session in preparation for Noel’s Intermediate semi-final where he went on to win against Andrew Doherty 3-0. This set up a final with Cavan’s Aaron Goldrick. Noel Gleeson went ahead with a brilliant comeback after being 52 points behind to go one up, only for the Cavan man to make it 1-1. From then on it was hard fought with Goldrick coming out on top.
In the Under 21 final, it was a slow start for Noel Gleeson, falling one frame behind he went on to win three in a row, but Adam Hanlon showed great nerve to take the next frame in this first to four final. Gleeson went 38 points behind before clawing it back to 30-38 and put Hanlon in a fantastic snooker that he struggled to get out of. Noel cleaned up the colours to claim a 4-2 win and his second under 21 title-in-a-row.
Mark Walsh started off in flying form, gaining a 3-1 lead over Dylan Rees. He had a great opportunity to win the match with a blue ball pot that would have seen Rees needing two snookers, unfortunately Mark potted the white after the blue and thus gave Rees an opportunity to come back and that’s all he needed. The momentum swing was too much and Rees came out on top 4-3 to progress to the Over 40 final.
