A RIBSA Coaching Course will be held this Sunday the 23rd November in the

Ivy Rooms Snooker Club at 10am.

This Seminar will be based on the Coaching Ireland approved syllabus and will qualify RIBSA assistant coaches.

If you are interested or need more information please contact Paula in

the RIBSA office.

PJ Nolan and Neil Shanahan will be the tutors on the course and will cover everthing from training to the rules of the game.

Mario Fernandez from Limerick won the RIBSA Irish Open ranking tournament sponsored by Hickston's Centra Carlow today in the Ivy Rooms

Snooker Club Carlow.

The final was a great classic with Brendan O Donoghue winning the first

three frames, to lead 3 nil, only for the limerick man to level at 3-3 and 4-4

and it the new Irish No. 1 who held his nerve to win the title 5 frames to 4.

LAST 16

RESULT - BEST OF 5

David Hogan

2

3

Colm Gilcreest

Brendan O Donoghue

3

1

Brendan O Brien

James Moore

3

2

Keith Sheldrick

Tom Gleeson

1

3

John Torpey

TJ Dowling

3

1

Tony Moore

George Tierney

3

2

Clinton Franey

Jason Keogh

1

3

Leonard Shanahan

2

3

Mario Fernandez

Q-FINALS

RESULT - BEST OF 7

COLM GILCREEST

1

4

BRENDAN O DONOGHUE

JAMES MOORE

3

4

JOHN TORPEY

TJ DOWLING

3

4

GEORGE TIERNEY

LEONARD SHANAHAN

0

4

MARIO FERNANDEZ

SEMI FINALS

BEST OF 7 - RESULT

John Torpey

3

4

Brendan O Donoghue

George Tierney

1

4

Mario Fernandez

THE FINAL

BEST OF 9 - RESULT

Brendan O Donoghue

4

5

Mario Fernandez

The Republic of Ireland Billiards & Snooker Association Chairman

Jim Leacy presented Colm Gilcreest with a crystal trophy for his superb achievement of reaching the final of the IBSF world championships

in Austria last week.

The presentation was made during the senior ranking event in

Carlow over the weekend

The Republic of Ireland Billiards & Snooker Association have just launched

the new " Junior RIBSA Elite Squad " which will be sponsored

by Nigel Power from www.firststep.ie.

The announcement was made at a press conference today in Carlow.

Tom Hogan, Josh Boileau and Aaron Tobin have been selected for the 2008 scholarship which will entitle them to free entry to all RIBSA events and free coaching days from PJ Nolan who will be in charge of this squad.

Nigel Power from www.firststep.ie will sponsor the players and his company

logo will be on the players snooker waistcoats.

Nigel is delighted to have firststep.ie linked to this snooker scholarship in developing the snooker stars of the future.

Karl Fitzpatrick from the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club Carlow won the Leinster

Under 20 Snooker Open in the Q Club Wicklow over the weekend

Karl beat Dane Daly 3 frames to 1 in the Final

This weekend saw the first of this year’s new Donegal Senior singles

tournaments which was held at the North West Snooker Club Letterkenny. 

There was a good entry with 22 players turning up on the day, some as young

as 11 year old’s Padraig Mc Aleer and Adam Bonnar. 

The tournament was handicapped which gave everyone an even chance to

take the spoils. Eight players were seeded from last season

This gave us a line up of Chris Gibbons against Gerry Mc Keever,

Brian Mc Aleer against Phelim Mc Clafferty, Anthony Bonnar against hi

s brother Pat, and Paul Doherty against John White.

The first match went against the seeding’s with Gerry Mc Keever taking

the match 3/1 as he knocked out the Number one seed Chris Gibbons. 

The second match also went against the seeding’s with Brian Mc Aleer

having a 3/0 victory over Phelim Mc Clafferty.  The third match saw

Anthony Bonnar beat Pat Bonnar 3/0, and the final match went to John

White who scraped past Paul Doherty in a 3/2 victory.

The semi final saw Gerry Mc Keever, who was playing his best snooker

of the season dispose of his club-mate Brian Mc Aleer in a

thrilling 3/2 victory. 

The other eagerly anticipated match between Anthony Bonnar and John

White lived up to its expectations with Anthony proving his seeding with

a hard earned victory 3/2.

This set up a final between underdog Gerry Mc Keever and seven

times Donegal Champion Anthony Bonnar.

As the game progressed Anthony’s experience came to the fore, and Gerry seemed to tire after all the tight matches he had during the long day.  Anthony eased his way through the final with a 3/0 victory. 

This is the first in a series of 6 Donegal Senior tournaments planned for this season and Anthony Bonnar will top the ladder heading into the second tournament which is set for the 7th of December.

COACHING;  Junior coaching which is in it’s ninth week and is drawing

more and more young players every week and it is on from 5.30 to 7.30

every Friday and will continue again this week and all are welcome between

the age of 10 and 18 years. 

There is no need to have any previous snooker skills as we will start

everyone with the very basics. 

The coaching will be free for the month of November and is being organised

by Coaching Ireland Qualified Coach John Doherty. If you have any enquiries

you can contact John on 087 2223164 or the club at 9121384.  .

The 2nd senior ranking billiards tournament was held at the Ivy Rooms,

Carlow on Sunday 19th October.

Due to the small number of entries there was a preliminary match between

James Moore and Aonghus McAnally.

James started the day’s play in fine form by making a break of 106 in this

match and it proved to be the best break of the tournament.

The quarter finals paired James against Larry Drennan in a very close

contested battle, and after 90 minutes the winner was James by the

score of [341 to 320].

Robert McCrum played Victor 0' Gorman in his quarter final match and on

the day Robert played very steady and finished in quick style by the

score of [400 to 225]

Tom Kearns was victorious in his match against Phil Martin and

reached the magic score of 400 before Phil [400 to 345]. In the last of the quarter finals Joe Doheny managed to get over the winning line first against

Liam Byrne and it was very tit for tat to the end. [400 to 386].

In the semi finals James played Robert and again James proved with all his experience how to never give up till the fat lady sings - the match started with little scoring from both players and after about 20 minutes play Robert made a break of 56 so with his handicap he now went ahead of James by nearly

300 points, James however appeared to dominate the match from then and

after almost 90 minutes the match concluded with the score at [400 to 382].

In the other semi final Joe played Tom in an extremely well contested match

but it was Joe that finished the strongest in the end [400 to 317]

The final was between James Moore and Joe Doheny as on so many occasions

in the past these two players have dueled.

The match was very close with very little separating both players until James produced a very nice 103 break and it helped him home even though Joe kept

the pressure on till the very last, bad luck Joe and

well done James [400 to 375].

The plate competition final was played between Aonghus McAnally and Liam Byrne, and it ended with Liam winning by the score [400 to 350]

Because Brendan Devlin was unavailable on the day Robert McCrum with the

help of James Moore looked after the procedures.

Thanks once again to Marian and her staff at the Ivy Rooms

The Venetian Club hosted the 2008 limerick Intermediate Championship

on Sunday Nov 2nd.

The entry included all of the top Intermediate limerick players and produced

some great matches throughout the day.

One of the big highlights of the first round was the return to action of Johnny Cronin, Johnny is an ex Irish International and Irish number one and there

was great interest in his first appearance in over 8 years. Johnny showed

flashes of his old form but he had a tough draw and lost narrowly 3-1 to

Philip Burke.

Highlight from the first 2 rounds was young Kevin O Callaghan who was

making his first appearance in  Championship snooker and impressed

before losing out to Trevor Hayes.

In a fitting final between the 2 best players on the day Mike took his chances

very well in the first frame to go 1-0 up and he lead by 58 points with 4

reads remaining in the 2nd, but Neil produced one of the best clearances of

this or any tournament to level the frame and force a respotted black.

After all Neils hard work Mike then potted a tremendous black to go 2-0 up. 

 The last 2 frames were tense scrappy affairs, which are typical when there

is so much at stake, Neil took the 3rd, but Mike prevailed in the fourth to

take the trophy and title. Well done Mike and Neil and all players

Thanks to The Venetian Club for providing excellent facilities all day.

Quarter Finals

Anthony Cronin     3     Shazad Khan       0 Neil Madigan     3     Philip Burke      1 Mike Howley     3    Kevin Mc Mahon   2 Thomas Hickey    3    Davy Lawlor        1

Semi Finals

Neil Madigan    3    Anthony Cronin     2 Mike Howley     3    Thomas Hickey   2

Final

Mike Howley  3   Neil Madigan  1

For Full Results seehttp://limericksnooker.googlepages.com

Colm Gilcreest became the third player from the Republic Of Ireland

to reach the final of the IBSF world snooker championships.

Colm played his heart out in the final but was beaten by 20 year old

potting sensation Thepchaiya Un-Nooh from Thailand.

Colm Started great and led 3-1, but Thepchaiya came back to lead 4-3

and 9-4 but the Irish man never gave up and fought back to 7-9 behind,

but in the end his Thailand opponent got stronger and won 11-7.

In the final there were 3 centuries - one by colm and two by Thepchaiya

including a 139 and the highest break of the championships with a 143

beating Colm's break by one point.

Finally : All the team would like to thank everyone who rang or sent good

luck message to support Colm and the others during this championship.

All the players Colm, Brendan, Martin, Joe and Kevin did there country

proud and the overall performance of our team was superb.

Seniors Event

Colm Gilcreest - Runner Up

Martin McCrudden - Q-Finalist

Brendan O Donoghue - Last 16

Masters - Over 40's

Joe Delaney - Q-Finalist

Kevin Monroe - Q-Finalist

Some Highlights from the Championships

Colm Gilcreest From Co. Meath will play in the final of  IBSF world snooker championships today after beating Soheil Vahedi from Iran

7 frames to 5 in an exciting semi-final last night.

Colm won the two opening frames but lost the next four, to be four frames

to two behind at the mid session interval.

In the Evening session the former Irish champion and professional player

showed his experience and fought his way back into the match to lead 5-4.

Back came the newcomer of the year from Iran to level the match

at 5-5, Only for the Irish man to win the next two frames to win

the match 7-5.

Colm becomes only third player ever from the Republic Of Ireland

to play in the IBSF world final along with Ken Doherty and Stephen O Connor

who went on to win the title.

Rodney Goggins from Wexford was the last player from the

Republic of Ireland to win a world title when he won the world

under 21 championship back in 1999

Jim Leacy – Chairman of RIBSA said Colm winning yesterday

was the best birthday present he could have hoped for as he

was celebrating his 50th Birthday.

Once again thank you from all the RIBSA team here in Austria

for the phone calls and texts from everyone in Ireland wishing

him good luck,  and Colm has promised to give it all today in the

final and win it for everyone back home.

The 21 frame Final will be played in two sessions – 10 frames

will be played in the 10am morning session and 11 frames will be

played in the 4pm evening session.

His opponent will be Thailand’s 20 year old Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

who best Xiao Gundong from China 7 frames to 5 last night in the

other semi final

Once again live frame scoring will be on the site so you can follow the

match frame by frame