WHAT an exciting weekend it was at the Gleneagle Hotel – Ladbrokes sponsored Munster Snooker Club Championships, that had its share of shocks along the way and as always the tension surrounding the event had its bearing on several players throughout the three days of play.

There were 24 sides at the very first break off on Friday morning last and immediately the top seeded sides began well securing early wins, but when Saturday came, the changes rang out especially for the Cork sides who definitely began to bed themselves in to contention and by the end of play on Saturday evening no less than six Cork sides were in the knock out stages.

The defending champions the New Institute from Nenagh Co. Tipperary were in awesome form, as were the previous six time winners the Victoria from Limerick.

The story of the knock out stages had to be Fermoy CYMS who had a great championships and made it through to the quarter final after defeating Douglas A. The win was remarkable in so many ways, because this was the first competitive outing for Fermoy this year as a team and considering that the North Cork club were not participants this year in the Cork snooker league it was a great effort and hopefully this will re-ignite some interest in re-forming a side for next years league in Cork.

Youghal CYMS had both their A and B sides in the knock out stages and the A side breezed past Carrick-on-Suir to the quarter finals, meanwhile the Youghal B side were a black ball away from victory against Ennis, but the Clare men progressed through to meet New Institute.

The Crucible were excellent against Thurles and set up a match against against Fermoy and were equally impressive to make it through to the semi finals.

Waterford A pulled off the result of the quarter finals defeating the Victoria A from Limerick, meaning for the very first time there would be no Limerick representation at the ‘All Ireland Snooker Club championships for the very first time.

Youghal CYMS also booker their place into the semi finals and All Ireland qualification after a very impressive win over New Institute B.

The semi finals were tense as always and the New Institute A side prove just a little better than Youghal CYMS on the day winning their semi final match and they stood just one match away from retaining their title.

The other semi final was a much closer affair with the Crucible from Cork coming out against Waterford A, but it took some Greg Casey Magic to secure the victory in the deciding frame.

The final is always tense, but it was a very difficult match to call with both sides draped in International players.

Leading Senior number one ranked player Brendan O’Donoghue won his match impressively for New Institute to take a one nil lead in the best of five match format, but the Crucibles Ryan Cronin was quick to restore balance with a very strong win in his game.

The next match went to New Institute who now had the narrow advantage, but despite a Greg Casey victory which included a 101 break it wasn’t enough because Tommy Gleeson potted the winning balls to secure a Tipperary victory.

Next weekend is the All Ireland Championships weekend and Cork Snooker will have to very able representatives available in the Crucible and the Youghal CYMS side.

Greg Casey and his Crucible team mates came to within a frame of lifting the Munster title so they will be very confident coming into the championships.

Youghal CYMS leader Brendan Cooney and his team mates will also feel that they can make a big impression in the tournament.

There will be a break in the Cork Billiards and Snooker Association league will not be played this week due to the All Ireland Championships, but will resume in two weeks time, with Youghal CYMS B, the AOH and Douglas B all trying to secure the two available semi final spots