Youghal C.Y.M.S. win the Cork U-17 Snooker Team Championships.
Report: Lee Walsh. | Pics: Youghalonline.com

A large crowd witnessed some fine displays at the Cork U-17 Snooker Team Championship which held in the Youghal C.Y.M.S. on the 9th and 10th of March. The tournament which consisted of 8 teams from Cork, came down to two local teams. Youghal ‘A’ were favourites from the start but they were up against tough opposition in Youghal ‘B’.

The ‘A’ team consisted of three Irish internationals Aaron Tobin, Kenny Wight and Captain Lee Walsh, the ‘B’ team members were, brothers Killian and Keane McCarthy and their captain Adam Fitzgerald. A great win for Kenny Wight who beat Adam Fitzgerald 2-0 and a great comeback from Aaron Tobin who beat Killian McCarthy 2-1 was enough to win it for the favourites. Keane McCarthy had just levelled his match at 1-1 against Lee Walsh before Aaron sealed the victory.

Congratulations to both Youghal ‘A’ and ‘B’ for providing an excellent final also well done to all other teams. Thanks to the Chairman of the Cork Billiards and Snooker Association Derek O’Neill and to Secretary Timmy Murphy for coming down from Cork to present the shield to the winning team. The society thanks Ray Phelan and Tommy Smith for having the tables in top condition. A big thanks to tournament director Brendan Cooney who ran the tournament very smoothly over the two days.

The Cork City Under-17 Snooker Championship was also held on the 10th of March with players from Douglas S.C and the Crucible in Cork competing. In the end it was Evan O’Leary from Douglas who beat Shane Hourihan from the Crucible in the final. Congratulations to Evan on a great performance and also to other players who travelled from Cork to play.

Congratulations to Aaron Tobin on reaching the final of the Cork Close snooker championship which was played on the 19th of February in Douglas S.C.. Aaron played brilliantly and had some great wins on his way to the final with victories over David Forde and also one of the hot favourites Shane O’Mahony. Aaron was unlucky to be beaten by Gary Bracken in the final.

Well done to Brendan Cooney on his latest performance in Masters snooker. Brendan reached the final of the Masters event 5 which was held in the Ivy Rooms Carlow on the 26th of February. On his way to the final he didn’t drop a single frame and had a great chance to win the final but was narrowly beaten 3-2 by Mark Tuite. Brendan is now 4th in the rankings and has an excellent chance of making the Irish team for this year. Brendan’s son Christopher has already qualified for the Under-19 team after some great performances in this year’s events. Kenny Wight is also in contention for a place on the Under-19 team. Congratulations to Christopher and best of luck to Kenny, and also to Brendan in the final Masters event on the 25th of March from all members of the society.

The Cork Snooker League recently came to a conclusion with The Crucible from Cork winning it out. Youghal ‘A’ did brilliantly to reach the semi-final of this annual event. The Youghal C.Y.M.S. teams will also be looking to take inspiration from the junior teams and go on to win this year’s Orme Shield which will be held on the 31st of March and concluded on the 1st of April. The top Youghal teams will be looking to fill the space on the wall of the society which was occupied by the shield for as long as most can remember.

The Christy Hennessy Memorial Snooker tournament is currently ongoing in the society and is in the semi-final stages, the final will be played in the coming weeks. Also The Jack Trihy Billiards tournament is being played and the quarter-finalists are encouraged to play their games in the next fortnight.

AS CORK SNOOKER takes its seasonal break, with the Cork Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) Cork snooker league resuming in mid January it is an opportunity to take a look at this seasons action so far in the thriving sport of ‘Rebel Snooker’ down south in Cork City and County.

After International representation in Malta and Canada for David Cassidy and Greg Casey of the Crucible Snooker Club, on return from Republic of Ireland duty the CBSA had their annual general meeting and all officers elected were as before with the exception of Derek O’Neill of Douglas Snooker Club who became the associations new Chairman.

O’Neill to his credit has been very active getting around to as many games as possible as well as attending both the under 14 and under 16 Cork snooker championships this year so far. The league were saddened to hear that last years champions Shooters from Blackpool would not be competing this season, as well as Fermoy CYMS , so Douglas Snooker Club to their credit entered a second side into the CBSA Cork snooker league.

Early games in the league belonged to Youghal CYMS who were unbeaten home or away, and the return of Aaron Tobin to the side certainly gave Brendan Cooney’s team a fantastic option.

It took a while for the Crucible to get going, but right up until the Christmas break last Thursday Jimmy Hussey’s talented side remain unbeaten with an exciting eight frames to seven frames black ball victory against Youghal CYMS in the Market House, gaining a valuable three away points.

The CBSA Cork snooker league is certainly dominated by both Youghal and the Crucible this year, where both sides have qualified comfortably for the league semi finals, but who will join these two sides is the burning question.

Three sides are now in a position to fill those remaining two spots, the AOH, Douglas ‘A’ and Youghal CYMS ‘B’, with the Morrison’s Island men of the AOH looking definite qualifiers and a battle between Youghal and Douglas to be played out in late January for the other spot. Whoever qualifies will be very hard pushed to make it through to the 2012 final, it really looks likely to be Youghal CYMS ‘A’ and last years runners up, the Crucible in the decider.

At under age level within CBSA this year there were two championships played, the Cork under 14 snooker championship was held at Fermoy CYMS and was eventually won by Youghal CYMS player Noel Landers, who won the event without dropping a frame en-route to victory.

The Cork under 16 snooker championships were held at Youghal CYMS and this was certainly a one man show, with Youghal CYMS player Aaron Tobin breezing his way through the field to secure the Cork county title.

The under age structure at Youghal CYMS is incredible and the standard of players coming through is frightening, from as young as ten years of age upwards are very capable players indeed.

2011 saw the return of top class professional snooker back in the Province for the first time in decades as ‘World Snookers’ Players Tour Championship 8 (PTC8) arrived in Killarney last October and Nine CBSA players entered into the event. The standard was very high and all but one Cork player Ryan Cronin made it through the qualifiying stages to play in the last 128 main event.

Ryan a well known player from the Crucible was unlucky in his match against Stephen Maguire in the main event, but put together a great run in the Amateur Cup, making it as far as the semi finals.

All credit to the Cork players who played in the top class professional tournament and if the PTC returns back to Killarney again next year, I am sure plenty of the ‘Rebel Cue-men’ will enter into the event.

Now Cork Snooker is in its break it will give the players and indeed their clubs time to think ahead to January where as well as league resumption the Munster Snooker Club Championship will start on Friday the 20th of January at the Gleneagle Hotel and there are seven Cork sides involved in the tournament and hopes are high for Cork success next year.

Previous championship winners in 2000 Youghal CYMS ‘A’ will be travelling to Killarney for a consecutive 25th year, which in itself is a fantastic achievement.

Youghal have every chance too, if things go their way , but the Cork favourites going into the event will certainly be the Crucible with Internationals Greg Casey, David Cassidy, Ryan Cronin, Daniel O’Regan and the newly acquired Garry O’Sullivan the Crucible look like potentially the team who could go all the way.

Next year also sees the National under 21 and under 19 championship finals in Cork, when they will be played in Douglas Snooker Club in March. The south side club will also host the Cork Close championships on the 19th of February and one other significant date in Cork for the new year is the 8th of January when the Cork under 19 snooker championships will be held at the Crucible snooker club.

So plenty of top quality snooker to look forward to in 2012, but for now from everyone involved in the game a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year. For all Cork snooker information check out www.corkbilliardsandsnookerassociation.com or for all snooker enquiries go to www.ribsa.ie

 

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YOUGHAL C.Y.M.S. under 14 snooker player Keane McCarthy is the winner of the 2010 ‘Wagon Wheel’ Cork under 14 Snooker Championship which was held in Fermoy CYMS last Sunday afternoon.

The tournament director for the event David Joyce, the current Cork Billiards and Snooker Association Chairman, David Joyce was congratulated on the manner in which he organised and ran the competition.

There was an entry of 15 players and every player can be praised for the immaculate attire which each of them turned up in and the sporting way in which they conducted themselves throughout the day.

After four hours play the Cork under 14 Championship reached the semi final stages where Keane McCarthy from the Youghal CYMS defeated Scott Donovan of the Crucible Snooker Club, by two frames to one.

In the other semi final Dean Callanan of the Crucible Snooker Club defeated his fellow club mate Calim O’Callaghan by two frames to nil.

Both Keane and Dean played excellent snooker in the final but the honours went to Keane on a score line of two frames to nil, thus bringing the title of ‘Under 14 Cork Champion’ and the silverware back to Youghal CYMS.

This week’s league games threw up some great results. The AOH were coasting at Morrison’s Island looking likely to take the scalp of the mighty Crucible, with both Greg Casey, Daniel O’Regan and David Cassidy all defeated by two frames to one it looked ominous for the cue men from Blarney Street, but this Crucible team have quality from one to five and in the end salvaged a great win after a powerful comeback.

Tony More won his game by three frames to nil over Tim Murphy levelling the match at six frames all and Ryan Cronin won by two frames to nil over Donncha Breathnach to secure a famous victory.

In the other matches Youghal CYMS ‘A’ had a breathtaking win over Douglas in the ‘Market House’ pushing themselves up one place in the league into an unassailable third place and a semi final place along with The Crucible and Shooters.

This defeat has almost certainly finished any hopes that Douglas had of a final four qualification spot, unless they Douglas cue men win their remaining three matches and Shooters suffer the AOH suffer three defeats, mathematically it is possible, but highly unlikely.

Shooters are safely through to the last four semi final matches and again showed their quality with an impressive victory over Youghal CYMS ‘B’ where Anthony O’Connor and David Forde recorded three frames to nil victories.

The disappointing news from the Cork Snooker Leagues point of view was another walk over conceded by Fermoy CYMS during week 11. That’s two walk over’s in two week’s which nobody likes to see, hopefully it is a minor blimp in what has been a fantastic return to competitive league snooker in the ‘Rebel County’.

The Cork Snooker league will play week 12 this coming Thursday night the 20th of January and then take a break for the Gleneagle Hotel-Ladbrokes Munster Snooker Club Championships in Killarney Jan 28/29/30 and will remain on a break the following week also, as the Gleneagle Hotel-Ladbrokes All Ireland Snooker Club Championships which will be also held in Killarney on Feb 4/5/6th.

The obvious reason for this break is if any of the Cork Snooker League Teams finish in the last four of the ‘Munster Championships’ they will qualify for the ‘All Ireland Championships’.

The League resumes after this break with week 13 on Thursday the 10th of February.

League Results Week 11

AOH 6 – 8 Crucible

Shane O’Mahony 2 – 1 Greg Casey

Lloyd Myers  2 – 1 David Cassidy

Kevin O’Leary  2 – 1 Daniel O’Regan

Tim Murphy  0 – 3 Tony Moore

Donncha Breathnach 0- 2 Ryan Cronin

Shooters 8 – 2 Youghal CYMS ‘B’

Gary Bracken  1 – 1 Christopher Cooney

Anthony O’Connor 3 – 0 James Hennessy

Thomas Greany 1 – 1 Trevor Flaherty

Dave Forde  3 – 0 Michael Hennessy

Fermoy 0 – 8 Youghal CYMS ‘C’

W/O

Youghal CYMS ‘A’ 8 – 1 Douglas

Chris Lyons  1 – 0 Donal Murphy

Derek Aherne  2 – 0 Gerry O’Sullivan

Brendan Cooney 3 – 0 Karl Busteed

Adrian Landers 2 – 1 Finbarr Wallace

Breaks:

Daniel O’Regan (Crucible) 61

Dave Forde (Shooters) 69

Anthony O’Connor (Shooters) 55

Brendan Cooney (Youghal A) 54

Cork Snooker League Table after Week 11

Played Won Lost Points

Crucible   11  10  1    10

Shooters   11  8  3     8

Youghal CYMS ‘A’ 11  8  3     8

AOH    11  7  4     7

Douglas   11  4  7     4

Fermoy CYMS 11  3 8     3

Youghal CYMS ‘B’ 11 3  8     3

Youghal CYMS ‘C’ 11 1  10   1

Fixtures for Week 12 of the Cork Snooker League Thursday the 20th of Jan

Shooters v Youghal CYMS ‘B’

Douglas v Youghal CYMS ‘A’

Youghal CYMS ‘C’ V Fermoy CYMS

The Crucible v The AOH

Future Fixtures

The Cork Under 19 Snooker Championship will be held in the Crucible Snooker Club on February the 13th

Snooker League Semi-Finals will be held on February the 24th

Cork Snooker League Final on March 3rd. (Venue to be decided)

Orme Shield Snooker Team Comp will be held at the Youghal CYMS On 26th and 27th of March.

The Gleneagle Hotel-Ladbrokes Munster Snooker Club Championships that start Friday week the 28th of January has released the schedule of play for the tournament.