Doyle Wins Victor O’ Gorman Classic

The second billiards ranking event of the season took place on Sunday 9th October in Celbridge Snooker Club which was also introduced a trophy for the event known as the Victor O’ Gorman classic. Fittingly it was Victor’s practicing partner and fellow Dun Laoighaire man Wayne Doyle who had the honour of winning the first special tournament in memory of the four time Irish Billiards Champion.

The format was 400 up which also had a 90 minute time limit, nine players took part with the big suprise of the day coming in a hard earned win for Rathkeale’s Anthony O’Flaherty over reigning national champion and current No.1 Aidan Murray by 270-243 despite Aidan getting breaks of 50 and 51 but Anthony stayed focused to edge it and went on to defeat John Kehoe in the semis who had a good win over Brendan Devlin in their quarter final meeting.

Anthony’s opponent in the final was former Irish champion Wayne Doyle who had wins over Aonghus McAnally, Joe Doheny and Larry Drennan respectively with breaks of 68, 79, 56 and 57 along the way to book his place in the final.

The game started nip and tuck as both players struggled early on to gain a foothold on the game but it was Wayne who scored a good bit heavier than Anthony when on the table and gradually Wayne started to pull away from Anthony to compile breaks of 52 and 54 despite not playing at his very best but enough to close out the game and win the first ever Victor O’ Gorman classic which was a big success.

Victor’s son Gary O’ Gorman was on hand to present the trophy to Wayne in honour of his late father and made a speech of how it was fantastic to have a special event in his dad’s memory and how it was fitting that a fellow Dun Laoighaire man won the very first of this brand new tournament in memory of a great man and billiards player. Thanks must also go to Aidan Murray who refereed the final as well as having the consolation of winning the plate.

Thanks to Phil Martin and Celbridge snooker club as well as John Kehoe as Tournament Director. The next billiards outing is the Timmy Murphy memorial on the 30th October also to be held in Celbridge Snooker Club, Brendan Devlin is tournament director.

Pre Quarters:

• Wayne Doyle  340-294  Aonghus McAnally

Quarter finals:

• Anthony O’Flaherty  270-243  Aidan Murray
• John Kehoe   297-148   Brendan Devlin
• Larry Drennan   335-314   Jason Dowling
• Wayne Doyle   400-247   Joe Doheny

Semi finals:

• Anthony O’Flaherty   348-274   John Kehoe
• Wayne Doyle   400-150   Larry Drennan

Final:

• Wayne Doyle   400-198   Anthony O’Flaherty

High Breaks:

• Wayne Doyle  68, 79, 56, 57, 52, 54
• John Kehoe  67
• Anthony O’Flaherty  57
• Aidan Murray   50, 51