On Sunday , February 24th the Pat O’Sullivan Memorial Billiards Tournament of 2008 took place. There was a fine entry of 24 players for the competition which took place in  Kilkenny Snooker Club.

The first round produced some fantastic draws with the pick of them being Phil Martin and local favorite Larry Drennan. Larry just edged out Phil in a great match. This a complete list of results from the first round:

Larry Drennan                400  387          Phil Martin

Robert McCrum               354  400          Victor O’Gorman

Pat Madigan                    301  400          James Bateman

Darren McNamee            373  400          Brendan Devlin

Jason Dowling                400  249          Anthony O’Flaherty

Timmy Murphy                400  371          Conor O’Dwyer

Tom Kearns                    400  395          Paul McLaughlin

Tom Enright                    294  400          Joe Doheny

This brought us down to the last sixteen and the matches and results are as follows: 

James Moore            400    323          Darragh Martin

Willie Abbot               400   302          Larry Drennan

Pat O’Flaherty           340    400          Victor O’Gorman

James Bateman         400    358          Brendan Devlin

Eugene Hughes         400    323          Billy Talbot

Jason Dowling            400   324          Shay O’Brie

Timmy Murphy            336    400         Tom Kearns

Liam Byrne                  360    400         Joe Doheny

James Moore had a break of 137 in his match against Darragh Martin and put on a performance that had everyone looking over their shoulders.

Into the quarter finals and the matches and results were:

          Willie Abbot                    273     400          James Moore

          James Bateman              400     239          Victor O’Gorman

          Eugene Hughes              400     296          Jason Dowling

          Tom Kearns                    400      242          Joe Doheny

The semi-final line up and results are as follows:

                    James Bateman     400     384          James Moore

                    Eugene Hughes     400     368          Tom Kearns

James Moore and James Bateman played a tight match in the semi-final with James Bateman edging out the contest by just only 16 points.

In the other semi final Eugene and Tom were locked in battle. Into the last hundred and Tom looked like  knocking out Eugene while he needed 32 to win the match but Eugene got in a made a superb break of 95 to close out the match.

Into the final between James Bateman and Eugene Hughes. James got off to a good start and got ahead by 200 early on. Eugene seemed to be out of sorts at this stage. But then Eugene found his form and rattled off numerous big breaks including a 127 break and ran out a good winner by 50 points. The final score was:

Eugene Hughes       400   350    James Bateman

Our congratulations go to Eugene on his win and also we should give a special mention to the fact that is Eugene’s 3rd year in a row to win the Pat O’Sullivan memorial Billiards Tournament. This is a very special achievement. All we can say about Eugene is that form is temporary but class is permanent.

The high break prize for the competition was won by James Moore with a fantastic 137 break. James kindly donated his prize of €60 to the juniors of Kilkenny Snooker Club to run a junior competition. This was a very fine gesture so thanks very much.

Noel O’Sullivan(Pat’s brother) came down to present the prizes. He watched the final and was thrilled to have seen Eugene play the game like the class act he is.

Our thanks go to Eugene in the regard that we use of his club for the entire day at no charge and all the tables were in top condition.

And finally our thanks go to Brendan Devlin who had a major role in not only running this tournament but every tournament in the billiards calendar.

Hope to see you all again next year.

James Bateman