Rebel Snooker

In this the last REBEL SNOOKER report for this season we honour TIMMY Murphy who is again the toast of the Cork Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) in Billiards as he retained his ‘Cork individual billiards championship’ title with a win over fellow AOH clubman Lloyd Myers in the AOH hall last Thursday evening.

Timmy is of course a well renowned international billiards player and when he notched up the final points required he closed the CBSA season in a year when the dominance of the Crucible in the Cork leagues, both first and second division, plus success in the Orme Shield and of course lifting the coveted ‘Munster Snooker Club Championship’s’ and Youghal continued their dominance at underage level winning all three age categories as well as the adult team billiards and the AOH’s Gary Bracken defended his Cork close snooker title is some style in Douglas snooker club.

There was a decent entry into the Cork individual Billiards tournament, with a large entry from the host club the AOH. Lloyd who was also runner up last year defeated fellow AOH clubman Derek O’Neill in one semi-final, while the eventual winner Timmy Murphy defeated Brendan Cooney from Youghal CYMS in the other semi-final.

Congratulations to Timmy, they say class is permanent, well that definitely is the case when it comes to the ‘Maestro’ of Cork billiards.

Meanwhile at national level, Cork snooker had great cause for celebration again last weekend when Youghal CYMS star Aaron Tobin lifted another national title when he blew the field apart in Carlow to claim the national Under 19 title.

Tobin has won all the national underage titles now as well as all the Cork county titles and on his way en-route to victory the talented Cork man defeated Oisin Harte in the last 16, Dylan Carey in the quarter-final, fellow Youghal CYMS clubman Kenny Wight in the semi-final and won the final by four frames to one against Andrew Doherty.

As well as snooker in the competitive field Aaron is also selected to the last four of the new Setanta Sports ‘Lucky Break’ programme with Ken Doherty. Aaron was in Sheffield last week at the Crucible Theatre as part of the programme, where he would of got a flavour of what it is like at the very top end of the sport, maybe one day he could be on the green baize in that theatre of dreams.

Next week will be the last Cork Snooker report of the 2012/13 season and we can review in-depth the season for Cork snooker and its players.

We will look back on the highlights of a year where the cue-men from the ‘Rebel County’ really came to the fore.

With Championship weekend not too far away we will keep an eye on any Cork involvement at international and national level, with the next European Championship’s in Poland only weeks away.

We will have a little look ahead to an award recognising the achievements of the ‘Crucible Snooker Club’ and get the thoughts of the Hussey family as their trophy cabinets are bursting at the seams after an astonishing season for the men from Blarney Street.

As the season closes for the CBSA there is still one main independent event to come to Leeside as the ‘Shooters Cork Open’ returns in June and the cream of Irish amateur snooker will land in Blackpool for what should be another top quality field looking to win the title from the defending champion Mark Tuite.

It has been a great year yet again and that is down to the dedication of the CBSA Committee members, the sponsors, the club owners and most importantly the players.

The CBSA and Munster Snooker Club Roll of Honour 2012/13

Competition                                        Date                Venue                          Winner

CBSA Cork County U14 Snooker     December        Fermoy              Noel Landers, Youghal CBSA Cork County U16 Snooker   October           Youghal        Adam Fitzgerald, Youghal

CBSA Cork County U19 Snooker     November       Crucible           Aaron Tobin, Youghal

CBSA Cork Close                              January            Douglas           Gary Bracken, AOH

Munster Snooker Club Ch’ship          January            Killarney         The Crucible

The Orme Shield                                 February          Youghal          The Crucible

CBSA League Div 1                           2012/13           Douglas           The Crucible

CBSA League Div 2                           2012/13           H and A          The Crucible

CBSA U17 Teams                              March              Youghal          Youghal CYMS

An Tostal Billiards                              March              Youghal          Youghal CYMS

CBSA Cork Individual Billiards        April                AOH               Tim Murphy, AOH

Cork Snooker

Derek Kiely

YOUGHAL CYMS are the An Tostal ‘Cork Billiards and Snooker Association’ (CBSA) Cork County billiards champions for the second year in-a-row after defeating the AOH in the final last Wednesday evening in the ‘Market House’ the home of the Youghal team.

Brendan Cooney, William Kelly and Aaron Tobin were the victorious three in the end and the game that is so rarely played competitively outside of International level these days.

Youghal won the final by two matches to one and now the only remaining tournament now is the Cork Individual ‘Billiards Championships’ which will be held this Wednesday and Thursday night at the AOH where the defending champion Timmy Murphy from the AOH Club will look to see off all challengers.

Our Club of the week is Shooters Snooker Club, Blackpool.

Opened on the 11^th of March last year following a one year spell on the Watercourse Road, this venue has captured the imagination of many young players in the Blackpool area and now with a membership of over 540 people in just over a year speaks for itself.

Co-Manager of Shooters Joe Dennehy told Cork Snooker “We have a large membership and it is absolutely free, we give out our membership cards and run a rewarding loyalty system where the players play and pay for nine hours and get the tenth hour absolutely free which is a good incentive and just this week we have started of a special offer of giving players before 6pm a free hour if they pay for two hours, so we are trying to give everyone a chance to get on the tables here at Shooters”.

The club with its ten top class Riley championship tables, three pool tables, games room with supreme pool table, chill out zone and two massage chairs is co-owned by John Paul Crowley, Martin Canning and Stephen Murray and is running well.

To be honest the place reeks of snooker and holds a very unique atmosphere which creates the perfect ambience to play a game on the green baize.

Last year Shooters held the very first ‘Cork Open Snooker Championships’ since the 1980’s and along with the top Republic of Ireland Internationals such as Rodney Goggins and the cream of the crop in Cork turned up in numbers to play in this event.

In the end it was the current European Masters champion Mark Tuite from the Cue Club in Killarney who took the title, defeating the excellent Ryan Cronin from the Crucible in the final and Mark will return to Shooters on the 16^th of June to defend his title as the number one seed.

Entries for this year’s Cork Open at Shooters will be closing on the 25^th of May and the entry fee for the event is €20 Adults and €10 Juvenille.

“When we have events like the Cork Open it shows that the club is capable of holding major snooker events and the Cork Open is open to all players. We had two teams in this year’s CBSA Cork snooker league and we want to enter more teams next year because we have so many young players here at Shooters and at the end of every month we host juvenile competitions and we are looking at introducing coaching for the younger players too, so it’s all good at the moment” said Mr Dennehy.

The fee’s for Shooters snooker club are excellent too, €6 from 11.00am until 6pm and €8 from 6pm to 11.30pm, seven days a week.

For more information on events and rates and availability including private room hire, food and beverages ring 021-4308434

For all the latest info on Cork Snooker check out www.corkbilliardsandsnooker.comor check out www.ribsa.ie

Last weekend our National Coach PJ Nolan was invited to be the lead coach at the World Snooker Cue Zone on the opening two days in the Crucible in Sheffield. The Cue Zones area showcase for the general public during their stay at major championships which is also used as a filming area by BBC TV.

The WPBSA is responsible for delivering Cue Zones atTV events with its objective to promote the World Snooker Coaching Programme and to enhance the quality of delivery by its coaches as it will be a shop window for the top coaches to promote themselves. 

PJ said the atmosphere around the Cue Zone and the Crucible was electric all weekend and it was an honour to be invited back again by World Snooker to lead the Cue Zone last weekend. I really liked meeting the WPBSA team again and their motto of growing the game is truly working with the amount of players at the Cue Zone this weekend.

It seemed that people from all around the world travelled to Sheffield at the weekend to see the return of the rocket Ronnie O Sullivan in his first round win against Marcus Campbell and to see young Michael White become the real star of the game in his fantastic win over Mark Williams.

The public practiced some of PJ's training routines and were awarded WPBSA medals and certificates to all who cleared the routine. Some routines were against the clock in speed snooker and some were about the amount of balls potted. There were some RIBSA Irish winners this year in the Cue Zone with Stephen Walsh from Carrick, Ray Power and Tom O Driscoll from Waterford all winning gold medals in clearing the routines with some brilliant potting displays.

Steve Davis, Jason Ferguson, Reg Davies, Ray Curtis, Steve Mallender, Darren Presgrave and Chris Lovell were also on hand to make this 2013 Cue Zone the biggest and best ever World Snooker Cue Zones. One of the star International players who attended this weekend's Cue Zone was Tatjana Vasiljeva who is the 2012 EBSA European Ladies Snooker Champion. Tatjana earlier this year became herself a World Snooker Coach and she cleared a great routine on the table and was awarded a gold medal and certificate by PJ.

If any player or club would like to like to book a coaching session with PJ Nolan who is one of the world's leading coaches they should email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for his next available date.

The cost of holding a RIBSA session is €20.00 per hour coaching time plus €15.00 per hour travel time from Carlow plus tolls and parking. If you would like to travel to the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow you can avail of a 2hr session for €55.00 which includes Lights, DVD of the lesson and Technique profile. 

This week our National Coach PJ Nolan held a Snooker Coaching Zone in The New Institute Snooker Club in Nenagh County Tipperary. Among the players whom attended varied from former Irish Junior International Players to new up and coming Juniors to experienced club players who represented their club in Killarney this year.

Patsy Farrell is the main reason the junior game is booming in Nenagh in building up a team of juniors who are eager to learn and are focused on in competing in R.I.B.S.A. events over the next few years. Patsy had organised this day to train his players who included Emily Talbot who has the passion and dedication to become a top lady player in the next coming years.

The snooker room in Nenagh contains five beautiful match snooker tables with a great atmosphere that is steeped in tradition so much so that the club has produced a number of champions over the years including the current number 1 player David Hogan who made a 147 in the recent ranking event plus also the winner of the last two ranking events Brendan O' Donoghue who was on hand throughout the coaching zone in helping the players with their training.

PJ used his laser to get the players on the line of aim and the players practiced with his 360 cue in perfecting their cue delivery. The 360 cue is the best coaching aid on the market which has a spring in the butt of the cue and the key is to help players develop a smooth delivery without the spring bending.

The members also practiced PJ's training routines and Patsy Farrell was impressed with the quality of the coaching on the day and said the players really enjoyed the Cue Zone and they learnt new tips on improving their game more. If any player or club would like to like to book a coaching session with PJ Nolan who is one of the world's leading coaches they should email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for his next available date.

Action from the Cue Zone

The cost of holding a RIBSA session is €20.00 per hour coaching time plus €15.00 per hour travel time from Carlow plus tolls and parking. If you would like to travel to the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow you can avail of a 2hr session for €55.00 which includes Lights, DVD of the lesson and Technique profile.