THE CHAMPIONSHIP

The Northern Ireland Snooker Championship hosted and sponsored by the Green Baize Snooker Club, 28 Markethill Road, Armagh, attracted 110 participants from all parts of Northern Ireland.  The National Association pondered when Mr Jim Hawthorne, the proprietor of the club, made the offer to host the Championship as the event had never been held in Armagh before and because of the lengthy travelling distance for the main stream players, the Association’s concern was “would the players travel this long distance?”, but their fears were misconstrued, as it turned out 110 players is the largest number of competitors on the Championship for some years.

The Tournament was seeded with the top 8 players and on the first weekend of play, two of the top seeds were eliminated – Jordan Brown from Fountain, Antrim (then No 1 seed), by Gary Erwin from Minnesota, Ballymena and Colin Bingham (then No 5 seed) by Connor Byrne from Colin’s own club – Fountain, Antrim.

 The second weekend saw two more seeds disappear – Declan Lavery (then No 6 seed) lost to Alistair Wilson of QE1, Belfast and Ryan McQuillan (then No 7 seed) was beaten by Paul Hanna of Belfast.  When play finished late on the second weekend, only 8 players remained and we were now down to the quarter finals, which were played on Saturday 26th at 12 noon.  The pairings and results were as follows.

Quarter Final Pairings and Results - Played Sat 26 May 2007

Gary Erwin

Ballymena

2

v

4

Jonathan Nelson 

Larne

Colin Anderson

Ballymena  

1

v

4

Patrick Wallace 

Dungannon

Joe Meara 

Banbridge

4

v

1

Paul Lenfestey 

Lisburn

Ronan McCarthey

Ballymena 

1

v

4

Kieran McMahon

Newry

The Semi Finals followed on the same day at 3pm best of 11 frames, Patrick Wallace playing Jonathan Nelson which Patrick won by 6 frames to 3, Joe Meara against Kieran McMahon when Meara came out the victor by 6 frames to 4.

The scene was then set for the encounter Wallace v Meara over 19 frames to determine who would lift the greatest prize of each year in Northern Ireland snooker.  The outcome of this match had a massive bearing on the possibilities ahead for both players.  Whichever player came out the victor, it meant he would be in No 1 spot in rankings and have an opportunity to go on the World Snooker Main Tour, so the complete match held a lot of tension for both players.  These are the frame scores below to show how the games emerged. 

Wallace scores first.

 (68-48) (19-100) (25-70) (87-14) (73-45) (2-86) (1-81) (65-53) (32-78) (71-31) (78-51) (67-13) (62-28) (68-30) (69-73) (112-17)

 Patrick Wallace winning by 10 frames to 6.  Patrick has now decided and been accepted on the 2007/08 World Main Tour. 

At the prize distribution, Mr Jim Hawthorne congratulated both players on reaching the final and thanked all the Association Officers and Referees for the efficiency of their work to produce what he considered to be a magnificent tournament.  He also wished to express his appreciation to the Armagh City and District Council for their support

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