Juniors

Unless a concentrated effort is made and taken on board by the Northern Ireland

Association for the start of next years Junior Events, it is possible that the

The penultimate U 21 junior snooker event took place at the Coach Snooker Club Rooms

on Saturday 26th April '08, the big guns were all there. At the quarter-final stage John Dickson

from the West Club had an impressive 3--2 victory over Johnny Kells, Bangor. Fifteen year old

Declan Brennan, Cue Club beat John Fry, Fountain, Antrim 3 frames to nil. Sixteen year old

Jamie Martin Fountain, Antrim played well to vanquish Aaron Doran by 3 frames to 1.

Jordan Brown also from Fountain, Antrim was in top gear, making breaks of 115 and 79 in his 3 frames to 2 victory over Michael Smyth, which, even though Jordan had the two good breaks, the game still went to the last frame.

In the Semi-Finals Declan Brennan beat Jamie Martin 3--1 and Jordan Brown overpowered

Jordan Brown's experience was evident in the Final as he had a convincing 4 frames to 1

Con Egan our J.D. thanked Mr Colin Carlisle the Proprietor and the Coach Club staff for all their help and wished the club every success for the future.

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The Junior Under 19 Ranking positions were established on Saturday 19th April '08

at the Fountain Snooker Club - Antrim who were hosts to the last under 19 event of

the 2007/08 season. The Fountain club is always a very popular venue and so all the

The quarter-final pairings matched together: Aaron Doran and Michael Smyth both

from the Parkside club-Lurgan. James Begley-Belfast against Chris Cunningham-Rafters

Jamie Martin from the host club had Ryan Murphy for his opponent. Also from the

again their fine facilities for the NI Association to hold this under19 event.

path to the final stages. The eight successful in reaching the quarters-were:

Jamie Martin (Fountain Club, Antrim 3 - 1 David Smith (Fountain Club, Antrim)

Chris Cunningham (Rafters, Ballymoney 3 - 2 James Begley (West Club, Belfast)

The QE1 Snooker Club, Castlereagh Road, Belfast were hosts to the uppermost

division of our Junior snooker section the Under 21s, on Saturday 8^th March 2008.

This was the 3^rd ranking event in the Under 21 category and the pace is now

“hotting-up” for the high places on the U 21 ranking table.

The points earned at the QE1 club has made a difference to the positioning at the top of the table, were now only six points separate the top four players, (see our rankings in the junior section). So the pressure is on, with only one more ranking

event and the NI Championship left on our calendar for the under 21 section, to determine who the three players will be to go to the World Under 21 Championship at Reims, France, from the17^th to 30^th July 2008.

The following results are from the quarter-finals onward “Quarters”

Jonny Kells (Bangor) 3 v 0 C Byrne (Antrim)

John Fry (Antrim) 1 v 3 D Brennan (Newry)

Michael Smyth (Lurgan) 3 v 0 M Scullion (Antrim)

Jamie Martin (Antrim) 1 v 3 J Brown (Antrim)

Semi-Finals

D Brennan 1 v 3 J Brown

J Kells 3 v 1 M Smyth

FINAL

J Brown 4 v 1 J Kells

Breaks recorded during the day were:

J Brown [113, 104, 82, 63.]

D Brennan [75]

M Smyth [57, 48.]

Mr Con Egan J.D. on behalf of the N.I.B&S.A. thanked the

QE1 club for the privilege of using their excellent facilities

and also the staff for all their co-operation.

UNDER 16 RANKING EVENT NUMBER (3)

Jamie Martin wins his 2nd Junior Tournament in a row. Last weekend he captured the Northern Ireland under 18 Champions title and this weekend Saturday 9th February '08 he won the under 16 ranking event - number "3".

The cream of the young talented under 16 snooker players assembled at the Drumgor snooker club and when play reached the quarter- final stage the line-up of pairings

were: Gary Johnston Larne [1 v 3] Declan Brennan Newry

Galvin Brammeld Larne [3 v 2] Hugh Murdock Drumaness

William Lowes N/Ards [1 v 3] Chris Cunningham B/Money

Jamie Martin Antrim [3 V 0 ] Tommy Toal Drumgor

Semi-final

Declan Brennan [3 v 1] Galvin Brammeld

Jamie Martin [3 v 0] Chris Cunningham

Final

Jamie Martin -- V -- Declan Brennan

This the 5th Junior final this season for Jamie and the 4th for Declan.

This is the 2nd final they have met in. On 5th Jan '08 at Rafters Club

in the under 21 event Declan had a 4 -- 1 convincing victory over

Jamie, but this time at the Drumgor club, Jamie reversed the tables

to take the top ranking points by winning 4 frames to 2

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Northern Ireland U19 Championship

The cream of our Under 19 junior starlets assembled in the Parkside snooker club on Saturday 23rd Feb '08 seeking to become the 2007/2008 Northern Ireland Under 19 Champion.

The name championship seems to give incentive to the young challengers which always assures of a good turn-out and the reward is two fold. (a) the winner is guaranteed the number one spot to represent Northern Ireland at the European Under 19 Championship. (b) the winner will also have the privilege of competing for the All Ireland Under 19 Title later in the Year.

The early rounds delivered no real shocks and the usual top seeds made it through to the last sixteen and the results for this round, quarters and semis were:

Last - 16 Quarter - Finals

Connor Byrne 3 - 1 Michael Connor Connor Byrne 3 - 1 Declan Brennan

Jamie Magill 0 - 3 Declan Brennan

Nathan Harvey 2 - 3 Robert Hamilton Robert Hamilton 3 - 0 Jamie Martin

Jamie Martin 3 - 2 Aaron Doran

Dylan Murray 3 - 1 Matthew Scullion Dylan Murray 3 - 2 Gavin Doran

Mark Devlin 1 - 3 Gavin Doran

Aaron Gault 1 - 3 Chris Cunningham Chris Cunningham 1 - 3 Michael Smyth

Michael Smyth 3 - 1 Michael McMahon

Semi - Finals

Connor Byrne 3 - 2 Robert Hamilton

Dylan Murray 0 - 3 Michael Smyth

FINAL

Connor Byrne V Michael Smyth

In the best of a 7 frames match, the scores were level at 2 frames each,

Michael won the fifth frame, play in the sixth when down to a black ball

fight Connor missed an easy straight black to let the game slip from his grasp.

So local club player Michael Smyth became Champion by defeating Connor

Byrne from Fountain club - Antrim, 4 frames till 2.

Michael now goes to Glasgow to the European U 19 Championship

with Connor Byrne and Dylan Murray (Rafters) as they are the

number 1 and number 3 respectively on our current U 19 Ranking

list, Our best wishes go with them.

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UNDER 14 RANKING EVENT No (4)

Young junior snooker player Gary Johnston from the Fountain snooker club, LARNE

on Saturday 1st March 2008 at the Westway club Falls Rd - Belfast won his 4th junior

Northern Ireland Tournament this season. The points accumulated by these four

brilliant wins puts Gary a street ahead of any of the other " UP and COMINGS" on

the 14 year old ranking list and also helps to fill up his trophy cabinet by collecting

the top award each time.

It is young talent like this (and there are others) that many of our association are

eager to see our qualified coaches taking on board to harness and nurture any

possible talent within the 14,15 and 16 age groups that could be an UP and COMING

of the future.

The Westway snooker and bingo complex was once again the venue for this fourth

under 14 ranking event, which always is a popular choice to our young artists where

good conditions is the order of the day. those making it through to the quarter-finals

were:

Gary Johnston (Larne) 3 v 1 Kyle Reid (Westway)

Sean McGuckin (Larne) 3 V 1 Connor McCormack Westway

Thomas Burke (Westway) 1 V 3 Calvin Brammeld (Larne)

Ciehlan Doherty (Westway) 2 V 3 Stephen Hall (Belfast)

Semi-Finals

Gary Johnston 3 V 0 Sean McGuckin

Calvin Brammeld 3 V 0 Stephen Hall

FINAL

Gary Johnston 3 V 2 Calvin Brammeld

Congratulations to both players for generating a good final which could have

gone either way. The score being two frames each and with very few points

separating the players in the last frame, Calvin missed an easy pot mid way

through the colours which allowed Gary to take the last three balls and win

by the black ball.

The Westway manager Marty presented the trophies and congratulated all the

young players on their tidy appearances and good behaviour. Our junior

Director Con Egan thanked the Westway Club and all the staff for their hospitality.

Event number (9)

The second half of our Junior calendar commenced after the Christmas break on the 5th January '08, at the Rafters snooker club - Ballymoney with an Under 21 Competition. Again all the top players in this category were participating, those who got through to the last eight were: Michael Smyth (Parkside) playing Johnny Kells (Bangor), Matthew Scullion playing Jamie Martin both from (Fountain), Declan Brennan (Cue Club) against Jordan Brown (Fountain) and Chris Cunningham from the host club (Rafters) opposing Aaron Doran (Parkside) -- Kells beat Smyth [3-0], Martin beat Scullion [3-2], Brennan beat Brown [3-2], this was a notable win for Declan as Jordan is currently number 2 in our senior ranking list, Doran defeated Cunningham by 3 frames to nil

In the semi-finals J Martin had a good [3-2] win over J Kells and D Brennan beat A Doran

by the same [3-2] margin....

D Brennan overpowered J Martin in the final by 4 frames to 1 and

secured victory, the trophy and take full ranking points.

Mr Uel Wylie the joint Proprietor of the club presented the trophies.

Mr Con Egan then thanked Uel for the privilege of using their clubs

first-class facilities, he also thanked all the parents for their continued

support

Under 14