Maynooth Are Ireland's 3rd Level Education Top Dogs for 2024!

After 2 days of top class snooker action on Friday & Saturday in Celbridge Snooker Club the University of Maynooth took home a clean sweep of all trophies available, but that doesn't come close to telling the full story.

On Friday 1st March 4 teams of 4 players, (2 from Maynooth and 1 each from SETU Carlow & TU Dublin) battled through the snow to reach the Celbridge Snooker Club for an early start to the All-Ireland Teams competition.  Each team played each other once in a group stage with the top 2 playing each other in the Cup final and the next 2 playing in the Shield final.  

Before they got started though they received some nice words of encouragement from the legendary Fergal O'Brien.  Fergal was generous with his time and the players were all grateful for his support.

Maynooth A team showed their strength from the outset with Adam Halnon and Ryan McGuirk racing through their frames.  There's no shame in this for their opponents as they are 2 of Ireland's best young snooker players and later this month they'll both compete in the European u21 Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia.  The winner of that event will receive a 2 year Tour Card for the professional circuit, so the standard is high!

They were ably supported by their team mate Cathal O'Neill and their captain Blake Monahan, advancing them to the final with some impressive results.  In that final they were faced with the tough prospect of the SETU Carlow team led by their captain Jack Scully and featuring Brian Purcell, Danny Brennan and Sin Chun Hei, (Jeremy).

This left the Shield final pairing of Maynooth B vs TU Dublin.  The Maynooth team was led by Glen Morahan and featured Cian Foran, Ben Kinsella and Kasey Clark, whilst TU Dublin had Declan Connelly as captain and featured Keeley Hogan, Daniel Colgan McCabe & Jason Samuel.

Both finals were played simultaneously. The experience of the Maynooth A team shone through on the big occasion as they quickly achieved the 11 frames needed to take the Cup from a gallant SETU Carlow team.  The Shield was a much tighter and tense affair though as the lead changed hands a couple of times.

A large crowd gathered around the tables as the final frames were being played out.  At one stage it seemed that a dramatic black ball fight would be needed to decide the winner, but up stepped Kasey Clark to sink the black that gave Maynooth B the win.

A fantastic day of snooker was enjoyed by all the players and they're already looking forward to the 2025 renewal.  A huge thanks goes to Celbridge Snooker Club for hosting the event and to John Tobin of Snooker & Billiards Ireland for coming along to act as referee for the final, and indeed to SBI for funding the brand new trophies and shields that will hopefully be used for many years to come.

Well done once again to all participants.  It would be great to have more teams involved for next year so please get in touch with your Sports Officer if you would like to know more about these competitions.