THE All-Ireland Snooker Team Championships were held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Killarney from January 29 until February 2.

The A Section was won by New Institute from Nenagh who beat last year’s winners, Blackstaff A 3-2 in the quarters. In the final, beating Kilkenny Shed 3-1 in a great match.
The B Section had local teams Blackstaff B, C, D and the Roddies club with each of those teams coming through the group stages.

Blackstaff C and Blackstaff D lost to Pioneers Blue and Roddies A respectively at the last 16 stage.

AOH beat Roddies A 3-2 in the quarters in a nail-biter, leaving Blackstaff A the sole representative from Belfast remaining after beating Celbridge SC in the quarters.

Blackstaff B beat AOH in the semis with great performances from Danny Boyle, Sean Paul McAuley and Connell Doherty to put the Springfield Road outfit into the All-Ireland final where they would play Pioneers Blue who won a tight semi-final against Dalys from Derry.

In the final, Danny Boyle was in tremendous form with two breaks of 60 and 50 against Brian McPhee to give his side a 1-0 lead.

Stephen McGurn was very impressive in his win over Clayton Creegan with some great matchplay snooker to extend the lead to 2-0.

Dave O’Neill and Andrew Doherty played a high-quality match with both players playing fantastic snooker.

With the game tied at 2-2, Andrew produced a great 68 break to reduce the score to 2-1 in the match overall.

Sean Paul McAuley raced into a 2-0 lead against Ivor Fitzpatrick, playing top-class snooker. Ivor fought back to make it 2-2, taking the next two frames to level the match.

Connell Doherty and Kevin O’Brien had a great game and both players were in great form. Connell was 2-1 up and nine in front with 18 remaining. With pressure building, he held his nerve, potting the winning balls to capture the All-Ireland honours.
This is Blackstaff’s third All-Ireland title in recent years - a brilliant achievement for the Belfast club.

Blackstaff B team captain Marty Heaney, who managed the team and did a brilliant job, thanked his teammates for their great performance throughout the competition, plus club owner Seamus Flynn, the organisers, referees and sponsors: SFD Forwarding & Shipping Group, and Custom Cues - thank you, it’s much appreciated.