No joy for New Institute in All-Ireland Club Snooker Championships

After winning their tenth Munster Club title the previous weekend, New Institute Snooker Club had high hopes of doing well in the All Ireland Championships in Killarney last weekend.

Nenagh won the All-Ireland on three previous occasions in 2008, 2016 and 2019 but were up against 34 other teams from all four provinces in both the premier and championship divisions.

The New Institute ‘A’ team consisting of captain Mark Walsh, Brendan O’Donoghue, Tony Seymour, Paidi Kelly and Tom Gleeson started well in the group stages with three wins out of four to qualify for the quarterfinal stages where they faced St Johns of Limerick. It was always going to be a close match and despite beating them in the Munster group stages the previous week, this time it went St John’s way on a final frame decider.

Kilkenny beat Druminass (Northern Ireland) in the final to lift the title this year.

The New Institute ‘C’ team consisting of Dave Garrett, Billy Kelly, Tom Ford, Martin Kelly and Damien Long qualified for the All Ireland’s by making the semi-finals of the Munster Championships, and got through the group stage with two wins out of four, to make the last 16 of the championships where they were beaten in a close contest by eventual champions Blackstaff (Northern Ireland).

In other news the Billy Telford Memorial Cup was won by Brendan O’Donoghue where he beat Noel Landers (Crucible) 3-1. Brendan has now done the double in winning both Munster and All Ireland Singles competitions.

Overall, it was a decent outing for the Nenagh club and look forward to next years championships. Thanks to Laura Barry for live-streaming all our matches and all the support that we have received over the last few months in preparation for these competitions.

Don’t forget coaching will restart over next couple of weeks. Contact Tony or Brendan through Facebook page for details.