Successful 2023 at New Institute Snooker Club

By Tony Seymour, Club Chairperson

2023 started off fantastic fashion for the club in winning their fourth All Ireland Premier Club Championship in Killarney. This followed the ‘B’ team making the final of the Munster Championship the week before.

Huge pride of place went to Brendan O’Donoghue on winning his sixth national senior title and a three-in-a-row, a national record that will stand long into the future.

It was also an outstanding year for Patsy Farrell representing the club, who won both the Over 55’s National Ranking Championships and the Ranking Series in 2023.

Also of note was Mark Gleeson’s win at the National Intermediate Series and his brother Noel picking up his first Under 21 Ranking tournament title and maintaining his no. 1 status.

Other significant wins were those of Dave Garrett, winning the National Challenge Series and number one ranking, and Darren Delaney who won the Irish National Challenge Championship.

On the international front, New Institute were represented by both Brendan O’Donoghue and Mark Walsh. Brendan got to both the quarter finals of both the European Championships in Malta, and the World Championships in Qatar.

He was also selected to represent Europe by the European Billiards & Snooker Association, to compete in a multi-discipline sporting event in July in Turkey, where he made the latter stages of the competition. To complete an excellent year in October, Brendan also got to the final of the 900 Series in Leeds, an invitational event with BBC television coverage, with some of the highest amateur ranking players in the world participating.

On the home front, New Institute Snooker Club Committee was busy applying for grant support from Tipperary County Council. Thanks as always to Rosemary Joyce and her team, for their continued support especially for our Nenagh 3-man team Invitational Cup held in February and our signature Nenagh Invitational Open in October.

Of particular mention was the highly successful Fashion Show in November, a collaboration with St Joseph’s CBS National School and the snooker club committee. These financial supports facilitated the ongoing payments towards our recent renovation costs and the continuing upgrades to club facilities. We are very grateful to the people of Nenagh for the ongoing support with fundraising as without it we would not be able to survive and thrive.

The Youth Academy restarted in November and will continue in January. We are delighted to have this initiative, promoting snooker to a younger audience, still going strong and improving for over four years.

In conjunction with this initiative, we have linked with local secondary schools to make the club available to transition year students and above to drive awareness of the Club. New Institute is always open to new members and are happy to note steady growth in membership numbers. We sincerely appreciate the ongoing loyalty of the current membership and also the Snooker Committee for their hard work.

The Club finished off the year in fine style with our first snooker exhibition for a number of years. Former world champion Shaun Murphy, and broadcaster and snooker aficionado Aonghus McNally, delighted a full audience at our recently renovated club rooms with challenge matches and spirited support and humor. The event then moved to Andy Flynn’s Gastropub where music replaced the snooker, and the audience were regaled with piano and singing by both invitees.

It was a great end to a wonderful year in the New Institute Club and I extend again my thanks to all who played a large or small part in our success.