Rodney Goggins won the fourth ranking event of the Irish campaign on Sunday with a 4-1 victory over Jason Devaney in the final in Carlow.
Goggins’ Premier Cup success adds to the title he already collected at the start of the season in the RIBSA Classic.
Indeed, the 147 Wexford player has reached the semi-finals or better in each of the four rankers so far and has extended his lead at the top of the rankings over Brendan O’Donoghue to 90 points.
Former national champion Devaney produced his best form of the year, knocking in a 105 in the process which stood as the highest break of the tournament, and had a particularly impressive 3-2 win over Michael Judge in the early rounds.
Goggins is the man in form, though, and dropped only two frames all weekend as his dominance continued.
That said, entries were once again poor with several notable names absent from the draw.
Less than 40 people took part which is a paltry number considering some of the unsanctioned tournaments across the country tally multiple times that.
One of the main reasons for this is undoubtedly the prize fund, half of which is withheld by RIBSA in order to fund players competing in international events.
While it’s good that RIBSA wants to get the best treatment for their top players abroad, this may be a little shortsighted when it comes to offering an incentive for the new generation to continue playing domestically.
The Top 10 in the Irish rankings can be viewed to the right ——–>>>>>
