Brendan O’Donoghue won the seventh and final Irish ranking event of the season after beating top ranked Rodney Goggins 4-3 to claim the Talbot Classic.
It was the third time during this campaign that the pair met each other in the final showdown and, somewhat incredibly, all three ties have been settled in the deciding frame.
O’Donoghue won their first meeting at the Irish Open back in November before Goggins gained revenge last month at the Grand Prix – but the Tipperary cueist was to have the last laugh in their own personal duel.
That said, despite failure to capture his fourth title in a stellar season, Goggins still finishes it as the dominant number one competitor and will be the top seed going into the National Championship in May.
O’Donghue’s win at the Ivy Rooms on Saturday was aided by earlier victories over Cork pair David Cassidy and Greg Casey, and he also knocked in a tournament high 120 en route to his success.
Casey, meanwhile, will be happy with a season’s best semi-final appearance as he prepares for Q-School next month, earning RIBSA’s sponsored nomination to compete in the event from World Snooker.
Goggins beat Robert Murphy 3-0 in his last four clash, while the latter’s European Men’s Team Championship winning partner Michael Judge was a surprise early casualty in the last 16 to Peter Donegan.
All focus now turns to the Irish Championship with the field set to be whittled down to 16 on May Bank Holiday weekend, before the 2015 national champion is crowned three weeks later in Carlow.
The full draw for Event 7 is here.