The inaugural staging of the International Championship got under way today in Chengdu today as the top players go in search of the lucrative £125,000 top prize. The sum will be the biggest awarded to a champion of an overseas event but it would be ironic if that piece of[Read More…]
Tag: Fergal O’Brien
Superstars of Snooker
E.J. Riley Ireland has announced plans to stage a one-day charity snooker event in Dublin on Saturday, November 3rd. The event, named ‘Superstars of Snooker’, will feature some of the best players Irish snooker has had to offer from the golden era of the 1970s, 80s and 90s – featuring[Read More…]
Shanghai Masters Preview
The Shanghai Masters gets under way tomorrow as China prepares to host its second ranking event of the season. Ricky Walden somewhat surprisingly took the spoils in the campaign’s opener in Wuxi and indeed the Englishman is a former Shanghai Masters champion as well, signifying an evident love for playing[Read More…]
Dublin’s Dynamite Duo do it Again
Ken Doherty saw off stern opposition to reach the last 16 of the third Players Tour Championship event of the season at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester. And Fergal O’Brien added gloss to another rare positive day for Irish snooker by winning 12 of his 14 frames to[Read More…]
Irish Team Trains Ahead of Home Internationals
The Republic of Ireland Billiards & Snooker Association held a training camp weekend with leading professional player Fergal O Brien and World Snooker Coach PJ Nolan in the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club in Carlow to prepare the players for the 2012 Home Internationals. The Home Internationals are being held in[Read More…]
Irish Duo Flying the Flag
There was a lot of attention made, both here and elsewhere, about the sorry fact that there would be only two Irishmen from south of the border on the Main Tour this season. There were numerous reasons for this unfortunate outcome but the most prominent one was World Snooker’s decision[Read More…]
Irish Duo Through
Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien won two matches each to book their place in the last 32 of the Gdynia Open today in Sheffield. A regular Players Tour Championship event, the decision was made to whittle down the normal 128 players – after the preliminary amateur rounds – in England[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Professional Years
By Fin Ruane The year was 1990 and the number of registered professional snooker players stood at 128. The governing body WPBSA held all the strings and had the final say on who would and would not be allowed to join their exclusive club. Amateur snooker was thriving and every[Read More…]
The Irish Crucible Crusade
Since 1977, The Crucible in Sheffield has staged the annual marathon of the mind that is the World Snooker Championship. In that time, fifteen different nationalities have graced the famous theatre – a low number in reality but one that has the potential to rise dramatically in the next decade[Read More…]
Fearless Fergal Falls Flat
Fergal O’Brien couldn’t inspire himself with home advantage as he went down 4-0 to Joe Perry in the first round of the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals at the Bailey Allen Hall in Galway. From a purely selfish point of view, it may have been a better thing for the[Read More…]