Following on from the recent success of their senior counterparts, the Irish juniors have followed suit with some glory of their own. Inspired by Josh Boileau’s achievement of reaching both the final of the World and European Under-21 Championships, not to mention Mark Tuite’s stunning capture of the European Masters[Read More…]
Tag: Fin Ruane
2014 SHQ Awards: The End of Season Review
The 2014/15 campaign gets under way on Saturday with the Wuxi Classic qualifiers. Yes, you read that correctly. After only a short few weeks, the action returns almost straight away as the roadshow sets off once more. Some will argue that there isn’t enough of a break in between seasons.[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: Who’s the Greatest?
By Fin Ruane On the morning of the greatest snooker show on earth and the question remains as to whether Ronnie O’Sullivan can win a third world title in a row and become world champion for a sixth time. However, the bigger question that has been posed all season will[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Magic of the Crucible
By Fin Ruane As the countdown continues to this year’s World Snooker Championship in Sheffield and all eyes turn to the Crucible Theatre, many snooker fans are looking forward to visiting the famous venue – some for the umpteenth year in a row, others for the very first time. Visiting[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: Irish Amateur Snooker One Year Later
By Fin Ruane Last January I wrote a piece entitled “The Future Of Amateur Snooker In Ireland” highlighting the alarming state and decline of amateur snooker in the country. In it I wrote how amateur snooker was suffering not only to loss of interest amongst players but in the way the[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Rebirth of Junior Snooker in Ireland
By Fin Ruane Last weekend the second day of Junior events in the new Irish snooker season took place in four selected venues throughout the country. This may sound somewhat familiar but these events are different. They are part of a total reinvention of the junior set-up in Ireland and[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: Snooker Down Under
This coming week sees the second main ranking event of the new season take place in Bendigo, Australia, and as the UK and European based tour players begin the long journey Down Under to compete in the third staging of this event many snooker fans out there might think Australia[Read More…]
Snooker in Dublin Documentary
Around Christmas time, I produced a radio documentary for Irish station NearFM about snooker in Ireland – and specifically Dublin. The feature was not aired until the first day of the 2013 World Championship but most of it is still relevant to this day and the podcast was made available earlier in[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: The Finbarr Ruane Snr Memorial Cup
By Fin Ruane To celebrate the 21st anniversary of his passing, this Saturday sees the inaugural Finbarr Ruane Snr Memorial Cup taking place in CrossGuns in Dublin. A tournament named after the two-term president of RIBSA and long time patron of Irish and World Amateur Snooker was in my eyes[Read More…]
Fin’s Fables: Top 10 Crucible Memories
By Fin Ruane As this year’s eagerly awaited World Snooker Championship nears we look forward to the seventeen day snooker jamboree in Sheffield with bated breath. Questions such as “how will Ronnie play and can he win a fifth world title?”, can Mark Selby win and complete the ‘triple crown’[Read More…]