The Harry Diver Cup and Canon McMullin Cup are in their later stages with Vincent Granaghan on course to win his first title in over ten years. He reached the final of the seniors competition by defeating Alan Ramsay in the semi-final. Joe Gillespie will be his opponent in the final after defeating Jack Keeney in the other semi. The final is on Friday, 8 June at 7 p.m.
Tom Plunkett reached the final of the club championship for the fourth time by beating Paul Thomas in a tight semi-final. In so doing he set up a final with his brother Oliver, the third time this has happened in the past two years. The final is on Friday, 8 June at 8.30 p.m. The presentations for the Canon McMullin, Harry Diver, Pool Pairs and Hanna Hats will take place on Friday following the finals.
Terry Mullin and Paul Cannon dethroned the Plunkett brothers in the final of the Pool Pairs Championship recently. The brothers had won the first two tournaments but with Tom in poor form of late and Terry and Paul playing great pool, this was going to be a great opportunity to avenge last year's final defeat. So it proved and Paul got the lads off to a great start, easily disposing of Tom in four racks. Oliver had to dig deep to come from behind against Terry but he did so thanks to some outstanding cueball control. Terry missed a great opportunity to win the doubles and so the title, but he missed the black in the second rack, allowing Tom to snatch an equaliser. Oliver potted all but one red in the decider but, in trying to double the final one, he inadvertently potted the black, which handed victory to his opponents. Congratulations to the lads and also to Cathal and Keith Mulhern who won the Best Young Players award.
Kevin Cassidy won the Hanna Hats Cup defeating Kevin Mulhern over two high quality frames. Both players potted fluently but the eventual winner potted more blacks and that proved the difference in the end. Nevertheless, Master Mulhern can be very proud of his achievement in reaching the final while still a primary school pupil. Congratulations then to the winner and also to the runner-up and semi-finalists, Ciaran O' Reilly and Gary Gillespie.
The final of the Lyric Knockout Cup took place in Donegal Town on Tuesday May 15 between North West A and CYMS B. Both teams had won tough battles en route to the final and this match was to be no different. Johnny Whyte got North West off to a good start by taking both frames off Don Ponsonby, compiling a 40 break in the process. New County Champion Aidan Devanney overcame Joe Devine for the second time in a week, this time by a 2-0 scoreline and so levelled the match. Gerry McKeever won both frames against Danny Gibbons to put the North West 4-2 up and needing one more frame for victory. Michael Duffy of CYMS did his best to scupper North West's hopes, taking the first frame off Anthony Bonnar. But the seven-times County Champion hit back in the second and despite some heroic resistance by Michael, Anthony secured the frame and with it the Cup for North West A.
The sad death of Dan McLaughlin, Life President of the CYMS club in Letterkenny cast a long shadow over the snooker scene in County Donegal last week. Although he had been seriously ill for some time, Dan still maintained his interest in everything that was billiards or snooker-related. His death will be felt most of all in the CYMS club and the Donegal Town Snooker Club join with them in mourning Dan's passing. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
The club wishes Oliver and Sharon Plunkett well for the future and team manager Kieran Temple hopes that Oliver will still be available for the occasional match!