The subject of competitions and their winners down the years is a sore point with this writer. The club has not been a great recorder of events with trophies not being inscribed and photographs and other memorabilia being lost. In the past few years a major drive to record as many of the past victors has been conducted with excellent, but incomplete results. When interviewing older members it is clear that there weren't as many competitions in the early days. There would be the odd billiard tournament in the fifties, the Canon McMullin Cup and perhaps a few competitions with cues and cue-cases as prizes. There were Christmas competitions which were eagerly contested. Michael Meehan won two senior competitions in the fifties but their identities are unknown. Hughie Meehan won at least one competition and Chris Meehan (-7) beat Paddy Kelly (+14) in the Christmas Handicap Final in 1956.

Even in the seventies trophies didn't identify the tournament. Jack Keeney recalls winning a snooker marathon in which he defeated Marty Keeney in the final by 34 points against the clock. The Christmas Hamper and Canon McMullin Cup were the main trophies in the seventies, while junior competitions began in 1975 with the reopening of the club. Packie Hanna recalls playing in a lot of finals but can't recall many. He played his brother John in one hamper final.

The Canon McMullin Cup is the longest-running event in the club calendar and the names of most of the past winners were engraved on the trophy. Its origin is not certain but the club members probably felt the need to honour the man who had authorised the building of the clubrooms. The first winner was Paddy Murphy in 1954 followed in successive years by Sean Gallagher, Paddy Kelly, Donal Gallagher and Tommy O'Donnell. Sean Kelly is the next name in 1967 and the next recorded winner is Packie Hanna in 1976.

Thankfully the competition sheet has survived from that first tournament following the club's reopening in 1976 (my thanks to Damien Hanna) and the club has mounted a copy on the wall as a thank you to those 64 players who guaranteed the survival of the facility. James McAllister's frequent protestations that he was once a scratch player were at last proven...in 1976 he played off minus 5! No winner from 1977 is engraved on the trophy so perhaps the competition wasn't played but every winner from every year afterwards is recorded and these are listed in the appendix. It is still the trophy to win and is referred to as the unofficial club championship, even though it is handicapped just like the other tournaments.

Scratch competitions were rarely played in the club so it is difficult to say with certainty who were the best players in the club over the years; members' recollections are all I have to go on. The prestige of the Canon McMullin Cup guaranteed that players were more nervous in its finals and usually the best player under pressure triumphed. There are a few notable absentees from the honour roll but these players made up for it in other competitions.

Second only to the Canon McMullin Cup is the Sean McCafferty Cup, which was first played in 1987 and won by Kieran Mullin. Sean's generosity in presenting the cup to the Chairman John Hanna was much appreciated and the large entry in it every year reflects this.

The third longest running tournament is probably the John Griffin Cup, although it hasn't been played every year and has at times been a junior competition. Unfortunately, most of its past winners' names were not preserved. It has now reverted to its senior status and is the first competition every season. The club will hopefully continue to honour its sponsor by giving this cup the respect it deserves.

Harry Diver was a stalwart of the club over many years and a fine player to boot. A trophy was commissioned in 1992 following Harry's sad passing and the veterans of the town have recently competed for it. James Gallagher was the first winner while Donal Monaghan was the first vet to win it in 1999, followed by Paddy Kelly in the Millennium year and Vincent Granaghan in 2001.

Danny Martin served the club on many committees over the years and when he passed away in 1995, it was decided to present a shield to the winner of the Christmas Hamper in his honour. The first winner in 1996 was fellow committee member Patsy McNulty and he did it again in 1998. Previous winners of the Hamper are not recorded which is a shame, as this tournament goes back a long way. Perhaps past winners will inform the committee in order to complete the record.

The club has also hosted competitions that were open to the public. An Inter-Firms snooker tournament began in 1991 with a shield presented to the winners. The inaugural champions were Magee's Factory. The competition waned in popularity as the interest in snooker declined through the nineties and it was discontinued in 1994. It was resumed as a four-man pool tournament in 1998 with Patton Construction winning. It is still thriving and its most remarkable champions were probably the Chelsea team that won in 2000 with a team that included three 13-year olds...Ciarán O'Reilly, Nicholas Culloo and Kieran Cleary. A pool pairs competition began in 1999 with Oliver and Tom Plunkett winning the first two titles before being dethroned in the 2001 final by Terry Mullin and Paul Cannon. Snooker doubles competitions have been tried but haven't caught on. James McAllister and Tommy Coulter won in 1987 and ten years later Niall Keenan and Francis Cassidy won the second (and to date last) title. Tony Kelly Car Sales sponsored a snooker tournament in the late eighties with Tony Thomas in the winner's enclosure.