The inaugural Northern Ireland Blackball Schools Cup which is endorsed by the NIPA and run by The Tennents Coleraine Pool League during their Festival Week took place on Tuesday 23rd February in the Lodge Hotel, Coleraine. Schools from Cullybackey, Ballymoney, Larne, Newcastle and Coleraine were in attendance. The team event took place in the morning and after some great matches it was Larne Grammar's Ryan Martin who sunk the final black to give his side victory after coming from behind against a strong Cullybackey High School side.
The afternoon brought the Individual event and the competition was blown wide open when tornament favourite Scott Clarke from Coleraine Institute was beaten in the 1st round by P. Storey from Ballymoney High School. The Final featured Lee McIlreavy from the Coleraine EOTAS Project and Kevin Mullan from Newcastle South Eastern Reginal College. McIlreavy raced into a 2-0 lead but a superb finish from Mullan reduced the arrears to one frame. And although Mullan had chances to take the match to a deciding frame it was young McIlreavy who took out his finish to become Northern Ireland Schools Blackball Champion 2010.
Team Event
Final
Larne Grammar School 5-3 Cullybackey High School
Individuals Event
Semi Finals
William Irvine (Larne Grammar School) 1-2 Kevin Mullan (South Eastern Regional College, Newcastle)
Ryan Martin (Larne Grammar School) 0-2 Lee McIlreavy (Coleraine EOTAS Project)
Final
Lee McIlreavy (Coleraine EOTAS Project) 3-1 Kevin Mullan (South Eastern Regional College, Newcastle)
