IPA rocks Belfast


What a fantastic and memorable weekend in the Clayton Hotel, Belfast as the IPA Blackball Pool Tour came to Northern Ireland for the first time. Near on 40 local cueists took to the blue baize alongside many from further afield. It started off on Thursday night live on Freesports TV with the Champions Cup and after the action had concluded Ronan McCarthy has reached the Last 16 with Gary Clarke and Emma Cunningham at the Last 32 stage of the ongoing event.

To the Tour now and with the BBC broadcasting live from the Clayton Hotel the array of top players was mind blowing, Tom Cousins, Marc Farnsworth, Mark Boyle, Simon Ward and Scott Gillespie to name but a few. Four titles were up for grabs, The Professional, The Open, The Amateur and The Ladies Events. There were many fantastic matches and performances but when the final black was potted on Sunday night Jack Whelan (England) had won the Pro Event with an 8-2 success in the Final over Simon Ward (Wales). In the Open Final Scott Gillespie (Scotland) overcame an impressive Lee Wray (England) 7-6 in a last frame decider and in the Ladies Emma Cunningham (Northern Ireland) took the title with a superb Final display against Vicki Lomax (England). New to the IPA Tour Tom Cousins (Wales) was in great form as he stormed to the Amateur Final where he defeated Jordan Church (England) 6-2.

Best local cueists in each event were -
Pro - Ronan McCarthy and Gary Clarke, both Last 16
Open - Ronan McCarthy, Gary Clarke and Ronan Fay, all Last 32
Amateur - Ronan Fay, Semi Finalist
Ladies - Emma Cunningham, Winner

In between all the action IPA Chairman Kevin Barton had time to host a live interview with our own World Ranked No. 6 snooker star Mark Allen.

Hopefully all at the IPA enjoyed their visit to Belfast and it's not too long before we see them back over in here again.