PADDY IS CHAMPION AGAIN
A total of 20 players travelled to the Antrim Sport Club to compete in NISP’s NI 2022 Men’s Individual Championships. While the field of 20 included all of our top international players it was encouraging to see some new players attending.. The standout match of the 1st round was between Alan Bell and Clifford Healy with Clifford winning 3 frames to 1. Clifford continued his winning ways until he came up against his old rival Paddy Reid in the semi-finals. Paddy could not have had a harder route to the semi-final and had to be playing his best pool to defeat John McKillop, John Brown and John Henderson to get there. In what was the match of the tournament Paddy triumphed by 4 frames to 3.
In the bottom half of the draw Sammy Johnston progressed to the semi final with a comfortable win over Johnny McAuley and a hard-earned win against Eammon McKillop. In the semi final Sammy meet the surprise player of the day, Alan Mills, who was competing at his first NISP event. On his way to the semi final Alan beat Bobby McAllister and Johnny McClurg both of whom are international players. In the semi final it was apparent that the occasion got to Alan and Sammy ran out a comfortable 4 frames to 1 winner.
When it came to final the experienced head of Paddy stood him in good stead and despite Sammy playing pool of a high standard Paddy was crowned the NI champion for the 6th time.
In the plate competition the favourite was undoubtedly Alan Bell and he lived up to this tag as he progressed to the final with wins over Johnny McAuley and Eddie Huey. His opponent in the final was international Phillip Haveron who had very impressive wins against Adrian Loga, Sean Fleming and Jason McAfee in the previous rounds. With two international players in the final the expectation of a high standard final was meet by both players with Phillip winning by 3 frames to 1.
Finally the players and NISP committee would like to thank Clarie and Rab Fee not only for hosting the event but also for the support and encouragement given to all the players. who attended.