The quarter finals produced a couple of shocks when international player's Davy Elliot and Davy Pogue were beaten by Trevor Shields and Joe Drain. Paddy Donnelly moved into the semi-finals with a solid 3-0 win over Eugene Rogan. Sam Clarke was also in good form in beating Jackie Shannon 3-0.
The semi-finals were won by Trevor Shields 3-0 against Clarke, and Donnelly by the same score against Drain.
The final proved to be a real nail-biter, with Donnelly just getting home 3-2 aided by a 52 unfinished break in the decider with his opponent requiring just 17 points, in a superb match watched by a good crowd.
Four century breaks were recorded in the event—107 unfinished and 105 unfinished by Elliott; 104 by Pogue, and 120 by Donnelly, which also took the top break prize to go along with the title.
Prizes were presented by Jackie Shannon, Manager of the host club.
Sponsors of the event were Savoury Foods.
The quarter-finals threw together some interesting pairings in the last tournament before the Northern Ireland Championships. Paddy Donnelly, the current holder of this title was made to fight all the way before getting home by just 36 points. Paddy recorded a nice 138 break early in this match.
Joe Drain and Eugene Rogan had a real ding-dong battle before Joe got home by just 23 points. Freddie Cahoon came from over 100 points behind to beat Jimmy Victor McLaughlin by 88 points.
A shock looked to be on the cards when Davy Pogue, needing only 30- odd points, missed a simple pot from hand to let Davy Elliott in with a 62 break, and clinch a real nail-biter by just 17 points.
The semi-final went the way of the two favourites, Donnelly and Elliott, to set up a repeat of last year's final.
Davy Elliott stopped Paddy Donnelly's run of success, when he played good billiards to lift the Striker's Billiard Classic. Davy had runs of 52, 61,72,102,38 and 41, while Paddy had breaks of 44,44 and 43.
Prizes were handed over by Derek Corbett, Manager of the Striker's Club, who had sponsored the event.
| Paddy Donnelly
138, 101, 202, 51, 42 | 789 | John McCrea
40 | 264 | ||
| mmy Clarke
77, 46 | 404 | John McIntyre
40, 40 | 392 | ||
| Tony Buttimer
84, 53 | 434 | Davy Pogue
48, 43, 41, 68, 54 | 429 | ||
| Davy Elliott
92, 53, 50 | 562 | Jimmy McLaughlin
56, 51 | 405 |
Paddy Donnelly was in great form in the quarter finals completely overpowering his opponent to move into the semi finals where he would take on Sammy Clarke who just pipped John McIntyre by 12 points. Davy Pogue went down by only 5 points to Tony Buttimer who's 84 break came close to the bell to snatch victory when Davy looked all over a winner. Davy Elliott would be Tony's next opponent after his beating of Jimmy Victor McLaughlin.
| Donnelly
38, 59, 96, 68, 46, 45 | 662 | Clarke
43, 40, 37 | 431 | ||
| Elliott
43, 52, 49, 63unf | 661 | Buttimer
47, 39, 41, 44 | 616 |
It took a 63 unfinished break by Davy Elliott to get past Tony Buttimer to reach this years Northern Ireland Final, he could count himself lucky as he never seemed to really get going in the match. Paddy Donnelly meanwhile had no such problems in beating Sammy Clarke by over 200 points to reach his 4th consecutive final.
| Donnelly
31, 47, 49, 34, 41, 135, 62, 38 | 769 | Elliott
69, 126, 40, 39, 38 | 463 |
Donnelly added to his previous seven national titles by taking his 4th consecutive championship when he defeated his old rival Davy Elliott.
Paddy always held the upper hand after an early break of 135 set him up for a famous victory in front of a packed West Belfast Club audience.
The sponsors cheques were presented to the quarter finalists onwards.
The top break prizes went to Donnelly for a 202 in the low section and Freddie Cahoon for a 96 in the high section. A closing cabaret was provided by the West Belfast Club after a vote of thanks to themselves and sponsor's Belfast Crystal was given.
1) P.Donnelly; 2) D.Elliott; 3) T. Buttimer; 4) S.Clarke; 5) D. Pogue; 6) T. Shields; 7) E. Rogan; 8) F. Cahoon; 9) J. McLaughlin 10) B. Kerr.
Future events include a tri-nation event involving ourselves, the Republic and England is scheduled for the weekend of 23rd to 25th October at Newmarket and the"Friendly Cup"between ourselves and England is scheduled for 23rd & 24th January next in Harrogate.