Paddy Donnelly halted Day Elliott´s run of success when he turned on a brilliant display of billiards to retain his title in the final of the Premier Classic. The event was sponsored by Savoury Foods and Snooker Ireland with the final being the best of five games of 150 up. Paddy warmed up with a break of 79 in the opener, which helped him to win it by just 16 points. A break of 89 unfinished in the second, and others of 54 and 96 unfinished in the third, secured the title for Donnelly in emphatic style. This was Elliott´s first defeat in ranking events this season. Donnelly also took the high break prize for players ranked in the top eight with an earlier effort of 131, while Tommy Murphy took the high break prize for those outside the top eight with 114.
Played at the West Belfast Club, the Northern Ireland Championships would be the final ranking tournament of the season. In the last 16, Sam Clarke established the top break target with a 136 in his victory over club-mate Joe Heaney. Davy Elliott put together the only other century of the round with a break of exactly 100 in defeating Sammy Currie. Eugene Rogan kept the Bangor interest alive when he defeated Pat Lawlor. Davy Pogue and Tommy Murphy had a real nail-biter before Pogue got home by just 13 points, with the spectators on the edge of their seats. In another close encounter, Freddie Cahoon had just 2 points to spare at the end of his match against Newby’s John Dinsmore. Trevor Shields had a more comfortable passage as he overpowered Jimmy Millar to book his place in the last eight.
Paddy Donnelly, the defending champion, moved into the semi-finals with victory over Trevor Shields. Paddy having a 120 break at the later stages of the game, while Shields had breaks of 71 and 75. Tony Buttimer booked his semi-final spot with a solid all-round performance, defeating Bangor cueist Eugene Rogan. Tony had runs of 91, 92, 44, 46 and 69 in his 735 total. Former champion, Davy Elliott will be Buttimer´s opponent after he recorded the top score of the day with 742—aided by runs of 71, 90 and 102—in defeating Freddie Cahoon. Freddie´s best break being 64. Donnelly´s semi-final opponent will be Sammy Clarke who staged a great late fight-back to snatch victory over Davy Pogue. In the final stages of the two hour game, Sammy had breaks of 49, 39, 48 and 41, while Pogue replied with breaks of 69, 43, 41 and 46. Pogue looked to be the winner going into the last 10 minutes holding a 54 points advantage, but Clarke never gave in, and won an exciting game on the bell by 15 points.
Paddy Donnelly hit the competition high break of 179 in defeating club-mate Sam Clarke who had previously held the top break with 136. Paddy dominated the match with additional runs of 87, 93, 50, and a string of 40+ breaks. In the other semi-final former champion Davy Elliott ran out a clear winner over Tony Buttimer, with a great run in the last hour of the game. At one stage Buttimer had lead by 100 points, but breaks of 66, 45, 56, 81, 45, 82, 43, 36 and 32 by Elliott where enough to see him into the final.
In one of the most exciting finals for many years, Paddy Donnelly held his nerve to retain his title and defeat Armagh´s Davy Elliott by just 26 points in a game that could have gone either way. In front of a huge crowd, Donnelly roared into an early lead with breaks of 75 and 77, before Elliott pegged his way back with runs of 79 and 56. At the interval Donnelly held an advantage of 50+ points with one hour still to play. After the restart, Elliott recovered to take the lead for the first time in the match. Thereafter, the lead changed hands regularly with Elliott maintaining an advantage going into the last 10 minutes. At this point Elliott was the recipient of an untimely “kick” when playing a drop-cannon and allowed Donnelly the opportunity to put together a match winning break of 32.
The ranking list at the end of the Northern Ireland season is as follows: