Dowling wins Timmy Murphy Memorial

The annual Timmy Murphy Billiards Memorial took place on Sunday 30th October at Celbridge Snooker Club which witnessed Jason Dowling from Rathkeale in Co. Limerick retain the trophy that he won last year in convincing fashion. Nine players took part in this special event in memory of the popular billiards player from Cork which now entered its seventh year since it was first introduced in 2015.

Jason Dowling won his preliminary round game against Kilkenny’s Larry Drennan by a margin of 41 points having started off with a 65 point head start handicap. Jason went on to beat Robert McCrum in the quarter finals with little more comfort on the scoreboard by 98 points. Other quarter final games saw Joe Doheny topple Wayne Doyle by 56 points despite Wayne registering the high break of the day of 85. Liam Byrne beat fellow Edenderry clubman Sean Dunne while John Kehoe had a good win over Brendan Devlin.

The semi finals saw two very different games with Jason Dowling just getting over the line against Joe Doheny by a mere 23 points on a score of 461-438. Liam Byrne had a good performance winning comfortably by 158 points against John Kehoe to meet Jason Dowling in the decider.

In the final Liam had a 46 point head start against Jason and more or less maintained that lead in the first 45 minutes as both players didn’t really get going. However Jason all of a sudden found a second wind and took a foothold in the game accumulating 30 plus breaks which Liam had no reply and Jason would build up a 150 point lead with an exhibition of potting going into the last 10 minutes of the game. Liam started to score again but the damage had been done by that stage as Jason finished the game with a winning margin of 199 points on a scoreline of 540-341 to retain the Timmy Murphy perpetual cup that he won last year against Aonghus McAnally.

Timmy’s family was on hand to present the trophy to Jason and congratulated him on his triumph as Jason commented on how it was a great honour to win such a special event in memory of a great Cork man and billiards enthusiast. Thanks to Brendan Devlin as Tournament Director and Celbridge Snooker Club who hosted the event.

Pre Quaters:

• Jason Dowling  432-391  Larry Drennan

Q-finals:

• Jason Dowling  495-397  Robert McCrum
• Joe Doheny  432-376  Wayne Doyle
• Liam Byrne  364-272  Sean Dunne
• John Kehoe  438-295  Brendan Devlin

Semi finals:

• Jason Dowling  461-438  Joe Doheny
• Liam Byrne  486-328  John Kehoe

Final:

• Jason Dowling  540-341  Liam Byrne

High Breaks:

• Wayne Doyle  85
• John Kehoe   60