30 Junior Mayo pool players aiming to bring home All-Ireland title 

Excitement is building in Pool circles for the 2024 Junior IPA All Ireland Championships being held this coming weekend in JMac’s Pool Venue in Navan, Co. Meath. With no fewer than 30 Junior players competing from Mayo.

Traditionally the junior event was run as part of the Senior all Ireland’s & inter county competition in Killarney in May, but with the phenomenal growth in popularity in pool and in particular the Junior section, the Irish Pool Association have organised a dedicated weekend event in the newly opened state of the art pool venue in Meath.

The Mayo juniors are managed by Jackie Coyle (Erris) and have over 20 juniors from Erris as well as all parts of Mayo, travelling with their parents.

The Mayo u15 team are the reigning all Ireland champions and retain 2 of that team again this year, Sean Coyle (Erris) & James Brennan (Mayo Abbey) and will this year, be joined by Dermot Kelly (Ayle, Westport) & Alex Belinski (Erris) and are very confident of retaining their title, while the other three’s, u15 teams are also very strong, and with an all-girls team also in the mix for the first time ever.

The IPA have this year also introduced an u18s Ladies singles all Ireland, such is the growth of Ladies Pool.

In the u18 section, Mayo teams finished 2nd & 3rd last year and can still call on a solid core of these teams where Padraic Coyle, Christian Holmes, Jason Ruddy and Adam and Conor McAndrew have gained experience and will be joined this year by Zack Ruddy, Leo Reuland, John Howard, Keelan Barrett & Pawel Bugalski making up 3 strong teams.

There is also an u12 singles where Sean Coyle, Ruairi Walsh and former u12 all Ireland champion, James Brennan, as well as a few new emerging Mayo stars, will no doubt give it a good shot to bring an all-Ireland back to Mayo.

Play starts 9:30am next Saturday 23rd. Full details and results can be found on Mayo Pool Association Facebook page.