Cue king Darren conquers Connacht yet again

It’s often said you should start as you mean to finish and with a victory in last month’s Connacht Close snooker competition held in Century Snooker Club, Ballina, Darren Flaherty has started the season as he means to finish it – ranked number one in Connacht.

Between singles and team events, Darren has now been victorious in over 40 ranking tournaments throughout his illustrious cue-yielding career, with this alone his 36th Connacht ranking singles title.

“I’ve been ranked number one for the past five seasons and down through the years, I was number one another four or five seasons,” Darren told the Western People last week.

He also won two National Intermediate titles, in 2005 and 2011 – crowning achievements in a glistening career.

At the recent Connacht Close, Darren endured a tense preliminary round game where he narrowly defeated Paul Keighery 3-2 in a black ball decider.

“Paul had the first bite and he’s a great player so I wasn’t surprised he was still around at the business end. When he missed the black the pressure was off and I got over the line.” 

The other two representatives of Century Snooker Club were both unlucky to lose in the quarter-finals with Ollie Martyn surviving a comeback from 2-0 in front to defeat Gary Kevany in a decider while Johnathan McGinty also surrendered a 2-0 lead but lost 3-2 to former Connacht Close winner Mark Walsh, who was Darren Flaherty’s next opponent.

“Mark won this event in 2022 so it was going to be a good game. I started off with a 70 plus break followed by two 50 breaks so bossed the match from start-to-finish.” In the semi-final, Darren played Colm Walsh and reminiscent of his quarter-final, began and finished well.

“I had a 70-odd in the first frame and an 89 in the second to take a 2-0 lead. Colm came back well in the third frame with a 40 break and couple of runs of 20. I got in early in the fourth frame and made a 50 then bossed the frame to make the final.” 

With Darren’s half of the draw populated by several former winners and finalists, the bottom half saw Eamon Kelly and Denis Coffee battle for over three hours before Eamon emerged victorious from their quarter-final. In the semi-final, it was another marathon match as Ollie Martyn booked his place in the final by beating Eamon 3-2.

But Darren Flaherty continued in the same vein in the final as in his previous two rounds and dominated the final against Ollie with a three-nil victory.

“There weren’t any major breaks in the final as the colours got tied up early in most frames. I made a 40+ with yellows, greens and browns which is probably the best break I’ve made in a while but I was thrilled to claim another title,” the winner remarked.

The Ballina Pool League is also running at present with the Winder Snooker divisions running concurrently. Darren is undefeated in both and for the first time in four seasons, Ballina’s Aaron Moyles lost a best-of-ten league match, to Conor Davey.

“The snooker divisions are going well, the championship has really taken off this season,” Darren concluded.