Holmes and Coughlan crowned champions at pool extravaganza

After a thrilling weekend of pool in the Achill Island Hotel it was Colin Holmes (Erris) and Martina Coughlan (Westport) who were crowned champions of the Achill Pool Challenge.

After last season’s very successful ranking event in Achill, pool players from all around the county made their way to the island once again to see could they get their hands on the trophy. A total of 82 players entered the main event on Saturday, November 11 and it was good to see new players from new areas, such as Kiltimagh which had four entrants.

It was Colin Holmes who played the best pool over the two days to take his first ranking title by defeating Jarlath Mellett from Claremorris in the final by nine frames to four. Amazingly, the closest anyone got to Colin was Zack Ruddy in the first round whom he beat 6-3. That’s not to say the Erris man had easy games as he beat some tough nuts to crack along the way, but he was much too good for everyone this weekend.

Action began at 9am on Saturday and there were only eight players left in the main event by the end of the day, as play was brought to the quarter-final stages with the players losing in the first three rounds entering the shield competition.

The day was always going to throw up some big matches in the early rounds and the current Mayo champion, Liam Cannon, was one of the first big names to exit the competition when John Magee got the better of him in the last 32 round. Reigning Achill champion Danny Feehan made his exit in the last 16 round as Aaron Moyles progressed with a 7-5 win, impressively coming back from 5-2 down. Jarlath Mellett, Michael Golden and Paul Neary joined Aaron in the last eight in the top half of the draw with Colin Holmes, John Magee, Declan Hough and 16-year-old Padraic Coyle making it through in the bottom half of the draw.

The quarter-finals got underway on Sunday afternoon with Jarlath Mellett having an impressive win over Aaron Moyles to set up a semi-final clash with Michael Golden who beat Paul Neary 7-3 in the second quarter-final. In the other two quarters, Colin Holmes and Declan Hough had big wins over John Magee and Padraic Coyle respectively to set up a mouthwatering semi-final match. The players were soon back on the tables and Colin was the first player into the final, continuing his excellent form all weekend with an 8-4 win against Declan who himself had looked back to his brilliant best in the earlier rounds. The other semi-final was much closer as Jarlath needed to take the last two frames as he got through a titanic battle with Michael Golden by eight frames to six.

In the final Colin continued to play some excellent pool and he proved too strong for Jarlath who just couldn’t find the form he had shown in the earlier rounds. In his acceptance speech Colin had high praise for the event and compared it to any of the best run tournaments in Ireland and was delighted to win his first major in Mayo since returning to the game a few years ago. It’s the standards being set by Mayo Pool and others around the county that has brought him and others back to the game, said Colin.

Martina Coughlan who won her first ranking event with a 5-1 win over Annie Lynskey in the ladies final. The quarter-final pairings were decided after the group stages with Rita Walsh and Edina Mulrennan making it to the semi-finals along with Martina and Annie. Annie progressed to the final with an excellent 4-2 win over Mayo No.1 Edina Mulrennan while Martina beat Rita Walsh by the same scoreline. In the early stages of the final, Annie had a few chances but it was Martina who took the win with some good finishes along the way.

Fellow players are delighted for Martina; she has captained teams in the Westport Pool League helping to develop players and has also captained the Mayo Ladies team. It is fantastic to see Martina rewarded for all her effort and dedication and finally gaining the success she deserves. From entering her local leagues, to county-wide competitions and to IPA events, Martina simply loves her pool. She took out some lovely finishes all day and well deserves the title.

Liam Cannon from Ballintubber put his defeat in the main competition behind him as he went on to beat Ballina’s Darren Flaherty in the shield final on Sunday afternoon. He met some strong competition along the way, beating Danny Feehan (Snr), Zack Ruddy, Seamus Gannon and youngster Conor McAndrew. Indeed Conor deserves a special mention for beating Mayo ‘A’ team player Dave Doocey in the quarter-finals before making Liam sweat in a tight 6-4 battle – definitely a lad we'll see more of in the future.

The organisers acknowledged the Achill Pub Pool League committee for an amazing job in running this event. Main sponsor Connaught Amusements had eight immaculate tables all weekend with Sean Coyne on hand at all times to brush and iron the surfaces and fix any small issues that arose straight away. It’s a major operation to transport and setup tables for an event like this as well as dismantle and transport them afterwards.

Eoghan McGrath (DE Sports) was employed to stream the two main tables for the event and he also made sure the livescoring was kept going with tablets at each table which were loaned by the Castle Cue club (hosts of the next Mayo Major on January 6/7). Paul Gallagher and Stuart Latimer from Achill were a great help with the room setup, Cathal McLoughlin and Óstán Oileán Acla kindly sponsored the trophies for the shield and ladies events and their hospitality and service along with top class food was commended by everyone, making this venue one of the highlights of the Mayo pool calendar.

The two main organisers, Kieran McGinty and Ian Sheehy, put in trojan work in the days, weeks and months leading up to this event, they left no stone unturned with personal invites to players around the county and they picked the brains of anyone experienced to assist making this competition a success – which it certainly was. The pair are great ambassadors for Mayo Pool and popular lads. They in turn thanked the Mayo committee for assisting them in the run up to the event – Mick Golden, Jesse Kennedy, Edina Mulrennan, Dave McDonnell and Aaron Moyles – who all gave advice and assistance in some shape or form.