Devaney conquers in Crossmolina

Jason Devaney, a name rapidly becomming synonymous with success in snooker, recently achieved one of the greatest victories of his short, yet success-filled, snooker career, defeating Irish no. 2 Fergal O’Brien last month in Crossmolina.

A few short months removed from his victory in the Junior Pot Black tournament held in the Mecca of snooker, Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre – held in conjunction with the World Professional Snooker Championships - and less than a year removed from his induction into the Western People Sports Stars – this match may not have been top on Jason’s list of priorities but the opportunity to ply your trade against a top professional is always reason for celebration.

And celebrate Jason did, while many had expcected the result to be not only a foregone conclusion but also a one-sided affair in favour of O’Brien, several members of the crowd, unsure what to expect from the flame-haired snooker starlet, were pleasantly surprised when Jason completed a two frames to one victory over the former British Open Champion.

Although Fergal had expected to be the one getting requests for autographs he could afford himself a smile as some younger members of the crowd actually approached Devaney looking for his autographs – should Jason’s unparallelled success among Mayo youths continue to go from strength-to-strength as it has done in recent years some of the autographed memorabilia may even find their way onto eBay!

The contest, held as part of the Crossmolina Community Festival in The Upper Deck, Hiney’s began rather unusually, as the organisers chose to have the main event – Jason versus Fergal in a best-of-three contest – first then have Fergal compete against five players from the local clubs. This was to be in Jason’s favour and left both men a level playing field as normally the professional would have several warm-up frames against lesser opponents before taking on their main challenger.

While the highest breaks from each player were just one pot short of a 50-break, this was due to the condition of the table rather than any lack of concentration or stray positioning of the cue-ball. The yellow spot, in particular, was a snooker player’s worst nightmare. Due to wear and tear on a table, sometimes when the white connects with an object ball on a particular part of the table a ‘kick’ occurs throwing the intended, projection-line of the object ball off course or taking any intended spin on the white out of the equation. Almost every attempted pot on the yellow caused such an occurance and although unfortunate, was, obviously, the same for both players.

While Fergal was aware he was the favourite going into the contest, speaking to The Western People prior to the contest admitted his delight at Jason’s success and was quick to concede that his own achievements as a Junior player paled in comparison to the Ballina native’s.

“From the age of about fourteen or fifteen I would have been travelling to tournaments in Dublin and other counties in Ireland. I never won the under-16s or anything like that so I didn’t stand out as a potential superstar. I wanted to become a professional though so I was in it for the long haul. I’d heard of Jason even before the exhbition was organised. I try to follow the career’s of the up-and-coming players as I did when David Morris [now ranked 67 in the world] from Kilkenny was making his way through the Junior scene. My youth record is nothing compared to Jason’s, he’s been Irish U-16 Champion, won two Stars of the Future tournaments and even won the Junior Pot Black tournament in Sheffield.”

When asked how his snooker playing time conflicted with his school-work, Fergal admitted he was more like his compatriot Ken Doherty than Jimmy White or Alex Higgins who would spend more school-time at a snooker club than actually in school.

“I wasn’t the most dedicated student” he opined. “But I got on with what needed to be done before I went playing snooker. My dad was more supportive of the idea of me turning professional; my mam was a bit sceptical. I remember writin in my homework journal that I wanted to become a professional snooker player so even when I was at school there was always that niggling intuition that snooker would play a part in my future and fortunately it has.”

Referring to the exhibition in Crossmolina Fergal was modest in his expectations as it’s not an area on the ‘beaten-track’ of the snooker scene, so to speak.

“Tickets are selling quite well and I’m sure many will just turn up on the night. I’m sure myself and Jason will both put on respectable performances and hopefully some of the other local lads can make a few breaks as well.”

With that said and the revelation of the man’s modesty despite his success in his chosen profession and having now surpassed the snooker stalwart and former World Champion, Ken Doherty, in the rankings, Fergal prepared himself for the contest with Jason.

The match was officiated by Ballina’s Ciaran O’Rourke, who, despite a modest snooker career, is no stranger to refereeing matches involving professionals. O’Rourke refereed the exhbition between two former World Champions when Ken Doherty defeated Mark Williams 8-3 in Ballina during an o2 Irish snooker exhibition tour.

Jason won the coin toss and opted to break, leaving an awkward slow-roll pot along the cushion for Fergal, he attempted the pot but slightly underhit it and Jason drew first-blood in the best-of-three framed encounter with a break of 7 before narrowly missing the blue. As so often happens in snooker, the first frame is a tentative affair by all accounts so it was no surprise that neither player found their niche in the opening exchanges. Breaks of 10+ and 20+ were exchanged intermittant of the occasional safety exchange and as the players reached the colours, the scores stood 46-42 in Fergal’s favour. Fergal potted the yellow but got a ‘kick’ and was left with a nigh-on impossible shot to pot the green snookered behind the brown. Although, Fergal connected with the green he left the ball near the pocket and Jason potted it with ease. Jason was then faced with the shot that would surely decide the fate of the first frame, the blue was on the cushion and couldn’t be potted from where it lay. Jason potted the brown and screwed back, dislodging the blue into a pottable position. The three remaining colours were a formality for someone of Jason’s abilty and his opponent’s status within the game didn’t seem to be affecting him at all as he cleared the table to take an opening frame lead.

Like so many snooker greats, Fergal was quick to interact with the crowd with the light-hearted statement: “It’s typical. I’ve been beating him all day in practice and now that it actually counts, he takes the frame!”

Fergal redeemed himself in quick succession with two 40+ breaks, broken up by a solitary red potted by Jason, followed up by a narrowly missed black from the spot. Fergal’s opening break waas 42 and the secon would have ended on more than 49 had it not been for another kick from the yellow spot. Regardless, Fergal had pulled one frame back and now the contest would be decided by the final frame.

Much like the opening frame, with victory or defeat possibly being decided on a single missed pot or stray positional shots both players were relatively cautious in their approach to the frame. Jason potted two blacks, followed by a 20, safety shot, and break of 12 from Fergal leaving the score at 32-16 in favour of the Dubliner. Both players exchanged safety shots and loosened their tight approach by taking on some difficult pots. Fergal was the first to make a substantial pot, followed by a brown and an attempted safety. (37-16) Although the safety shot looked innoccuous Jason managed to pull off the shot of the night going the length of the table to place a red in the heart of the pocket. With Fergal having made two fourties in the second frame, it was now Jason’s turn for such an accomplishment and Jason succeeded in producing an immaculate 47 to the brown. That left the score at 63-37 with only 18 remaining on the table, thus, Fergal required two snookers to return himself to contention in the contest. After some snookers and some close-attempts at snookering Jason, Jason managed to fluke the blue putting the frame beyond doubt. Such an instance shouldn’t be allowed to detract from a well-deserved victory from Devaney as he was the better of the two on the night. Fergal played on for snookers even on the pink and after the white went in-off (a six-point foul) twice continued to play on ‘til Jason potted the pink.

Fergal achieved a modicum of redemption by defeating all five local players he played following his loss to Devaney, however, as he failed to make a century there was a slight level of disappointment among some in the crowd but seeing a David versus Goliath-esque victory for 16 year old Jason more than made up for that.

With the 2008/09 season on the horizon, surely this victory will give Jason the confidence boost to go on to bigger and better things within the game and few would be surprised to see him on the professional tour in the coming years.

Fergal isn’t the first professional Jason has taken on, two years ago, still in his snooker infancy, Jason took on Ken Doherty and although Ken produced a century, Jason cleared the remaining colours to leave the scoreline more respectable and Doherty commented, referring to Jason, “Perhaps, someday, Ballina will have a World Champion of its own!” Having been on the wrong end of a two-one scoreline, surely Fergal would echoe those sentiments. Prior to the match O’Brien had told The Western People “Players like Jason [Devaney] and Davey [Morris] have the world at their feet, with their ability the sky’s the limit.”