Doherty Delivers in Westport

Ken Doherty was in astonishing form as he took on local players and Steve Davis in Westport on Wednesday last. The exhibition was organised by Len Collins in aid of the Westport Lions Club and held in The Castlecourt Hotel, Westport. It may not have had the same abundance of onlookers as Ken will have when he participates in the World Championships but there was a characteristic atmosphere on a special night, the likes of which are unlikely to be reproduced any time soon.

Doherty produced five century breaks on the trot in a truly unparalleled display of snooker on a night that won’t soon be forgotten by the shade over 200 punters in attendance. Doherty’s opening contest was against John Duggan, the winner of a competiton with The Mayo News, and was the usual scappy affair that is to be expected in snooker as the players get a feel for the table. Doherty produced effortless breaks of 24 and 37 to secure victory. It was expected that Ken would beat a local player but two of his next three oppenents were far more accomplished and what happened next was far from expected.

Earlier in the evening, Davis had taken on nine year old, Ian Dennany, the other winner of The Mayo News competition, who, showing maturity beyond his years didn’t convey any sign of nerves playing one of snooker’s all-time greats only losing to Davis by the narrow margin of 18 points.

Doherty’s second challenge was the World Under-18 Pool Champion, Sean Conroy, from Swinford. While Conroy is more at home on the pool table he is an accomplished snooker player, representing the now defunct Savoy Century Snooker Club in the All-Ireland Snooker Championships in Killarney a number of times, going through the competition unbeaten on two of those occasions. Conroy, a Junior International might have fancied his chances of beating the 1997 World Champion based on Doherty’s previous performance and Doherty’s shaky start to the frame but after a long red Doherty never looked back. Doherty ran into trouble on 42 when he was left with a delicate slice on the pink to the middle but managed to pot it. He was in trouble again two shots later when, after potting a red, the black was covered by a red into the intended pocket but somehow Doherty succeeded in pulling off a double to put him on 56. Most snooker audiences will applaud when a player gets to over 50 during a break and the audience’s lack of familiarity with some aspects of the game was evident when they didn’t applaud. Doherty once told this reported “It’s a little unusal when they don’t clap [for breaks over 50] but you get used to it playing around the country and you just get on with the frame.” A few shots later and those in attendance certainly did applaud as Doherty reached 113 with a very steady display of snooker proficiency.

In his next frame Doherty took on Ger McGreal who won an auction for the opportunity to play Ken. Despite Ken making a century in the previous frame he was surely hoping for more than the few shots he got. Ken made 101 then deliberately missed the blue to afford McGreal the opportunity to score a few points.

Next up for the “Darlin’ of Dublin” was a best-of-five match with 6 times World Champion Steve Davis.  In the opening frame of the contest Doherty produced a 129 total clearance which saw him have to go into the pack three times. Doherty went on to produce a 130 break to the black in the second frame and a clearance of 100 in the third.

Davis commented “it’s very rare to see five centuries in a row, even on television” which was a slight understatement as the record for successive televised century breaks is four, held by Scotsman, John Higgins.

It’s often asserted that only a fool would bet against Davis reaching a 101^st final (he reached his 100^th final in the 2005/06 season) but with displays like this only a fool would bet against Doherty putting up a concerted challenge for the World Championships in two weeks time.