Despite lacking a club for the past two years on Sunday, 4th January, Ballina’s Savoy Century Snooker Club captured its sixth Connacht Club Championship since 1996 in North-West S.C., Letterkenny, defeating long-time rivals North-West twice en route to an unexpected victory...



Well unexpected by some, the team boasted an embarrassment of accolades from three former Connacht Champions – Darren Flaherty, Martin Hopkins and David Sweeney – Connacht Finalist Lee Jackson, Junior Pot Black Champion Jason Devaney capped off with Sean Conroy’s Junior World Pool Championship title and Darren’s National Title in ’05, however, few expected the team to put up much of a challenge for the Connacht Club crowning glory.



“We’ve been travelling out of Ballina – and Mayo, at times, - to practise,” said Darren. There has always been a great camaraderie among the Ballina team and even without a club the players get together regularly to practise and play pool in the ongoing Mayo Pool League and with five titles in the previous twelve years arrived quietly confident for the two day event.



The first group stage match saw a repeat pairing of regular finalists and alternating champions team North-West with the Savoy and with home advantage again the Savoy became little more than an afterthought.



That afterthought was soon washed away though as Darren Flaherty completed a two-nil whitewash of Gerry McGeever in roughly fifteen minutes with breaks of 51 and 104. Martin Hopkins defeated Gareth Boyle 2-1 but the Savoy were defeated in the other two matches. This left all the pressure on the ever-maturing Jason Devaney. Jason was surely on cloud nine given his recent success in amateur competitions and against professionals and showed great composure to take a tough frame against Pat Bonner. The next frame went Pat’s way and he started the succeeding frame with a 48. Some strong safety play and ‘pot then get out’ steady strategy from Jason brought them level before Jason sealed the frame with a 51 break to allow the Savoy to draw first-blood in the Championships. Little did they know this wouldn’t be the last contest with North-West over the course of the championships.



The second group match saw the Savoy paired with Tuam. The first four matches were shared and it came down to stalwart Martin Hopkins against Adrian Dunleavy, a well respected player with several accolades of his own, Martin took the match on the pink to give the Savoy another 3-2 victory.



A comfortable three one victory against Caesar’s Palace, Galway saw the Savoy reach the Semi-Finals.



The overnight break isn’t always the best thing for a club, or even player, potting well but the Savoy resumed where they left off with a 3-2 victory against Brooklodge.



The final saw The Savoy facing North-West who went undefeated since their opening match loss to the Savoy, Darren won 3-0 beating Anthony Bonnar with breaks of 72 and 57. Jason Devaney lost 3-2 against Gareth Boyle. Sweeney lost 3-2 to Brian McAleer and what looked like a lost cause was turned around by Martin Hopkins and Sean Conway. As Martin was comfortably ahead and closing out his match Sean cleared green to blue in his match to seal victory for the Savoy to take a repeat scoreline and well-deserved victory.



This is bound to put the club in good standing and give the team all the confidence required for the All-Ireland Club Championships in Killarney beginning Thursday, 22nd January.