147 Academy member Vincent Muldoon from the Republic Of Ireland reached the final of the 2011 European Snooker Championships in Sofia Bulgaria. RIBSA sent three players Martin McCrudden, Robert Murphy and Vincent to the championships and they were hoping to win the event for second time in three years after David Hogan won the championships back in 2009. In this event Martin reached the Last 32 and Robert lost to Vincent in the last 16 round. Vincent played fantastic snooker all week to top his group with wins 7 wins from 7 matches.
Group Matches
In the groups he beat Bernharo Bernharosson ( Iceland ) 4-0, Adam Duffy ( England ) 4-2, Antonis Poullous ( Cyprus ) 4-0, Georgi Velchkov ( Bulgaria ) 4-0, Yvan Van Velthon ( Belgium ) 4-1 , Krzsztof Wrobel ( Poland ) 4-3, Mindaugas Maisiejus ( Lithuania ) 4-0. His breaks were: 119,118,109,101, 97, 93, 86, 74, 73, 66, 64, 64, 61, 60, 54, 53.
In the last 16 Vincent beat fellow Irishman Robert Murphy 5 frames to 2 in an exciting match. In the Q-Final Vincent beat Bobby Cruickshanks from Scotland 5 frames to 2 in another high quality match. In the semi final the Galway man beat Martin O’Donnell from England 6 frames to 4 in a pressure match with the winner getting the EBSA main tour nomination. This was because Daniel Wells had won the other semi final and as he already had got his main tour ticket for next season by finishing number 1 in Wales.
The Final
In the final Daniel Wells won the first two frames, back came Muldoon to win the next three to lead 3-2 but the Welsh potter won the last frame before the interval to level at 3-3. After the interval Wells started stronger winning frame six, seven and eight to lead 6 frames to 3 but the Irish champion fought back to win frame nine to close the gap to 6-4 but Wells made a crucial clearance to win frame ten to win the European snooker title. As Vincent’s Coach I was very proud of the way he played and it was a pleasure and an honour to coach him in the event because he was fantastic throughout the championship and his day will come soon to lift a major International title.
No Main Tour Ticket
World Snooker then refused Vincent his main tour ticket despite his incredible performance in the event and getting the European Billiards & Snooker Association official nomination for the spot. Despite this Vincent is now fully focused on winning another ticket soon to prove to World Snooker bosses that they were wrong to refuse him is place on the tour.
