BY MATTHEW WILSON
THE excitement is building amongst members of the local pool community ahead of the County Championships which takes place across three days this weekend.
The Donegal County Pool Championships will commence this Friday at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Letterkenny and will run right through to its conclusion on Sunday.
It’s a highly anticipated event on the local pool calendar and a member of the committee at the Donegal Pool Association, Rosey McGuigan, stated that they’re working hard in preparation for this weekend’s competition.
“We’ve all hands on deck now this week. We have our tables coming in now on Thursday from Barry Dempsey, we’re getting our trophies together, getting our banners done up for our sponsors and we’ll also have streaming tables available. There will be shared links for that through the website and the Facebook page, Donegal Pool Association.”
A huge turnout is expected at the annual event this weekend, with close to 300 players already registered for competition.
There’s a number of different categories for players to participate in and the action will commence with the under 23 and over 40 competitions on the Friday evening.
The following day, the team events will take place, with a large number of teams participating in the A and B team of four competitions.
The championships will finish on Sunday, with the main event singles, the B singles as well as the ladies singles taking centre stage.
It’s brilliant to see the large turnout which has grown in numbers over the years and speaking to the Donegal News, McGuigan expressed that the discipline in the sport has improved along with the numbers.
“It’s great to see the turnout for it, the discipline in the sport has really grown. It used to always be associated with a pub sport but now even with the dress code, you’ve to wear your smart shoes, dress trousers, your appropriate top, be punctual and just respect the jersey that you’ve on you, it’s become really good.”
With so many high-callibre players, Donegal consistently performs well at the All-Ireland Pool Championships and this competition will serve them well as the gear towards the latest national championships which takes place next month in Killarney.
Many of those players are in action this weekend at the Radisson Blu Hotel where the competition will be fierce as they take to the baize in persuit of the title and McGuigan highlighted how encouraging it is to witness the talent that has emerged from the area.
“I’m very heavily involved with the ladies. Last week, we had three ladies away in Gibraltar playing in the Nations Cup. This weekend, Mini Morris from Bundoran has trials for an Irish team to go to Morocco for the Worlds in September.
“We obviously have the likes of Shaun Sharkey as well who is a very prominent figure in Donegal Pool, it’s great to have him.
“There’s also a young lad called Darragh Gallagher and Sean Devenney who is making massive strides in both the pool and snooker world which is amazing to see.”
Rosey herself is participating in this weekend’s event where she will be looking to be competitive but more importantly enjoy the experience.
The County Championships is a competition that she always eagerly anticipates on the calendar and with the ever-rising level of pool in the area, she expressed that predicting a winner from the ladies and over 40 competitions this weekend proves very challenging.
“A few of us were at a tournament in Antrim last weekend and I’m really looking forward to it now. Out of all the events throughout the year, we always seem to enjoy the County Championship.
“I’m looking forward to it. Between the ladies and the over 40s competition, it’s going to be very hard to pick out who’s going to take it because the standard has grown so much over the years.”
The local community have helped the Donegal Pool Association in the lead-up to this weekend’s event by providing them with sponsorship for the competition.
It’s not too late to support the event or even put your name in the draw for the latest edition of the County Pool Championships, with Rosey mentioning that the payment links for all are on the Donegal Pool Association.
McGuigan concluded by wanting to thank the sponsors for the County Pool Championships for the support that they have displayed with their contributions.
“We’d like to thank all of our sponsors. We still have some coming in but we’d just like to thank anyone that has helped out and we’re just looking forward to this weekend now.”