There was a great turn-out of about 150 people for ‘The Snooker Exhibition’ with Ken Doherty and ‘The Whirlwind’ Jimmy White that was hosted by the UCD Pool & Snooker Club in conjunction with UCD Ents on Monday last, the 4th of April in the UCD Astra hall.

The pre-match VIP food and drink reception began at 6.00 p.m. as Steven O’Reilly, President of the UCD Pool & Snooker Club, introduced both players to the guests. Ken & Jimmy proceeded to sign autographs and have pictures taken with the ever enthusiastic fans.

At approximately 7.00 p.m. the MC for the night, Mr. Brendan Lacey introduced himself and welcomed the crowd to the UCD Astra Hall and to ‘The Snooker Exhibition’ with Ken Doherty and ‘The Whirlwind’ Jimmy White. He proceeded to inform the audience of the house rules and also the format of the night, including the chance for of one of the Audience members to play a frame of snooker with Ken Doherty.

Brian Lacey then introduced Jimmy White by giving a brief history of the fantastic career he has had. ‘This man launched into a snooker career at a very early age. In 1979 he won the English Amateur Championship, followed in 1980 by becoming the youngest-ever winner of the World Amateur Snooker Championship at the age of 18. He turned pro in the same year and this was the start of a professional career which has secured him a place in snooker history as one of the true greats. With 23 professional titles under his belt, including 10 ranking titles, the ‘People’s Champion’ is one of the world’s snooker legends. He has played in 25 World Championship tournaments between 1981 and 2009, reaching the final in 1984 and the years 1990-1994.’

Jimmy then played 3 of the UCD Pool & Snooker Club A team players, namely Micheal Curley (1^st Year Maths & Sociology student), Kevin Cradden (Final Year French & English student) and Ger Sheehy (Final Year Agricultural Science student). Jimmy knocked in an excellent 134 break against Micheal, who only had 2 shots in the frame. Kevin had a couple of more chances but Jimmy continued to entertain the crowd with another excellent clearance. Then it was Ger’s turn. Ger, a well-known character to many, possibly tried to off put Jimmy with a bit of banter and also an outrageous fluke to which the crowd cheered and expressed delight! Ger went on to pot a number of difficult shots before again being subject to Jimmy’s deadly precision potting.

Then as Jimmy went backstage, Mr Ken Doherty was introduced by the MC with the following speech:

This Irishman turned professional in 1990 after winning the World Amateur Championship in 1989. It took until the 1993 Welsh Open for him to win his first ranking title. Renowned as a tough opponent, he has gone on to win a total of 6 ranking titles, 11 ranking finals and also 11 non-ranking victories to date. One of the ranking titles was of course the World Championship in 1997 at The Crucible where he beat Stephen Hendry 18-12 in the final to claim the trophy after which he paraded his silverware at his favourite football team, Manchester United’s grounds, Old Trafford, in front of 55,000 spectators following his World Championship triumph. He thus became the first player ever to win both the World Amateur and World Professional Championships.

Ken first faced a challenge from UCD’s Joe Thompson a second year Mechanical Engineering student who very pleasingly took an early lead in his frame after Ken made a couple of uncharacteristic misses. Joe also had luck on his side a number of times which got the crowd on his side as he portrayed himself as a worthy underdog. Ken eventually won the frame, which led to the final challenge frame from the UCD players of the night. This came from club President, Steven O’Reilly. Having played 3 professionals already, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis and being introduced as beating Ronnie O’Sullivan on the black ball aged 15 and with a highest break of 142, Ken knew he had a serious game at hand. Ken left Steven with a difficult safety shot immediately after the break-off. Steven couldn’t see an easy way out and attempted an ambitious shot which ended up in him accidentally potting a red. This prompted Ken to ask ‘Who are you backing in the national?’ Both Ken & Jimmy as always like to crack a few jokes, maintaining a very relaxed and entertaining ambience within the hall.  It turned out that it wasn’t Steven’s night as Ken cleared the table, leaving just 1 red on the table. As Steven knew he couldn’t win, he took some initiative and tried to entertain the spectators with a number of exhibition shots, going off multiple cushions to try and pot the remaining colours with Ken following same.

And so it was the turn of one of the members of the audience to play Ken. People had the opportunity of purchasing a ticket for €5 in order for them to get a chance to play a frame with Ken Doherty. The ticket was drawn and the lucky member of the audience played a frame against Ken, albeit to no avail but none the less a very enjoyable game I’m sure!

And so the passing of this frame led to the interval where there was a raffle for some very good prizes including 2 signed Riley Snooker Cues by Ken and Jimmy, 4 signed photos and 2 bottles of wine, 1 red and 1 white.

After the Interval, both players were reintroduced and began to play a best of 7 match. Jimmy took the first frame knocking in a 92 break, missing the penultimate ball for what surely would have been a century. Ken went on to take the next frame with a 131 century break. The next 2 also went Ken’s way with Jimmy breaking down on 40 and 50 respectively time and then Ken clearing the table. Jimmy then steadied form to take the next 2 frames with ease. This led the players into a final frame decider! It was a very close frame all the way with no great breaks to write home about. It eventually came down to the black ball. Both players had numerous attempts at the black but perhaps some nerves crept in as each time the players missed. Jimmy hammered the black towards the bottom right-hand corner but the ball jawed and flew back out of the pocket. Ken then played a poor safety before Jimmy sinked a ½ ball black into the middle.

Both players were applauded and with a standing ovation. The night was concluded by both the MC and by Steven O’Reilly by thanking both players for a fantastic performance, along with everybody for attending and supporting the event. Also he mentioned ctn, which filmed the event and thanked everyone involved for making it such a success. He would also like to thank his girlfriend Sarah for all the help and support she gave him both in the organisation in the run up to the event and for all her help on the night.