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Ireland�s American 8 & 9 Ball Pool Tour
Ronnie Boyle
N.Ireland 07776365059
Rep of Ireland 0044 7776365059
www.irelands9balltour.com
rb@irelands9balltour.com

9 September 2006

Co. Down celebrate their victory after winning
the 2006 All Ireland Inter County 8-Aside 9-Ball Team Championships.

Co. Down Are Crowned 2006 All Ireland Inter County Team Champions

Co Down was crowned the 2006 All Ireland Inter County 8-Aside 9-Ball Team Champions at the weekend past after the grand-finals in this popular team event which took place in Mahon�s Hotel Co. Fermanagh played alongside the sports festivalwhich included pool, poker and darts for the first time in the four year history of the event.

Click on "Read More..." for the details.

The Down county came through a very tough group of teams finishing in runner-up spot in the group to reach the semi-final stages where they would come up against Co. Derry the current champions for the last three years, reputation didn�t stop these top Co. Down players believe when they ran out 11-10 winners after Derry made a fight back coming from 9-4 down to move into the 2006 final.

In the final the Co. Down players once again played superb pool beating Co. Antrim in a quality final who was classed as the tournament favourites after the Antrim lads toped there group with three wins out of three which included the defeat of Down but this time round it was the Down county who played superb pool in the final to run out the 2006 All Ireland Inter County 8-Aside 9-Ball Team Champions making it a double result for the county after they won the All Ireland 4-Aside Team Championships earlier this year.

The organisers of this popular event would like to congratulate the new champions in the manner they won this prestigious event when they where the only team throughout tournament to field a lady player who was Fiona Devine. Fiona stepped into the Down side for the late replacement for Ireland�s number two ranked player Paddy Mc Laughlin who was not to play under the following (Rule):�.. Any player can play for any 8-aside inter county team in Ireland but once they do they can�t play for any other team in the same competition over the years. Paddy had played for the Co. Armagh 8-aside county team in 2003 so there for he can�t play for any other county in the 8-aside event other that Co. Armagh.

Fiona played well throughout the tournament defeating a few top players along the way including Martin Whorisky (Derry) and the Meath captain Paul Tierney and just missing the 9-ball to defeat the tours number one seed Paul Bonner (Donegal)�Well done Fiona keep it up and hopefully we will have a ladies tour and ladies inter county team event up and running shortly.

Group 1:

Co. Antrim

Co. Down

Co. Meath

Co. Donegal

Group Winners: Co. Antrim

Group Runner-up: Co. Down

Group 2:

Co. Derry

Co. Tyrone (A)

Co. Dublin

Co. Donegal

Group Winners: Co. Derry

Group Runner-up: Tyrone (A)

Semi-Finals:

Co. Antrim bt Co. Tyrone (A)

Co. Down bt Co. Derry

Final:

Co. Down bt Co. Antrim

NOTE:

If anyone would like to see more photos and reports from Ireland's Sports Festival please visit the following two websites as they will be added.

www.irelands9balltour.com

www.rbirishdarts.com

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Brendan Mc Dermott (Donegal) is 2006 Captains Cup Shoot-Out Champion.

Saturday morning seen all the 8-aside inter county team captains gather for this popular event giving all the captains the chance to get there arm going before the big event starts which always has substantial prize-money on offer for the outright winner, runner-up, and semi-finals and it was the Donegal captain Brendan Mc Dermott who played outstanding pool to run out the 2006 captains cup champion with victories over Sam Gibson (Antrim), Manny Byrne (Down), and Gareth Deegan (Dublin) in the final.

Quarter-Finals

Gareth Deegan (Dublin)             3-1 Ronnie Boyle (Tyrone A)

Frank Fay (Tyrone B)                 3-1 Paul Strawbridge (Derry)

Brendan Mc Dermott (Donegal) 3-1 Sam Gibson (Antrim)

Manny Byrne (Down)                 3-2 Paul Tierney (Meath)

Semi-Finals

Gareth Deegan         3-0 Frank Fay

Brendan Mc Dermott 3-2 Manny Byrne

Final

Brendan Mc Dermott 3-2 Gareth Deegan

Co. Antrim 9-Ball Team:
Runner-up in the 2006 All Ireland Inter County 8-Aside 9-Ball Team Championships.

Ronnie Boyle (tournament director) presents the Co. Down captain Manny Byrne
with the perpetual cup and the prize-money for winning the 2006 All Ireland
Inter County 8-Aside 9Ball Team Championships.

The four players who reached the semi-finals in the captains cup are from LtoR:
Brendan Mc Dermott (Donegal, winner), Gareth Deegan (Dublin, runner-up),
Manny Byrne (Down, semi-finals), and Frank Fay (Tyrone B, semi-finals).