Ivy Rooms Snooker Club

7/28/2006 - By: Alan Regan

CARLOW’S renowned Ivy Rooms Snooker Club has firmly established itself as the main centre for snooker in Ireland. Every year it hosts many tournaments, from local to international, during the snooker season which runs from September to June. Open daily to members of the public, it offers 13 snooker tables, three American pool tables and two English pool tables.

It has welcomed some of snooker’s biggest names throughout the years, providing the venue when Marco Fu won the World Under-21 Championship in

1997. It has also hosted exhibitions with Jimmy White and, in 1997, Ken Doherty, shortly after he won the Embassy World Championship. It looks set to continue hosting major events in the future, and uniquely, admission for the public to these events is free.

Locally, the pool of talent is quite good, with lots of up-andcoming young Carlovians interested in the sport. Visitors from overseas enjoy coming to Carlow, where they are made feel more welcome in comparison to bigger cities. Recently, a team from Qatar had a three week training session with the club.

The vast array of memorabilia is noticeable to anyone who pays a visit. Inside the snooker hall, there is an archive with snooker magazines and programmes which has built up over the years.

While the club has enjoyed enviable success, there have been some problems. James Leacy is chairman of both the Republic of Ireland Billiards and Snooker Association (RIBSA) and the European equivalent, the EBSA.

Players play from 10am to midnight, seven days a week. However, Leacy told The Nationalist that the smoking ban was a big factor for a drop in business, which only picked up over the course of this year.

Another complaint is the lack of coverage the club gets. Despite the high-profile events staged in Carlow, there seems to be little interest in national print and television newsrooms. However, Leacy is determined to build on the successful reputation of the club.

“I’d like to set up a centre of excellence, with eight to ten tables at a professional standard. International and local visitors could use it to receive regular coaching, and it could be used for international competitions as well, on a separate floor to where we are. At least then we could train players here, rather than them going over to England.”

“It would be great to have more women playing the game as well. In Carlow there’s just the odd few, so we would be encour-aging more and more to play.”