Munster Express Online

Andrew Gray

Waterford’s Andrew Gray is set for the biggest match of his young snooker career to date this Saturday night when he takes on World Champion John Higgins in the World Series in Kilarney.

The 16-year-old from Catherine’s Grange in the City plays out of Waterford Snooker Centre in Tramore and has been given this opportunity after finishing in the top four players in the Irish Under-19 Rankings.

The other three players will face Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty and Jimmy White but it’s the Waterford youngster who has been given the tie of the round against the newly crowned World Champion.

To make it even more daunting the match is due to be screened live on Eurosport to millions of spectators across Europe and the World via internet.

The match up is part of the John Higgins inspired World Series of Snooker which John set up last year to promote the game across Europe and eventually the world.

Higgins saw the growth in snooker in mainland Europe and instead of sitting back waiting for World Snooker to react set up the series which was played in Jersey, Germany, Poland, Russia and Portugal in what was the first instalment of the series.

The Killarney event will be played in the INEC in the Gleneagle Hotel and is the first event of the 2009 series with many more planned over the coming months. The four youngsters will play the pro’s in the quarter-finals on Saturday with the semi finals and final on Sunday. Tickets for the event are only €10 per session for the four sessions or €30 for a weekend pass and are available from the INEC website.

Corrigan misses out on Irish No1 spot

Waterford Snooker Centre’s Joe Corrigan has narrowly missed out on finishing No1 in the Irish Intermediate Series this season after losing out in the quarter finals of the championships in Celbridge last Saturday. Joe had led the series for most of the season after winning events in Waterford and Galway but due to work commitments missed both events in Shannon and Letterkenny meaning he had to reach the final of the championships to stay No1. The quarter-final defeat to Celbridge’s Phil Arnold means that either Limerick’s Jason Waters or Kilkenny’s Benny O’Brien will now finish No1 depending on who wins the championship final in a couple of weeks time. All Waterford’s players will be eligible to compete in the series next season after missing most of the senior events this season and thus the club should have a good chance of picking up several titles next season after winning three out of the six events this year.

Thursday night flyer

We run a weekly flyer every Thursday night out in the club that is open to anyone interested in a bit of fun competition. It’s only €7 to play in the best of three frame event which includes all light fees and generous handicaps are given up to 60 points.

The winners to date have been Michael Walsh (+60), Dylan Rees (Scratch), Richie Flynn (+20) and Jason Houlihan (+30). So if your interested just pop out to the club before 6.45 on Thursday and put in your name. All matches are played on the night and it’s generally finished before 10.30pm.