Newtown native Jordan captures European titles
NEWTOWN native Jordan Synnott bagged the European under-23 pool team and singles titles after a scintillating few days of pool playing in Blackpool, England recently.
The former Mapgpie and Newtown Juniors player produced some sweet potting over the course of the competition to claim the crowns that saw them defeat the England B team in the team decider.
Jordan recalls with fondness the Sunday afternoons spent playing pool with his father and his friends in Newtown after football and soccer matches as the beginning of a love affair with the game.
“I always played a bit of pool in the pub up there on a Sunday with my father and a few of his mates and then when I moved down to Gorey and I got to know Jordan Doyle, he’s on the Irish team with me, and I went down to Breakers for a few games and I started playing then.
“I’m trying to get into snooker but it’s mainly pool for me,” he said.
Qualification for the Irish team requires players to be ranked in the top four in the country. Jordan’s certainly fitting that bill in 2017 having already won two Irish Pool Association tournaments out of four in a competition that features about 40 players from all over the country.
It was a tiring week of competition that led up to the team and singles finals for Jordan who recently started work at Kerry Foods in Shillelagh.
The team took a while to get up and running on the tables with defeats to Malta and France but they recorded victories against England B, Scotland, France B and Belgium to qualify for a place in the semi-final.
Once in the last four and with the momentum up it was going to be hard to stop the Irish lads and they had plenty of reason to be up for the game when they faced France who had already beaten them in the earlier stages.
The team produced some fine potting to get past the fancied French 5-1 and set up a final clash with England B who bettered their A colleagues in their semi-final.
The Irish team were flying at this stage and they just weren’t going to be stopped and Jordan set the ball rolling with victory in his first round and his colleeagues followed his example as they went on to record a 5-0 victory over the neighbours.
It was on to the singles then and Jordan accounted for the England captain Josh Kane in the quarter-finals before beating another British player Jack Smithers in a humdinger in the semi-final on a tight 6-5 margin.
That sent the former Newtown man into a decider against fellow Irish player Jamie Gaffney from Leitrim which Jordan came through 7-2.