Our rich ‘pool’ of talent hit the road to the Euros
FOUR of the best pool players in County Wicklow will embark on a journey to Malta this week to represent Ireland in the European Pool Championships which get underway on February 17.
Barry Norton, who plays with the Woodpecker team in Ashford and who is also a member of the Wicklow Pool team, will be joined by Wayne Brennan who is a member of the O’Connor’s Tinahely pool team and who also plays on the county team along with Barry.
Joining the two lads will be the very capable mother and daughter combination of Suzanne and Danielle Randle from Glenealy who will take to the green cloth in Malta in the Irish jersey over the coming days.
Danielle Randle is one of the most talented female pool players in the country and has recently returned from a stint in England where she was honing her skills on the table. Sources in the game strongly believe that the young Glenealy native has the talent to go on and claim a world title in the next few years is she continues to progress in the game as she has been doing.
She has also received a sports scholarship in 2016 on foot of her serious talent in the game.
Suzanne was a late comer to the game of pool and has only been playing for 18 months but in her first year of ranking made it to number four on the table.
Making the Irish team is based on rankings within Ireland and to gain ranking points you must attend tournaments within the country.
Wayne Brennan began his pool playing days in pubs in Carnew as a young teenager. He recalls throwing the 20p on the side of the table and waiting up to two hours for a game. He played on the Wexford team for five years and was beaten in the All-Ireland final, a result he describes as “sickening”.
Barry Norton has made the switch over to pool from the world of snooker having represented Wicklow in the All-Irelands.