DECLAN Hughes claimed victory in the second ranking event on the NIBSA calendar, played at Blackstaff Snooker Club in Belfast and sponsored by That Prize Guy.
The Armagh man withstood a fightback from Belfast teenager Joel Connolly in Sunday’s decider, sealing a 5-3 victory with a break of 87 after Connolly had reduced a 4-1 deficit to 4-3.
Hughes, who is now up to number six on the ranking list, had earlier taken the scalp of number two ranked Raymond Fry (4-2) in the quarter-finals, before seeing off David O’Neill from the host club in the last four, while Connolly accounted for Alastair Wilson and Colin Anderson to reach the decider.
Connolly’s fine start to the season – he reached the semi-finals in ranking event one at Minnesota Snooker Club in Ballymena, losing to O’Neill – puts him at a career high number three on the list behind Fry and Patrick Wallace, who didn’t play at Blackstaff.
Fry’s Antrim colleague Declan Lavery is at four; O’Neill is up to five, with Sean Gray and Colin Anderson, winner at Minnesota, completing the top eight behind Hughes.
There’s no time for a breather as ranking event three, the Drumaness Masters, cues off this weekend, with Connolly defending the title he won in impressive fashion last year, dropping just four frames.
Qualifying stages will take place over the next two weekends, with the main competition taking place on December 13-14. The semi-finals will be played on December 16, with the winner of the Jimmy McGivern Memorial Trophy known the following evening.
