POOL | Kelly overcomes Brady to be crowned Individual Pool League champion

Duo play out a thrilling 11-frame encounter

The last action of the 2016/2017 Tuborg Dundalk Pool League season took place on Monday night when Avenue Rovers teammates Paul Kelly and Pat Brady met in the Individual final.

Played over the best of 13 frames, Pat was attempting to defend his title but after breaking in the first frame, he left the cue ball on the table to give Paul two shots.

Paul potted his seven colours only to miss a difficult long black. This gave Pat a chance and he potted one of his reds and then put Paul in a snooker. When Paul failed to get out of it, Pat cleared the table with his two shots to take a 1–0 lead.

In the second frame, Paul broke but missed a pot into the middle pocket and Pat took his chance to clear the table and open up a 2–0 lead.

Pat had the first chance in frame three but when he missed a difficult cut to the corner pocket Paul seized the opportunity and cleared the table to get his first frame on the scoreboard.

Both players had chances in frame four but eventually it was Paul who potted the black to level the scores at 2–2.

In the fifth, both players again had chances but it was Paul who ran out winner to go 3–2 in front and he extended his lead to 4–2 when Pat failed to get out of a snooker in the sixth.

In frame seven it was Paul who failed to get out of a snooker, allowing Pat to clear the table and reduce the deficit to one, 4–3.

The next three frames were won by the player breaking and going onto to clear the table. Paul broke in frames eight and 10 to move 6–4 in front.

In frame 11, Pat almost repeated his previous break only to miss an attempted pot on his second last red but Paul went on to pot five of his colours before running out of position.

This gave Pat a slim chance and he was unfortunate not to pot his last red off the yellow, paving the way for Paul to clear the table and win the match, and title, on a 7–4 scoreline.