Dungloe’s Shaun Sharkey led by instance as he captained the Irish males’s group to the European 8-ball pool title within the INEC, Killarney at the moment.
In actual fact, there was double pleasure for Donegal because the group was managed by Culdaff native, Charlie Ruddy.
Shaun has captained the nationwide group for the previous few years, a testomony not solely to his skills with a cue, but in addition to his ardour and skill to foster a never-say-die perspective in a group. Certainly, he led an unfancied Donegal group to All-Eire glory in 2021.
Nonetheless, this time his group had been confronted with much more daunting odds. Some poor leads to the round-robin levels meant that Eire needed to win their final two group matches to even make the knockout levels.
A tough fought victory over defending champions, France, stored their hopes alive. That was adopted by an all-or-nothing conflict with Wales, the place a tense 8-7 victory pipped the Crimson Dragons to the final remaining semi-final spot.
Eire beat table-toppers and heavy favourites, England, within the semi ultimate with some imperious pool. Most followers would’ve given Eire solely a small likelihood of victory, however nearly nobody might’ve foretold an 8-2 demolition of one of many strongest groups ever assembled on paper.
Within the ultimate towards Malta, Eire continued to go from power to power, recording a complete 8-4 victory.
And it was becoming that it was their talismanic Rosses captain – Shaun didn’t lose a degree within the knockout levels – who sealed the ultimate body with a nerveless clearance, sparking nice scenes of euphoria amongst the group and supporters.
Donegal males assist Eire declare European Pool Title was final modified: February twenty ninth, 2024 by
