It’s a well-worn cliché that there are fine margins between success and failure in sport. In the case of Shaun Sharkey’s Challenger Series final, that description was entirely apt, as 1-2 millimetres probably cost him one of the biggest titles in Amateur Pool.
When the Dungloe native reflects back on the weekend, he may rue his luck in the final, but he will surely be immensely proud of his exploits overall.
On the Friday night he came through a tough qualifying competition for one of the biggest amateur events ever to be held. His three victories (8-4, 8-4, 8-5) took him through to the TV stages in September, where 64 players will compete for a massive prize pot.
Saturday saw him start out in another competition with 287 other players. The prize on offer was a de-facto place in Ultimate Pool’s Professional ranks and a winner’s check for 7K sterling (the runner-up received £3,000.)
Shaun had to win six matches just to make Sunday’s last four – which were streamed live on the Ultimate Pool platform. He duly accomplished this but, given the high quality field, it was far from straightforward. Progress included a number of last frame deciders, including one where his opponent cleared the table up until a relatively straightforward black. He missed, and Shaun gratefully took out the counter-clearance.
Sunday’s semi-final against England’s Scott Pope was a high quality affair that went right down to the wire. Shaun had the break in the decider – when he got a ball down from that break, he didn’t err in taking out a superb. composed finish to book his place in the final.
And so to the final and that millimetre defining moment. His match with Ryan Davie from Scotland was nip-and-tuck all the way. At three all, Shaun broke and went for game. To do so, he had to dislodge the black (which was tied up by one of Ryan’s yellows). His attempt was almost perfect, but the yellow still obscured the black from potting by the tiniest of margins. Shaun hung the black, and Ryan played a very poor safety shot but fluked a snooker that Shaun failed to extract himself from.
With the final scoreline of 6 frames to 5 in favour of the Scottish cueist, that two frame swing in the seventh frame could be seen as the defining point in the match. However, with some sub-par performances in recent months for Shaun, this weekend saw the 2022 All-Ireland Singles Champion back to his best form, which augurs well for the remaining events.
