THE BIG ONE Just 10 Days to go to the BIG ONE and with €7500 prizemoney players will be starting to put in their final preparation. Jimmy Fleming has the tables in perfect order with the 3 tables just been recently recovered and everybody is rearing to go in Courtown. The atmosphere should be electric from the very start and Gavin Cleary will be looking to defend his title against another top class field. Over the next 10 Days we are going to be previewing each of the first round match ups where other players can give their views on who is going to walk away with the €3500 first prize. The first match we will look at is as follows: MATCH TIME : 11:00AM Declan Hough (Outright 3/1) v Jordan Synnott (Outright 16/1) Where better to start the analysis of the Big 1 with pretournament favourite Declan Hough. Declan was installed as favourite primarily on the basis of his performances towards the end of last season. Declan won his first IPA tour event beating Dave Kelly in the final and then also reached the final of the Irish Championships losing to Stephen Dempsey by the odd frame in Ennis last June. There’s no doubt if this tournament had been played a number of months ago he would have been the player to beat. He has been a regular member of Irish teams over the last 8 years and has been consistently in the top 12 in the IPA rankings come the end of every season. Declan is a very consistent performer and his approach and attitude towards the event will be first class. He has a very good all round game and will be well able to mix it in any type of game. He has earned his role as favourite and whoever beats him will have achieved a huge scalp. Declan’s opponent is the youngest competitor in the tournament Jordan Synnott from Wexford. Jordan is one of the up and coming players in Ireland at the moment and is a regular winner on the Irish Junior tour and Under 23 circuit. Jordan has also been a member of the Irish Junior team for the last 2 years and will undoubtedly be one of the future stars of the game in Ireland. I don’t think there is any doubt that Jordan will handle the occasion of playing for big money as he gets regular pocket money from George Tierney at the IPA events. While the youngest competitor Jordan still has a very good all round game and can mix it in the tactical department if the match goes like that. However he’s at his best in a free flowing open affair. This is one of the first matchs in the tournament and there’s no doubt Jordan will have plenty of home support. Declan’s experience will be key and it will be upto Declan to take advantage and use that experience. Most people will fancy Declan because of that experience but experience will be only be a factor if Declan makes it a factor. Jordan is hugely talented and if theres any chink in Declan’s armour then there’s no doubt it will be exposed. This should be a cracker of a match to watch and highly entertaining as both players are relatively quick and free flowing.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 15:08:24 +0000