Brannigan Cup Final   “Young One’s Stun Champion’s”   Q’s B 366 – St. Patrick’s 265.     The 1960’s hit song “The Young One’s” by Cliff Richard, would certainly have applied to these, I was going to say teenagers but as one of them is only 12, that doesn’t apply! The 12yr old is David Burns & he was first up against the experienced Stevie Massey. Young Burns has an angelic face & was dressed immaculately in a black bow tie. In the opening exchanges of the final, Burns, who has played both Mark Allen & World Snooker Champion John Higgins in recent exhibition matches, kept in touch with Massey. When Massey went ahead of Burns with a few small breaks, it looked ominous for the Q’s player. To his credit, Burns pulled back to take the lead going to the colours but Massey, one of the best potters in the league, took all the colours to win the frame by 26. Massey started the second frame confidently but young Burns, a pleasant young chap & a breath of fresh air to the league, started to play much better & by the time the colours had arrived, he had wiped out the first frame deficit & put his side in front. Despite Massey potting brown & blue, he went in-off the pink twice & Burns then potted pink & black for a 48 point win & a 22 point advantage overall for his team.   Who better to have to pull back a deficit for you than double individual winner Gary McMaster? McMaster was up against one of the most improved players in the league, Lorcan Tumelty, the Q’S captain. McMaster started confidently enough with an early break of 19 but again, as in the first match, the young Q’s player showed scant respect for his illustrious opponent by taking the game to the St. Patrick’s player. Tumelty started to pot more consistently & shocked McMaster by taking the first frame by 5 points. McMaster knew a good start was needed in the second frame if his team were going to have a say in the destination of the cup. However, the fluency was missing from the talented McMaster & Tumelty was scoring better than the St. Patrick’s captain. Tumelty lead by 16 points going to the colours & increased that to 25 when he potted yellow, green & brown. McMaster potted the blue but a fortunate pink & an excellent black by Tumelty gave the Q’s captain a win by 33.   Coupled with a first match win, this left the Q’s team ahead by 60 points. St. Patrick’s showed why they are going to be a force to be reckoned with again this year when they introduced Kenny Connolly as their third man. Gary McMaster can sometimes afford to leave out his brother Brian & super sub Davy Riddell.   Connolly’s opponent was Thomas Beckett. The St. Patrick’s player, like his first two compatriots, couldn’t get away to a good start. This allowed young Beckett to dominate. Early small breaks by Beckett dented any chance of St. Patrick’s had to make inroads into Q’s substantial lead & despite Connolly’s valiant efforts, Beckett had played brilliantly to extend Q’s lead to an impressive 101 points. Although Connolly played on in the final frame, the final as a contest was over.   The young team had pulled off a fantastic result & I don’t think that this will be the last you will be hearing from this superlative trio! The smile on young burns face was, as they say, worth the admission fee alone!   Chairman Billy Watson thanked Eamonn’s for holding the final & congratulated Q’s B on their first success.   By Tom Hogan.