Omagh cueist captures European pool crown

OMAGH’S Dale Booth achieved the biggest success of his pool career last month when he won the European Under-25 Individual 8-Ball champion at the Gleneagles Hotel in Killarney, Co Kerry.

The former Omagh Academy pupil played some of his best pool ever in the process, defeating a host of top players en route to clinching victory in a thrilling decider against England’s Jasper Simmonds.

The final saw the two young men going toe-to-toe with the lead swinging back and forth before the Tyrone player took his chance to seal European glory.

“It’s a good feeling to be European champion,” he beamed. “The final went down to the decider at 7-6.

“I got into a good lead at 3-1 but then went 5-4 down and then 6-5 up before he pulled me back to 6-6 so it was a tense enough deciding frame!

“It got scrappy but he gave me a chance towards then end and I managed to pull myself together.”

En route to the decider, Booth defeated Ireland’s Barry Sinnott 5-1 in the last-32; England’s Steve Richie 5-3 in the last-16; England’s Adam Glover 5-1 in the quarter-finals and then he took the scalp of scalps in the semis, defeating overwhelming favourite, Malta’s Dejan Grech 6-3.

“I had a good rythm going but the semi-final was against the Maltese player who was the favourite for the whole thing and he actually won the men’s title, so I played very well to beat him,” Booth added.

“He is the European men’s champion and he won everything in sight that week, including the team event and I was the only man to beat him.”

Dale first picked up a cue at the age of five when ‘Santa’ brought him a pool table. From those fledgling days playing at home, he soon progressed to competing locally before Fintona’s Ronnie Boyle, who organises tournaments across Ireland and coaches up and coming local talent, took him under his wing.

After that, the Omagh man started to develop into a player to watch and even though he has been focused more on his studies – he graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Queen’s University, Belfast – than on his pool over the last six years, he is the reigning Tyrone Individual champion and won the Irish King of the Hill crown before capturing European glory.

The next target for Dale is to help Tyrone’s A team to victory at the All-Ireland Team Championships in May and then individually he hopes to excel at the Word Championships in October.