Adrian Ridley and Mia Macheda after claiming their first Club Mulwala Snooker Club Doubles championship title.
The 2023 ClubMulwala Snooker Club doubles champions have been crowned after the niece and uncle combination of Mia Macheda and Adrian Ridley prevailed over defending champions Darren and Jake Thompson in a very family friendly final.
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Mia and Adrian took the best of three frame contest 2/0 after comfortably taking the first and holding out a determined comeback from Jake and Darren in frame 2.
At age 12, Mia is the second youngest player (in front of her younger brother Luca) and this is her first of what we all believe will be many club level titles.
Adrian has won this event a couple of times before in partnership with Mia’s mother, Samantha Ridley, in what has become an exceptional family snooker achievement.
Father and son combination Darren and Jake are multiple club doubles and singles champions and defended this title admirably again this year.
Monday, October 23 saw the final of the 2023 Club Challenge event for which players qualified through the regular monthly rounds.
The format of this contest is “double elimination”, meaning contestants can lose a match and still make it through to the final table. After dropping his second-round match, Luca Macheda fought his way back to the final with multiple wins and squared off against the defending singles club champion in Heie Hansen.
Heie was undefeated in getting to the final, which gave him the right to take the match to a second frame after Luca took the first.
Heie then claimed victory in the winner take all second frame, whilst Luca recorded his best finish to date in a club level event.
Next up is the Blue Ribbon event, the singles Club Championship.
Heie Hansen is defending champion who has displayed excellent form all year. He will be challenged by former champions in Jake and Darren Thompson with other worthy opponents including Tony Cincotta, Rick Conomy and Darren Edwards to name a few.
Qualifying rounds were played last Sunday with the best of five frame final played on Monday. Best of luck to all contestants in this prestigious competition.
Doubles Championship finalists (L to R) Darren Thompson, Mia Macheda, Jake Thompson and Adrien Ridley.
In another family-based contest, Jack Bassett emulated his beloved Pies when he took out Blues loving father Jason in the final of the social event of Wednesday, October 18.
Jack’s sheer enjoyment of the sport is a pleasure to behold, and he quite possibly appreciated this victory as highly as some of the elite level tennis achievements he has recorded. Wednesday, October 25 saw Michael Barclay taking the chocolates from Ben Dundee, who was gunning for his third win in four weeks.
Michael and Darren Edwards are fighting out our Player of the Year award and the points Michael picked up will help his cause greatly in that regard.
As can be seen on the ClubMulwala website and in its members newsletter, the snooker club welcome new members or anyone who may like to give snooker a try. ClubMulwala sponsors the snooker club very generously so value for money ratio for players is very high indeed.
There are a variety of events held every Monday and Wednesday evening and there are plenty of opportunities for new players to join or come along to try the facilities out.
The snooker club have 2 excellently maintained full size tables, which have recently been re-surfaced and a new state of the art lighting system.
The snooker room is available for competition, practice and visitor use, and the club has its own regularly updated handicapping system to ensure players from beginners to advanced level can compete equally.
There are also plenty of experienced and skilled players (including the current Oceania Masters champion) who can help with advice and tips on how to improve your game or perhaps adapt it for those who have played pub or social pool in the past.
Please contact the snooker club on either 0497 062443 or 0418 361779 or visit on a Wednesday evening before 7PM if you would like to give snooker a try.
