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The first weekend on the 16th, 17th and 18th of January will see 24 Munster Club teams compete for the oldest of the events which has now been running for
27 years at the venue. Waterford Snooker Club's "A" team won the event last year but will be without the services of Vincent Muldoon this season as professional players are not allowed compete. Waterford
defeated the New Institute team from Nenagh in the Munster final 3-2 thanks to wins from Muldoon, Jonathan Grant and Joe Corrigan but Nenagh then went on to shrug off the loss and come back stronger the following
week for the All Ireland's and run out overall champions. 2009 will see some rule changes that
have caused some controversy as they restricted the movement of top club players switching between clubs and several top Irish players such as Tom Gleeson, Martin McCrudden and World Championship finalist Colm Gilcreest will
now either have to stay with their current club or sit out the event for a year should they still want to switch. The
rules will deny Nenagh born Gleeson from returning to his original home town club the New Institute which would have made a formidable team which already consists of top Irish Internationals Brendan O'Donoghue and David
Hogan. Munsters other top team the New Vic is now under new management and has been
renamed The Venetian and will surely give Waterford and Nenagh a run for their money this year despite the loss of their two top players. The Venetian will be without the services of Irish No.1 Mario Fernandez and Irish No.3
John Torpey but with five of their 7 squad players regular Irish Top 32 players you can never write them off. The
format of short best of three frame matches means anything can happen in the early group stage matches and should any of the Top 3 clubs slip up it could be there, however clubs such as the improving Crucible Snooker
Club , Youghal and Fermoy will always be a treat for the title as might Shannon this year with club owner Leonard Shanahan in superb form of late. Ladbrokes
will as always have a presence at the venue and plenty will be wagered over the weekend on the final result and the Gleneagle bar will also be coining it in from what is as always a very social weekend. Here
is a list of a few of the teams involved: Waterford "A": Jonathan Grant, Tom O'Driscoll, Ray Power,
Joe Corrigan & Robbie Walker New Institute "A": Brendan O'Donoghue, David Hogan, Mark Walsh, Paudie
Kelly, Patsy Farrell, Damien Shoer Venetian "A": Jason Waters, Frank Sarsfield, Kevin McMahon, Vincent
Meaney, Thomas Hickey, Muhammad Atiq, Mike Howley Waterford "B": Dillon Rees, Darren Merza, Andrew
Gray, John Paul Kelly & Eddie Keenan.
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