Richie Toal claims eighth snooker championship title
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Richie Toal and Mick Kane before the start of the Mullingar Open snooker championship final.Image 2 of 4
Richie Toal with the 'Shane P O’Connor' Championship Cup following his victory.Image 3 of 4
Gerry Cleary of Cleary Electrical, presenting sponsorship to Michael Kane, club chairman.Image 4 of 4
The 2026 Mullingar Open Snooker Championship Final was held in St Mary’s Snooker Club rooms on Bishopsgate St Mullingar in the last couple of weeks for the ‘Shane O’Connor Snr’ Mullingar Championship Cup.
The final was the best of nine frames between Mick Kane and Richie Toal, two very experienced players: the twelve time Champion Mick Kane took on the formidable seven-time champion in Richie Toal. There were some excellent exchanges and, in the end, Richie took the spoils, claiming the title with a 67-66 win in frame eight to secure the title.
The referee was Ger O’Connor and Pat Donohoe acted as score keeper.
The match started with Mick Kane breaking off and an edgy affair followed as Richie was struggling to find any form and Mick Kane was potting every red that was left on the length of the table. The first frame was close and went down to the black ball in favour of Mick.
Mick Kane actually was playing some great solid snooker and ran into a two frames to one lead. Those in attendance wondered if Richie could get going and in the fourth frame, Mick again prevailed to extend his lead to three frames to one.
Frame five saw Richie play some nice safety and he knocked in a super 64 clearance to trail three two. Frame six went to Richie who was playing tight snooker. After the break in the previous frame, he was looking confident and was four-three ahead.
In the final frame of the match, Richie was in complete control, but Kane had other ideas and managed to get Richie in an impossible snooker and he dropped twenty odd points. Another snooker by Kane followed and Richie needed to clear blue to black to win by one solitary point. He showed great composure to win on the black and regain the title. In doing so, he recorded his eighth win in the event.
Final score: Richie Toal 5 - 3 Mick Kane.
(Scores 40-52, 54-9, 21-41, 47-58, 93-7, 46-21, 50-4, 67-66).
The Honorary Club Secretary thanked our sponsor Cleary Electrical, represented by Anthony Cleary (and the Mullingar Championship Cup was an original gift from Shane P O’Connor) for sponsoring this event.
He also thanked all the players for supporting the tournament and the other winners of prizes were as follows:
Quarter-finalists:
Stephen von Beaumont, Niall Heffernan, Neil Moran, Rory Fagan.
Semi Finalists:
Davan Clarke, James Doherty.