Teen Kilkenny potter beats twin sister (and the mother!) to pocket national crown
By COLIN BARTLEY
A KILKENNY teenager blazed her way to All-Ireland glory on the green baize of the snooker table, beating her mother and twin sister along the way.
Carrie Randle, from Garringreen, won the Republic of Ireland Ladies Snooker Association’s (RILSA) Intermediate Championship. But she had to see off her mother Suzanne in the semi-final and twin sister Megan in the final before being crowned champion.
Carrie said she was “absolutely delighted” to come out on top at the tournament held in Dublin over the weekend. Not only did she win the coveted trophy, but she also pocketed something money can’t buy.
“I now have bragging rights over my mum and twin for the next year, that’s as important,” Carrie joked.
And you can chalk that down as her twin Megan was the reigning champion. Carrie was delighted to take the title from her twin in the final, but that victory was tinged with mixed emotions.
“I commiserated before I celebrated. I went straight over to Megan and gave her a hug before I even thought about myself and the win.”
“But to be the best you have to beat the best, and certainly Megan is up there with the best,” Carrie told KilkennyNow.ie.
On the way to the title, not only did Carrie knock her sister off top spot, she didn’t balk at having to beat her mother, Suzanne, in the semi-final, but Carrie said business is business: “It’s funny but I didn’t feel strange beating my mother at all.
“In last year’s tournament Megan beat her at the semi-final stage, so Megan had done it first. Now she has been beaten by both of us at that point,” Carrie added.
“Going into these tournaments you can’t let things like playing Megan or your mother get to you. You have to go into these situations confident and with an attitude that you can be beaten by no one.”
Carrie and twin Megan have been living in Kilkenny for ten years now, after moving here from Wicklow. And it was there that their love of the game started.
“Our dad had a 3/4 -sized table and it was our older sister Danielle that really got into playing the sport first. She was very good. When she was in college she started playing in some Irish Pool Association (IPA) tournaments, and very soon she was ranked No. 1 in the country,” Carrie explained.
Carrie and Megan got involved playing tournaments after Danielle won the All-Ireland U-21 pool championship in 2015 and then the 2016 Irish Amateur Pool championship.
“It was because of Danielle’s success that Mum, Megan and I were also asked to play in these tournaments with the IPA.”
“So three years ago I started playing with the IPA and then two years ago we got involved with the RILSA snooker tournaments. I have loved it ever since,” the Kilkenny hot-shot explained.
While the success Carrie and her twin Megan have had makes it hard to avoid each other in tournaments, do they mind living in each other’s pockets.
“Well no not really,” Carrie joked. “We live together, we practice together, we compete together and we work together. We both finished school last year and have taken a year out to decide what we are going to do. We work together in a restaurant in Kilkenny at the moment so we are around each other a lot, but it’s great,” Carrie admitted.
If the opportunity arose, Carrie said she would jump at the chance to take up the sport full-time, but there’s currently no opportunity to do so.
“It would be great if I could turn professional but there isn’t really a professional game out there at present, so it would be very difficult to make a career from it,” she explains.
“We play internationally with the IPA and later this year there is a tournament here in Ireland in snooker with RILSA and we will be in those.”
And the talented Kilkenny family are looking forward to doing battle for the national snooker prize again next year – and racking up even more titles for team Randle!
