All-Ireland Championships 2008

The first All-Ireland Table Football Championships in Dunmurry attracted 15 entrants - 11 from North of the border and 4 from the South. Kenny Beggs won the Open and Veterans, beating Davy Clegg in both finals. Peter Morrison took the U19 title ahead of runner-up, Adam Scullion and John Moore won the Plate, with a victory over Stephen Rodgers in the final.

Three of the four groups in the Open event were won by the seeded players - Kenny Beggs, Davy Clegg and Barry Spence - but group 4 turned out to be less predictable, with seed, John Moore not making it through. He was unfortunate to be drawn along with fellow southerners, Gary Moore and Mark Farrell, both strong players. Gary topped the group and Mark, playing his first event in fifteen years, finished 2nd to leave John in 3rd place and thus out of the competition.

Kenny Beggs topped Group 1 comfortably and Eoin Adams beat Andrew Morrison to take 2nd place.

Group 2 saw Nicky Moore and Peter Morrison battling for 2nd place in their last match. Peter's commendable draw with group winner, Davy Clegg, left him only requiring a point against Nicky but he couldn't quite manage it, losing by a single goal to the veteran from Balbriggan.

In Group 3, Alistair Morrison just edged Stephen Rodgers out of the second qualification spot on goal-difference, due to a slightly better result against group winner, Barry Spence.

Alistair's tight play and persistent blocking flicks continued in the Quarter-Finals and he nearly caused an upset against No.1 seed, Kenny Beggs. There was no score during the match nor after extra-time. Kenny eventually won 2-1 in the shoot-out but he was made to sweat.

There was less drama in the other Quarter-Finals, with Spence beating Adams, Clegg beating Farrell and Gary Moore beating Nicky Moore to be the only southern player left in the tournament.

Gary was drawn against old rival Kenny Beggs in the Semi-Final. He dominated the match, pinning Beggs in his own half for most of the time and restricting him to only two shots. Unfortunately for the Kildare man, one of those shots turned out to be the winning goal and Beggs went through to the Final.

The other Semi-Final was even tighter, with Barry Spence and Davy Clegg playing out a 1-1 draw. Clegg had taken an early lead and looked to be going through but Spence equalised in the last minute to take the game into extra-time. There was no further score but Clegg won 3-2 in the resulting shoot-out to set up a repeat of the 2006 Northern Ireland Championship Final against Kenny Beggs.

Beggs had unhappy memories of that final (losing on shots) but he made up for it this time around with a 3-0 victory to take the first All-Ireland Table Football Championship.

Results Photos