By Elliott West
Introduction
In January 1992, tragedy struck the snooker world when there was a horrific car crash and the two passengers Chris Brooks and Martin Carolan were sadly killed. An accident that robbed us of two promising snooker players with the 19-year-old Martin Carolan having a memorial tournament set up in his name the following season.
The Tournament
Held at the Debden Social Club in Essex in 1993, the Martin Carolan Memorial Trophy was made up of 63 players and the event was played over two days. Set up to mark the tragic passing of Martin Carolan, who had only been a professional for one season, the tournament came with a £1,000 winner’s prize. The event was duly won by Irishman Fergal O’Brien who was only in his second season as a professional, beating Neil Moseley in a highly charged and high-quality final that resulted in Fergal defeating his opponent 5-4. Described as “the Pro-Am final that I have ever been privileged to referee” by the referee Rex Moore, both players made century breaks. Moseley who had held the highest break of 127 from the quarter-final, had his record taken away when Fergal went one better in the final and scored a brilliant 134 break in the second frame. However, Neil wasn’t without his moment of glory as he made a great start to the match, compiling a total of 247 points in the first 2 and a half frames without reply.
Certainly not down and out, Moseley from Peterlee went on to make breaks of 72 and 77 to trail 4-3 and then regained the highest break prize by reeling off a 139 break to level up the match to 4-4. However, despite his rallying cry, Neil went on to lose the deciding frame after O’Brien made breaks of 44 and 43 to seal his victory. Moseley, who had been the first Englishman to win the English Amateur Championship since Jimmy White in 1979, had to settle with the second runner’s-up prize of £500 but could definitely be pleased by his performance, a match where his nerves were tested to capacity but his courage and mettle shone through for this 1993 English Amateur Champion who had beaten Eddie Barker 8-5 in the final.
Mark King also played very well in this tournament, winning his first three matches, taking several scalps that included Grant Peabody and Jimmy Gillespie but his winning streak came to an end when after lunch, he lost to Dave Harold, the world number 93, 4-0. The event also saw other professionals taking part such as Steve Newbury, Stuart Reardon, Tony Chappel and Nick Terry with Tony reaching the semi-final before losing 4-2 to Fergal O’Brien. The event also saw a 15-year-old player, Scott Loveday play very well, winning his preliminary round match against his Debden club-mate, Simon Newell 4-1. He then went to defeat the experienced Danny Smith 4-3 before going out of the competition.
The tournament prize money was guaranteed by Joe Carolan, Martin’s father, who made the presentations at the end of play with the main trophy being unique as it was the actual one that Martin had won in an Under-16 tournament in Ireland. Other trophies were supplied by Debden Social Club owner, Alan Brown in conjunction with a local jeweller.
