By Jonathan Brown
DARREN Dornan marked his return to snooker by taking home the NI Intermediate Championship trophy on Friday past. The Loughinisland man defeated Limavady’s Gregory Cooke 5-2 in the final at St Patrick’s Snooker Club, Magherafelt, after overcoming Coalisland player Ciaran Kelly 4-1 in the semi-final at the end of April.
Former NI amateur champion Dornan hasn’t played competitively in over a year and had to enter at the qualifying round of this year’s Intermediate Championship, but he showed no signs of ring rust as he comfortably secured the title, helped by a remarkable 140 total clearance in the opening frame.
The game was level 2-2 at the interval, but Dornan dominated proceedings thereafter, punishing some untimely misses by Cooke. “All in all, considering I haven’t played competitive snooker in over a year, it was a brilliant win. It’s good to be back playing and winning,” Dornan explained.
Commenting on his 140 break, the Drumaness Snooker Club player said: “It has to be one of the biggest breaks ever in amateur snooker in Northern Ireland. There’s not too many 140-plus breaks in amateur snooker, so I was happy with that.”
Dornan has been playing on the Northern Ireland amateur circuit for over 26 years and famously beat former world champion Alex Higgins as a teenager at the 2003 Irish Open. After years of near misses, the 39-year-old finally won the NI Amateur Championship in 2024, beating Ryan McQuillan 10-5 at the Antrim Sports Club.
Dornan admitted his enthusiasm for the game took a hit after chasing the biggest prize in local snooker for so long. “I just needed a break. I didn’t intend to take 14 months, but the longer it went on, I realised I wasn’t really missing playing. I was chasing the Amateur Championship all my life, so it was one of those things, when I won it and went number one in the rankings, it was almost like mission complete. It’s hard to stay motivated at the top of the amateur rankings and it’s hard to re-set and go again after you’ve been chasing something for years.”
Now, Dornan has made his return to the baize and as he prepares to face Stephen Ferguson in the preliminary round of this year’s NI Amateur Championship on Sunday in Antrim, he says he’s now playing with the brakes off. “I think I’m playing with a freedom now. The monkey of the first Amateur Championship is off my back now, so it’s almost like I’m taking a fresh approach. We’ll see what happens. It won’t change my life if I lose on Sunday. It’s a case of testing the water and seeing what happens.”
The Loughinisland native never got the chance to defend his 2024 title, as he was going on holiday when the knockout rounds of the 2025 Amateur Championship were scheduled, and he certainly hasn’t ruled out what would be an impressive double this season. “I want to be back competing at the main tournament (NI Amateur Championship). The good thing for me is, the last time I played this tournament, I won it, because I couldn’t defend the title in 2025. I’m not going in with massive expectations but at the same time, if you’ve won it before, you also know you can go all the way, so you can definitely play your way into the tournament.”
