HAVE YOU EVER felt completely fed up with snooker after one too many games at the local club on a lazy weekend afternoon? Well imagine how you’d feel after 191 consecutive frames.
No one knew precisely how that felt until recently, when two lads from Ennis improbably set about breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest snooker marathon ever recorded*.
It all started when Gerry O’Loughlin took over a struggling snooker club and conceived of the record attempt as a way of gaining publicity as well as ultimately helping to raise funds for Sláinte an Chláir — a local cancer support centre.
Initially, he doubted that anyone would be crazy enough to even attempt to play over 80 hours of snooker, irrespective of the potential rewards, yet to his amazement, there were plenty of volunteers for the task.
Eventually he settled on truck driver Keiran Ferns and Gordon O’Loughlin (no relation to Gerry), who works in the endoscopy department of Ennis General Hospital. The two are like “chalk and cheese,” Gerry tells TheScore.ie.
“Whereas I have the physical toughness, Keiran has a mental toughness that I couldn’t match really,” Gordon adds.
The duo’s contrasting qualities ultimately worked in their favour however, as they exceeded their target, officially playing 89 hours of snooker or 83 and a half hours of continuous play (they were granted a five-minute break every hour). It meant they stopped playing just before 3am on Tuesday morning, having started at 8am on Friday, meaning they had effectively played four days of snooker, comfortably beating the previous 72-hour Guinness World Record in the process.
Despite claiming he could have “done an extra 10 hours no bother,” Keiran, in particular, enjoyed his sleep afterwards.
“The time we finished was around half two, a quarter to three on Tuesday morning,” he recalls. “I slept until eight o’clock on the Tuesday evening, had a bit of a pizza for about an hour, went to sleep again and didn’t wake up till five o’clock Wednesday morning.”
(Left to right: Gordon O’Loughlin, Gerry O’Loughlin and Keiran Ferns, with family and friends in the background.)
Gerry, especially, was amazed that his two main men had achieved the feat, particularly as they had originally cut short what was intended to be a 50-hour practice run after just 30 hours in the weeks leading up to the main event.
“I am still amazed by their courage and determination to keep going on, when I honestly thought it was over,” he says.
“I did doubt Keiran’s fitness. Gordon would be into his dieting, but Keiran might be more into toasted sandwiches and stuff like that. It worked, but the two guys being complete opposites was funny. They both struggled in different ways, but they’re two tough guys.”
“If I push myself too far, I get burnt out,” Keiran says, explaining why he failed to do the 50-hour test initially. “Gerry told me afterwards he didn’t think I could do it because I didn’t do the 50.”
Keiran even went without one of his main vices, coffee, for much of the challenge. “My first coffee was around eight o’clock Monday evening [during the event]. People before were telling me to drink loads of coffee and Red Bull, but it’d only bring you down after half an hour. I’d be quite fond of coffee and I knew I could drink it that evening, because we were nearly there. It was only another four or five hours.”
Yet notwithstanding these incredibly arduous conditions, Gordon was “flying” for much of the challenge, poignantly explaining: “There’s a woman close to me who has cancer and thinking about her got me through the whole event.”
And though Keiran had problems with his calves and was required to get physio in between shots, it was Gordon who suffered the most and at one stage, it looked as if he simply could not continue.
(Gordon’s father, left, had to make a judgement call on whether his son was fit to continue at one point)
However, having played consecutively for several hours, the duo had racked up a number of five-minute breaks, and took the opportunity to recover extensively.
“On Monday morning, Gordon was so bad he couldn’t hit the ball or focus,” Gerry explains. “Mentally, he was just so tired, even though physically, he was okay. We had some time built up from breaks, so we said we’d let him go to sleep for about 20 minutes. We brought him up and he slept. But when we tried to wake him up, he’d get angry with us.”
Gordon’s condition deteriorated to such an extent that they had to contact his father, who would decide whether he was happy for his son to continue.
“I was pretty worried,” Gerry admits. “Someone knew where his father lived. His father had been at the club all night and had gone to bed. I drove up and his father came down and he came around a bit after that.”
“Gordon wasn’t the same after he slept,” Keiran adds. “When he came down and we were playing the game, he’d take his shot and if he missed, it’d be my shot, but he’d still think it was his shot. He wasn’t tuned in fully. I was roaring at him, saying ‘look Gordon, it’s my shot’. But he just wasn’t in the same frame of mind as us.
“The Monday morning he was writing down stuff on paper for his parents. I was getting worried more for him. I thought ‘Jesus, he’s really gone to God’. He was so dehydrated it was unbelievable.
“None of us had had any coffee. His father kept on giving him loads of water and Jaffa Cakes, and stuff with rakes of sugar just to try to snap him out of it. It took a few bottles of water to bring him around, and his colour started coming back then. It was then only a matter of going until 10 past 12 at night.”
(Gerry [centre] watches on while surrounded by volunteers)
Unsurprisingly, Gordon’s memories of this particularly disconcerting period are hazy at best.
“Come that morning, it was a major issue because I couldn’t distinguish what was real and what wasn’t,” he says.
“I couldn’t actually speak at one stage, I lost my speech. My parents came down and I wrote down a note and gave it to my mother to pass on to Keiran because I couldn’t talk anymore.
“He just kept plugging away and pushing me and telling me ‘c’mon Gordon it’s your shot’. He kept me going through the dark hours. He pumped fluids in me and got loads of sugar into me as well. Come two o’clock in the day on the Monday, there was going to be no stopping us. We never looked back. Physically I never had an issue. None of my muscles ever give in and my body never gives up. But I lost touch with reality in a big way. It’s hard to be staying awake and concentrating all the time.
“But the following day [once the challenge was completed], I was in to work at the hospital at half nine after finishing on the Tuesday morning, so physically I was fine. I’ve done marathons and I’ve hit the wall training and you hit the wall for maybe half an hour. But this one was a mental wall for eight to 12 hours. It’s probably the biggest achievement of my life to get over that.”
The duo’s breaking of the Guinness World Record was ultimately the icing on the cake of what was an enormously successful event. Gerry had sought publicity for his club and he certainly succeeded in that regard. Several businesses donated spot prizes. Legendary Irish snooker player Ken Doherty played an exhibition match as part of the event. Cupcakes resembling snooker balls were created especially for the occasion. The local chip shop provided enough food to “feed half of Ennis”.
(As part of the event, Irish snooker star Ken Doherty participated in an exhibition match)
Moreover, countless media outlets — both local and national — covered proceedings in one form or another, to the extent that it would be fair to say the achievement is now the talk of the town. There was even a live web cam set up largely for the benefit of those watching from overseas, and it ended up crashing owing to excessive viewing figures.
Gerry says he is hugely grateful to the various volunteers who aided the initiative, whether it was the individual who double-checked that the time was being kept accurately, or the person who spent a considerable period of time telling jokes to ensure all in attendance were regularly entertained.
“To see the support was incredible. I’ve been involved in many great things in my life, but this has to be up there. It’s some achievement.”
And at the heart of it were two individuals competing for a good cause, who were hellbent on prevailing no matter what happened.
“As Keiran will tell you, the two of us made a pact,” Gordon concludes. “Apart from winning, the only way we’d leave was in a box.”
For more info on the event, check out the Ennis Snooker and Pool Club Facebook page.
To find out more about Sláinte an Chláir, click here to visit their official website.
*pending confirmation
All pics used with permission from Gordon O’Loughlin
Crazy decision. Completely accidental clash of heads.
A five game ban for this is outrageous. How is a decision like that arrived at. It was clearly accidental.
Cant watch the clips because I’m in Australia ffs. But the fans I’ve spoke to say it’s a yellow a most and even that’s harsh. Any truth to this??
@Dara: no
@Dara: Do they not have YouTube in Australia ?
Shameful decision. Warranted a yellow card at best. He’ll be badly missed for the ECC games where his brawn and explosive speed would have levelled things up for Connacht.
Whatever about whether it was right or wrong, how can they suspend 1 week off the 6 week ban for ‘remorse’ when the red card was challenged? Surely that is a prime indication that not alone was there no remorse but the feeling was that it wasn’t even a red card. This incident aside, I would be concerned that the judicial process is flawed on that basis.
His biggest mistake was not being Owen Farrell.
I think he’s a lucky lad to only get 5 weeks, accidental or not he clearly didn’t learn his lesson from the last high shot.
@Jim Demps: I don’t think people here understand. The tackler has an obligation to tackle safely. Accidental or not he has made head to head contact which could have been avoided. The player doesn’t dip in fact he may even come up a little at impact. It’s a clear red and when it’s your second of the season 5 weeks seems lenient.
@Jim Demps: It was an accidental clash of heads after the attacking player changed his running line. I think 5 weeks is harsh, I’d love to see how they arrived at this decision. He does need to lower his tackle height though. Owen Farrell only got 5 weeks for tackle on Charlie Atkinson and in terms of intent those tackles are like chalk and cheese. With Farrells tackling track record it should have been far longer.
@Jayme Mc Goldrick: yeah that’s it. Accidental or not the outcome is still a dangerous tackle. I get why people are annoyed, I’d probably be the same if it was a munster player but it’s not like it’s a new rule, a head shot has never been legal.
@MacEoin.T: I think the decision is pretty clear, he got 6 weeks the first time and it was reduced to 3 for having a clear record. He then got 6 weeks this time and didn’t get the reduction for having a clear record. If anything I’d be saying he didn’t deserve the one week reduction given he clearly hasn’t learnt his lesson.
@Jim Demps: Out of interest, does a player get a clear record at the beginning of each season or is it a pro career duration timeframe?
@MacEoin.T: I know in the amateur game in Ireland they look at your records for 5 years so I assume it’s probably something similar. They definitely don’t get a clean slate at the start of the season anyway. Punishing repeat offenders more harshly I think is a good way to go. Like if Papalli gets sent off again for another high shot I’d say he could be looking at 10+ weeks.
@Jim Demps: he’ll be back in time for the game against Munster on the 9th of January Jim. We’ll get a proper look at him in action then.
@Jim Demps: Would you stop Jim, Farrell got the same ban for trying to take Atkinson’s head off and you’re arguing the Papali’i deserves the same? You’re dreaming lad.
@Paddy Kennedy: I’m not arguing anything, I’m saying that’s how it works. Farrell actually got a 10 week ban reduced by half for a first offence. Farrells was worse and he got a bigger ban, papalli is in the dock for the second time in four games and gets less of a reduction. It’s fairly straightforward
@David Finn: great stuff, hopefully he takes the time between now and then to learn how to tackle in Union. He’ll be a serious player once he irons out those mistakes.
@Paddy Kennedy: It was Farrell’s first red so he got more lenient treatment. The fact that Farrell should have had plenty of reds in recent seasons can’t be taken into account.
Players & coaches have to understand how seriously World Rugby is taking head injuries and act accordingly. That means a lower body position in any potential tackle situation.
Clearly difficult to get it right all the time so some players will get unlucky from time to time. Lack of intent doesn’t seem to be a mitigating factor.
Crazy biased decision.
That makes no sense. How the ref made out he led with his head is beyond me. The attacking player steps and papali has to change direction to make the tackle, their heads collide. 5 games is ridiculous.
Outrageous decision! Ref & TMO bottled it!!
I really don’t understand all the comments arguing that this is somehow disproportionate. It was a clear red card, it was clear he was going to get a significant ban and if he doesn’t learn how to tackle lower he’s going to miss more games than he plays. Crazy decision by Connacht to contest this and I’d argue you shouldn’t get a reduction if you contest the decision, as you’re clearly not remorseful if you think you didn’t commit an offence.
The hypocrisy on this forum , when it was Peter O Mahony deliberately targeting someone’s head in the ruck with his shoulder a few weeks ago (imo, is much worse than an accidental clash of heads) people here were saying ‘he was frustrated’ and ‘playing on the edge’!