Magic Mulholland Claims First Merseyside Major

Josh Mulholland claimed his first Merseyside Major title after he defeated Clayton Humphries 4-2 in the Merseyside Open final last month.

After years of trying, Mulholland finally broke his duck after a tense and thrilling finals day at George Scott Snooker Club which determined the Merseyside Open Champion of 2022.

Josh fought very hard, whilst not at his best, throughout the day with a string of 4-2 victories against Adam Brown in the Quarter Finals and Jamie Jones in the Semi Finals before a third 4-2 victory in succession in the final against 7-time major winner Clayton Humphries.

The feeling amongst other players was that Mulholland was the best player in the county who had never won a major event after losing 3 major finals and finishing runner up in the inaugural Merseyside Premier League last season. But now, finally, that has been put to bed he is certainly relieved. ‘I’ve known I’ve always been good enough, but there’s a lot of great players in Merseyside and these events are hard to win. It feels great and hopefully the floodgates open from now on.’

However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Josh on finals day as in the Semi-Finals, he was 2-0 down to the talented Jamie Jones, but again his belief didn’t waver. ‘I was in trouble. Jamie is very natural and quick and can reel frames off very quickly. But I was proud of the way battled back and while it wasn’t my best but I played some very good match snooker to rattle off 4 frames in a row and make the final’.

Josh’s path to success, hasn’t been straightforward. After playing nearly full time a few years ago, he took time off to concentrate on studies and therefore his form and results had declined. But after making the decision to practice more and enter tournaments, he is now seeing the hard work pay off. ‘After a good 6-month break, I made it a priority to just enjoy playing and not force myself to play every day. Working full time makes it not possible to play all the time, so I chose quality over quantity. Travelling around the country from competitions has sharpened me up.’

‘I’m my own worst critic and I was frustrated a win hadn’t come earlier and doubts did creep in about whether I ‘’still had it’’ so to speak, but deep down I always knew if I did the right things and keep putting myself in there, that one day the tide would turn and luckily it did’.

Going forward, Josh will undoubtedly have more majors in his sights and a potential run at Q School to try and earn a 2 year tour card. ‘To be honest, I don’t really set goals except to just enjoy snooker and keep improving. But halfway through the season, I would like to win another major and potentially make a deep run if I decide to enter Q School to secure either a tour card or top up place’.