General History
Limavady has always been a strong snooker town, with clubs playing out of St Pat’s hall the
Gorteen House Hotel and Limavady United Services Club. St Pat’s closed in the early
nineties with the Gorteen following suit in the late nineties leaving the United Service’s club
as the only club in town. Since then the playing of snooker within the town fell into decline
with the one and only club in the town not being used very much. Then in early 2016 Ivor
Jamison approached the Services Club with a proposition that if they re-covered the two
tables he would run a league. The league ran over the end of the conventional snooker season
into the summer months, during this period other people approached Ivor about joining the
league the following year. The interest was such that the Chairman of the Services Club was
asked if there could be another table provided to accommodate the influx of people wishing
to join the League. Unfortunately the Services Club was unable to provide another table, and
it was at this time Tommy Wilson and Ivor Jamison came together and come up with the idea
to start the 3C’s Snooker Club.
3C’s Snooker Club
The Club was founded by Mr Tommy Wilson and Mr Ivor Jamison in mid 2017. The
concept of the club was to have a non- profit making cross community club to promote
snooker once again within the Limavady area at an affordable price for everyone on a cross
community basis and to allow the members the playing experience as close to professional
tables as we could possibly get. We have already held a Northern Ireland Ranking event and
we hope to secure sponsorship so we can run a Uk and all Ireland Amateur competition with
the biggest prize pot ever seen in amateur snooker in N.I as well as this we also hope to run a
Pro/AM competition in aid of local charities. We also host the Mr John Cooke Memorial Cup
each year in aid of a local charity. We currently have 5 tables all with under table heating,
and all tables are covered with Hainsworth Smart Cloth to make all the playing surfaces alike.
We also plan to up-grade our table coverings to Hainsworth Match play cloth in the near
future. There are also a further 2 tables upstairs one being in a private room and the other is
in the Arena, all tables have raised seating for the spectators. The Arena table has a seating
capacity of 110 seats which are all on tiered levels. We also have CCTV installed to enhance
the security and protect the club.
As well as providing snooker at a cross community level, it has also provided a camaraderie
spirit within all the club members. As there was very little money to do any work but the club
members bought into the idea of doing the work that was required by themselves and there
were many different skill sets within the few members that we had. We just had to find tools
and materials, we did that by approaching the local business community not for money but
for the tools and materials. Once we got under way we found that we needed to remove a
kitchen completely and move an internal wall to give us the room for 3 tables and to make it
easier to heat. Once the downstairs was completed we moved to the upstairs where we have a
private room and the Arena.
The Club is a private members club, which means its open 24/7 to all its members, we
currently have 87 members. We have 4 x 20 strong player scratch leagues. In conjunction
with the leagues we also have Benbradagh Resource Centre, a local centre that caters for
adults with special needs, this centre uses our facilities on a weekly basis, 2 of these adults
also play in our leagues, we are currently exploring the possibility of further under privileged
children using the club facilities. It is also our intention to stream 2 tables live on You Tube.
We also hope to secure funding to enable us to send club members on The World Snooker
Coaching course to develop the younger and indeed the older members of our club.
In summary the 3C’s club is here on a non-profit cross community basis to promote snooker
within the Limavady area. It is the clubs hope that one day we will produce a champion who
will win one of snookers prestigious competitions, and our dream is to produce a World
Champion.