Monte misery for Meeke and Nagle
THE opening round of the 2017 World Rally Championship was one to forget for Paul Nagle and Kris Meeke.
The Kerry/Tyrone team endured one of the most disappointing rallies of their entire career on last weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally.
Pre-event hype listed the Citroen World Rally Team duo as one of the favourites to win the most famous rally in the world but unfortunately for them, and the hundreds of Kerry rally fans who made their way to Gap in the Southern Alps, it was not to be.
Their rally was nearly over shortly after it started. During the opening stage near Entreveux, about 100kms north of Monaco, their Citroen C3 World Rally Car started overheating. The temperatures got so high they contemplated stopping on the stage seconds before it was red-flagged owing to a serious accident involving another competitor.
They traced the fault to snow getting stuck in the air vents and were able to rectify it before Thursday night’s second test.
Ending the day in fourth place Meeke said: “It’s not how I imagine anyone wanted to start the season, with a stage cancelled because one of the competitors went off. SS2 was tricky, especially due to the gravel dragged onto the racing line by the first few cars. When you’re as cautious as I was, it ends up costing you quite a bit of time. We learned some new things about the car and overall, I’m fairly pleased with this first leg.
They attacked Friday morning’s opening stage and moved into second place, showing some of the pre-season promise the earned them a favourite tag. However that all came undone on the day’s second test, which passed within earshot of four-time World Rally Campion Sebastien Ogier’s home-place. Their Citroen C3 WRC slid wide on a section of icy road, high in the mountains above Gap. The resultant impact ripped the left rear wheel and suspension off the car and forced instant retirement for the day.
With the necessary repairs effected they were allowed re-join on Saturday morning but any chance of a result had melted like the snow and ice on the roads beneath.
Saturday turned sour very quickly. They stopped on the day’s opening test with electrical issues and lost another 16 minutes.
There was some consolation when the Kerry/Tyrone team set a top-three times on the day’s closing stages but their luck was about to leave them again.
On 180km run from Gap to the overnight halt in Monte Carlo they were involved in a road traffic accident. While the crash was not their fault, the car was too badly damaged and their rally ended on roads made famous Napoleon Bonaparte. They were disappointed not to be able to contest Sunday’s section.
Meeke added: It was good to be back in the rally today [Saturday]. We spent the day learning. It was a bit difficult to get the confidence back and find the right pace in these conditions. The last stage was drier and we managed to find some decent speed. We gathered a lot of information, so we’ve now got some work to do to analyse all of that and make progress. Although I could no longer aim for a good overall result, I’m very disappointed not be able to contest the final leg. The Col de Turini is always one of the highlights of the season.”
They will be hoping for a turn of luck ahead of Rally Sweden next month. KILLARNEY and Limerick were the badminton attractions on last weekend when the Munster senior 1 and the Munster Junior Championships were played in Killarney whilst round 1 of the Munster juvenile Inter-County Championships were played off in Limerick’s UL Arena.
The Munster junior championships was not a bad competition at all from a Kerry perspective as out of the five events played, namely ladies and men’s singles, ladies and men’s doubles and the mixed doubles, Kerry players contested all five finals played. They were successful in one, lost one close two-setter, and each of the other three had to go to the third set for decision.
There was no joy this year for Kerry players in the senior 1 championships but overall there was no joy at all in these senior championships.
The question for the Munster championships of 2017 begs the question ‘where are all the ladies gone’? There was no ladies singles, no ladies doubles and therefore no mixed doubles, so not a good day at the office for the Munster seniors.
The Juniors, however, was a most entertaining championships with many wonderful encounters for the Killarney crowd to enjoy.
The Kerry success came in the ladies doubles where the Killarney club pairing of Sinead Galvin and Maeve Twomey had a great twoset win over the Cork/Waterford pairing of Jo Murphy and Shauna Kennelly. For Galvin, in particular, this was a gratifying success as earlier she had fallen to Miss Kennelly in a ladies singles cracker.
The early stages of both sets of this ladies doubles final followed the same pattern, score for score early on but in both sets the Kerry power told and they captured that Munster title by 21-12; 21-13.
In the early stages of that ladies singles decider it was point for point right up to 6 all but Miss Kennelly took control from there on and captured the set by 21-10.
It was a different Galvin in set number 2, no doubt from the promptings of Tom Bourke who was in her corner and from the word go she was in control of the set winning by 21-16
Galvin commenced the third set and what did she do, she served out of court to give her opponent point number 1 and amazingly the Killarney lady hit a right bad patch by powering the following 6 points out of court also to go 7-1 down. It was indeed a bad start but to her credit she never threw in the towel.
She was 11-3 down at the change of sides but she fought back to come within a point of her opponent on three occasions at 15-14; at 16-15 and at 17-16 but the effort told its toll as the Waterford lady again took control and won the set and title by 21-16 but the Killarney lady showed wonderful courage to battle back.
The men’s singles final saw Listowel’s Fergal Hannon take on Tipperary’s Robbie Ingram. A very hard fought first set saw the Kerry man triumph by 21-19 but the Premier County man took over the second set winning by 21-14.
What an absolute spectacle the third set proved to be with the sides level on no less than 7 times. Hannon on a few times seemed to be in control but on a number of times he threw some short serves that cost him dearly which brought the Tipperary man back into the game. At 19-19 it was nail-biting stuff but Ingram closed out the game to win the set by 21-19 to capture the singles crown.
Hannon was also involved in the men’s doubles final being partnered by his Listowel club member, James Leane. The Kerry pair were always fighting an uphill battle in the first set against the Tipperary / Waterford pairing of Aidan Barry and Gary Alcorn going down by 21-11 but the Kerry pair raised their game in the second set and seemed to have the set won with the shuttle clipping the net cord but it came back to favour the opposition who levelled the tie at 20-20 before going on to win the set and title by 23-21.
The last final of the day was the mixed doubles decider which saw Maeve Twomey of Killarney joining forces with Cork;s Paul Kingston and their final opposition were the Cork/Tipperary pairing of Ann Murphy and Aidan Barry.
Twomey/Kingston won the opening set by 21-14 but the Cork/ Tipperary pairing controlled set number 2 winning by 21-11. The deciding set was hard fought with many exciting rallies but Murphy/ Barry hit the front at the critical juncture and captured the title on the third set score of 21-14 but overall it was not a bad day at all for the Kerry competitors
The Intercounty juvenile team competitions took place in the UL Arena on Sunday last. Kerry had four teams entered but at the end of the day there was no joy for the Kerry teams. The under-11 team reached the semi-final before bowing out to Waterford whilst the under-15 team did likewise losing out their semi-final to Cork but both the under-13 and under-17 teams fell out early on in their respective events
The serious stuff within the confines of Kerry Badminton commences in Killarney on Sunday with the opening series of the CPC.IE County Championships. The allure and honour of winning a county title is the ultimate ambition of every sports person and those involved in badminton are no different.
The opening phase next Sunday caters for both ladies and men in divisions 1, 3 and 5. Entry forms have been distributed to club secretaries and it is hoped that all who fancies their chances to win a singles title will participate on Sunday next.
The annual table quiz will take place in O’Donnell’s Bar Tralee on Friday February 3. The support of all clubs is most important