BADMINTON

Junior Griffin

THE badminton scene last weekend was dominated by the CPC. IE mixed doubles championships for divisions 1,3 & 5.

The senior division 1 decider saw Castleislands Tom Bourke once again in the final fray with new partner, club colleague Miriam Rohan and they were confronted by the 2016 champions the talented Moyvane sister and brother pairing of Niamh and James Flaherty. Despite all four players producing many quality top class badminton strokes, the overall game did not live up to expectations and the final outcome saw the Castleisland pairing come good by 21-14; 21-15 and this gave Bourke his 9th Kerry mixed doubles title but it was a first for his partner Ms. Rohan.

The division 3 final was an all Moyvane confrontation which saw 3 times title holder Carmel Hudson pair off with Kevin Kennelly and their opponents were Tarberts Mags O’Donnell who plys her Badminton trade with Moyvane, and she was partnered with former Feale Rangers football star John Mulvihill.

Despite 2 heart-warming semi-finals in this competition the final itself fell rather flat except for a close second set but it was the O’Donnell/Mulvihill combination that scaled the heights to capture the county title in 2 sets by 21-6; 21-17.

On the night, however, it was the division 5 final that stole the show and what a three-set decider this proved to be. In one corner was the Ballyheigue pairing of Laura O’Sullivan and Frankie O’Flaherty while in the opposing corner was the recent singles winner and ladies doubles finalist Listowel club member Karen Lawlor, who incidentally is a Ballyheigue native, and she was partnered by Causeway club member Niall O’Hanlon.

In the opening set it was the Listowel/Causeway pairing that looked to be in control as on two occasions they held a six point lead and yet, it was the battling Ballyheigue pairing that took the set by 21-16. Again Lawlor/O’Hanlon led through the second set but a brave comeback by the Ballyheigue pair saw them level at 16 all but Causeway/Listowel levelled the match at 1 set each when they snatched victory by 21-18 What a titanic battle that final set proved to be with the sides exchanging score for score. During that set the Causeway/Listowel pairing looked set for victory as they held a three point lead late in the game but O ’Sullivan/O’Flaherty proved to be worthy adversaries and the Cup and title was bound for Ballyheigue as they clinched victory by 21-18.

Credit to all four players in this final for their exemplary sportsmanship throughout this wonderful contest and, indeed, their more illustrious colleagues at the higher levels could learn a lot from these division 5 combatants on the true merit of what sport is all about.

There are two more championship rounds to be played off in this 2017/18 season and these concern divisions 2 & 4. The ladies and mens doubles for both of these divisions which were called off due to the recent snowfall will now be played in the Killarney Arena on Monday March 19 and all concerned are requested to note the change of time to 7.30 pm and the final championships of the season, divs. 2&4 mixed doubles is fixed for Friday March 23 in Killarney at 7.30 pm.

All clubs are requested to note that the Kerry Badminton Associations annual Social and rewards night will be held in the Rose Hotel, Tralee on Saturday May 19 hosted by the Iveragh club.

Class C Inter-counties

The Munster section of the Grade Munster ‘C’ Inter-county Championships took place in Killarney on Sunday last. Tipperary were a last minute withdrawal which left Counties Kerry, Cork & Waterford do battle to represent Munster in the All-Ireland series in the coming weeks. Round 1 saw Kerry take on Waterford and with 4 courts in action simultaneous Kerry got the ideal start by winning the second mens doubles tie but, unfortunately that was as good as it got for the Kingdom as they became a cropper in the 8 remaining games. However, in those nine games contested, five of these went to the third set for decision and Waterford captured 4 of these.

Round 2 saw Kerry take on the Rebels but if Kerry hearts were down beat after the Waterford encounter it did not show on court as the Kingdom put in a much improved performance to overcome a fancied Rebel side by 6-3.

For round 3 it was Waterford up against Cork and in fairness to Cork they did put in a noble battle before going down by 5-4 to the Decies outfit. The final score then saw Waterford on top with 13 points and Kerry and Cork were level on 7 points each but by virtue of the fact that Kerry had overcame Cork in their round 2 encounter it was the Kingdom that collected the silver medals which gives them a chance of being selected later into the All Ireland series as one of the best losers.

The vagaries of the scoring in the game of badminton was very epitomised in that contest on Sunday last with Waterford inflicting that heavy defeat on Kerry and were very lucky to defeat Cork and yet Kerry were convincing winners over the rebels.

The Kerry panel were Edel Broderick, Mariam Rohan, Sinead Galvin, Saorcha Fitzgerald, Eric Nelligan (player-manager), Tom Bourke, Gio Gaudino, Fergal Hannon, Alan Nelligan.

Cappoquin played host to the Munster singles finals on Sunday last and there was outright success in the Grade F section for Kerry where five Counties competed with Clare being the only absentee and it was Moyvanes Amanda Carmody that ruled the roost on the day as she won both sets against Counties Waterford, Cork and Limerick and shared the spoils with Tipperary to make her a convincing winner with 7 points out of a possible 8 which was a wonderful achievement.. The Grade E competition saw Kerry involvement and In this Killarney’s Niamh Hickey brought the silver medal to Kerry after putting up a sterling performance also.

Juvenile Inter-county

From a Kerry badminton perspective the performance of the weekend came from the county’s under-11 team who played in the Provincial Inter County series in the U.L Arena in Limerick on Sunday last which saw Kerry, Cork, Clare and Waterford competing in that age group. It did not look too good for Kerry as they fell to Cork 12-8 in their first game of this round robin series. It was Clare up in the next match for the Kerry team but their opening round defeat was quickly forgotten as they overcame the Banner County by 11-9. Next step up was Waterford and what an engrossing game this proved to be as Kerry hung on to defeat the Decies side by the tightest of margins, 11-9.

With the two top teams now to contest the Munster final it meant that it was Cork that was awaiting Kerry in the decider. Would Cork do the double over Kerry.?

This brave Kerry side had other ideas. They had learned their lesson from that opening match and they made sure that lighting would not strike a second time.

This was indeed a super show performance by these Kerry boys and girls as they were on top in most quarters and were very deserving winners of this Munster crown on the score line of 14-6 to prove once again that the good wine does come last.

Team is James Burke, Daris McCormack, Michael O’Sullivan, Ben McElligott, Samira Sayers, Darina Burke, Grace McGovern, Emer Bradley, Katie Nolan. Team manager and coach Billy Lacey; Team helpers are Carmel Hudson, Mary Falvey, Tom McElligott

Annascaul Badminton Club annual tournament Results

Division 5

Ciara Knightly (Annascaul) & Christy Deane (Annascaul) beat Eileen McGovern (Annascaul) & Padraig Murray (Causeway) 21-15, 21-19

Division 4

Fiona Casey (Causeway) & Mike Reardan (Iveragh) beat Susan O’Connell (Iveragh) & James Sheahan (Listowel) 21-17, 21-19

Division 2 & 3 Combined

Brid Murphy (Castleisland) & Aaron Tan (Castleisland) beat Ruth Concannon (Castleisland) & Aidan Evans (Annascaul) 21-17, 21-14