West Munster qualifying starts for Mixed Foursomes

THE 2018 Irish Mixed Foursomes gets underway this week and West Munster Qualifying is at Tralee and Newcastlewest.

Let’s begin our look ahead at Newcastlewest where the opening game on Saturday at 8.30am sees the hosts take on Killarney followed by the meeting of Castleisland and Kanturk at 9.10am and the winners of the opening match play Doneraile at 2pm while the winners of the second game meet Ballybunion at 2.40pm.

At Tralee, the action gets underway on Thursday (tomorrow) with a round one game which sees Killorglin take on Kenmare and the winners will then play Tralee at 8.30am on Saturday.

At 9.10 on Saturday, Waterville play Glengarriff followed by Dooks versus Castlegregory at 9.50am.

Of all the GUI Cups & Shields events, this is probably the toughest one in which to predict results, but I’ll have a go anyway beginning at Newcastlewest.

The opening game is a tough one to call as the home side and Killarney have pedigree in this event, but I’m inclined to go for Newcastlewest on this occasion because of home advantage.

Castleisland and Kanturk is another tough call but I’m going for the Kerry side, so the afternoon line-up should be the hosts against Doneraile and Castleisland against Ballybunion and I predict a Newcastlewest versus Ballybunion final on Sunday at 1pm with the hosts going through to the area final.

The Tralee qualifier is a tough one also but here goes, in the Thursday game I fancy Killorglin to go through but Tralee to then beat them in round two on Saturday morning while I also see wins for Glengarriff over Waterville and Dooks over Castlegregory in round one and Dooks beating Glengarriff in round two.

The final on Sunday at 9.30am should then see Tralee versus Dooks with the home side going through to meet Newcastlewest in the West Munster area final.

Finally, just an observation, but it is rather surprising to see the likes of Ross, Beaufort, Ballyheigue, Parknasilla and Ring of Kerry missing from this year’s event.