End of the Road for Castleisland

CASTLEISLAND’S dream of a Munster pennant in the Jimmy Bruen Shield ended at the semi-final final stage when they fell to Nenagh by the odd match in five at County Tipperary Golf Club (Dundrum) on Sunday morning last.

In a match that really could have gone either way, two games finished on the nineteenth hole one in Castleisland’s favour and one against.

Nenagh got off to the best possible start when top their pairing of Brian Freeman ND Matthew O’Gara notched up a 4/3 win over Niall Gilroy & Stephen Crokes and the advantage stretched to two matches for the Tipperary side when Ray Hurley & Tom O’Gara beat Danny Lyons & John Haugh 5/4 in the third game.

Castleisland hit back to snatch the second match at the nineteenth hole where Pat O’Sullivan & James McAuliffe edged out Michael Scroope & Noel Gleeson and the back of the field Castleisland Captain Denny O’Sullivan & Tony Brosnan took the fifth match on the final hole to level it up at two-a-piece.

The overall outcome then came down to the result of the fourth match where the Nenagh pairing of Michael Corrigan & Michael Ryan edged out Dave O’Donoghue & Karl Harnett on the first tie hole to send the Tipperary side in to the afternoon’s final which they went on to lose to Kinsale who picked up their first-ever Munster title in the club’s 105-year history.

In the Pierce Purcell Shield, West Munster representatives Kanturk beat Bantry Bay (4-1) in the morning semi-finals but then went on to lose the final (4-1) to Nenagh who had earlier beaten Thurles (3-2).