Inter-Club Matchplay wins for Deerpark and Newmarket
AFTER Storm Dennis the previous weekend had put pay to the planned start of the event, the Kerry Inter-Club Matchplay officially got underway in Castleisland last Sunday where Deerpark and Newmarket were victorious in the opening round of matches. Both had 6-3 victories over Tralee and Listowel respectively and both also led by 2-1 after the opening doubles matches.
The Deerpark combinations of Hugh O’Sullivan and John Murphy and Ger Casey and Aidan O’Keeffe were successfully over the respective Tralee duos of Jamie Blake and Pa Fitzgibbon along with David Hobbert and John Fitzgerald. Paul O’Shea and Keith O’Brien claimed a win over Deerpark’s Noel Moynihan and Kieran Fitzpatrick to keep them in contention at halfway.
Deerpark won four of the six Singles matches though with Declan Kelly, Lorcan Martin, John McGrath and Aidan O’Keeffe winning their games for the Killarney club as Paul O’Shea and Jason Cregan were Tralee’s victors in the other two games.
Newmarket, meanwhile, had wins for the combinations of Alan Dugdale and Willie John Buckley, and Ben Newman and Padraig O’Flynn in the doubles over the Listowel combinations of John Heffernan and Kevin McCarron, and Richard Bunyan and Dean Harris respectively. Ger Guerin and Jake Shine claimed a point for Listowel with a win over Con Buckley and Jimmy O’Sullivan but Brendan Herlihy, Alan Dugdale, Jimmy O’Sullivan and Ben Newman claimed the Singles points Newmarket needed to make sure of their 6-3 win. Richard Bunyan and Jake Shine were Listowel’s Singles winners in their defeat.
Round 2 takes place in Deerpark this Sunday as Castleisland make their debut against Listowel while Tralee will take on Newmarket at the Killarney venue. Doubles pairings are asked to be present for 9.45am and a reminder that the event is dress code.
Elsewhere the next County Board Meeting will take place on Monday, March 23 in Castleisland at 8pm and anyone interested in managing one of the Kerry Adult Inter-County teams this year is asked to be in attendance.