Matchplay wins for Tralee and Listowel
THE effects of Storm Jorge on Saturday did not prevent the staging of the second round of matches in the Kerry Inter-Club Matchplay last Sunday as Deerpark held up well to the recent spate of bad weather.
The two clubs that lost out the first weekend were the two winners on Sunday. Tralee had a 7-2 victory over Newmarket, with Listowel 6-3 winners over Castleisland in the latter’s first match of the campaign. Tralee had lost out to Deerpark in their first match the previous week but made a great start against Newmarket in winning all three of the doubles matches.
Jason Cregan and Keith O’Brien defeated Newmarket’s Con Buckley and Jimmy O’Sullivan 5&4 to give them their first point of the day while Tony Blake and Paul O’Shea were 3&2 winners over Ben Newman and Paudie Flynn. The combination of Danny O’Leary and Pa Fitzgibbon rounded off their clean sweep of the doubles with a 6&5 win over Willie John Buckley and Brendan Herlihy.
Con Buckley finally put Newmarket on the board in the Singles with a first play-off hole win over Alan Hobbart, but Pa Byrne from Tralee would beat Newmarket’s Jimmy O’Sullivan over the same distance.
Willie John Buckley kept Newmarket’s hopes of an upset alive with a 2&1 win over Roger Guthrie but three 2&1 wins for Jason
O’Regan (over Ben Newman), Keith O’Brien (over Brendan Herlihy) and John Fitzgerald (over Padraig O’Flynn) wrapped up Tralee’s win.
Listowel, meanwhile, came from 2-1 down to Castleisland after the Doubles to win by 6-3 courtesy of five Singles game wins. The Castleisland duo of Timmy Looney and Vince Barry had given their club a positive start with a 1up win over Richard Bunyan and Jake Shine as John Clifton and Noel Lee also got the better of Listowel’s Conor Leahy and Ger Guerin by 3&2. Tom O’Connor and Dean Harris got Listowel’s first point with a 2&1 win over John Fitzgerald and Gerry Lee.
Richard Bunyan began Listowel’s blitz of the Singles with a 19th hole win over John Clifton as Jake Shine (2&1 over Noel Lee), Tom O’Connor (3&1 over John Fitzgerald) and Ger Guerin (5and4 over Vince Barry) brought Listowel over the 5 points needed for a win. Timmy Looney gained Castleisland’s only point of the Singles with a 1up win over Tom O’Connor while the longest and last match of the day to finish saw Conor Leahy give Listowel their 6-3 win with a 21st hole win over Gerry Lee.
As it stands Tralee, Listowel, Newmarket and Deerpark all have one win each from the two rounds played thus far.