Badminton titles for Listowel and Ballybunion

LISTOWEL and Ballybunion were the main winners at the Lee Strand Kerry Knock-Out Cup last Sunday in the Aura Leisure Centre Killarney. Always a popular tournament, this is the first opportunity for the Kerry clubs’ mixed teams to do battle, and this year saw Division 4 and Division 5 competitions contested by eight teams from around the county.

In the Division 4 Knock-out Shield, Kingdom of Castleisland, Killarney and Listowel fielded teams in a round-robin format, so all teams played each other with a winner-takes-all points tally at the end.

Killarney and Listowel had strong wins over Castleisland which meant the match between them would be the decider for the overall winner.

Listowel started strong taking both first doubles in two sets. Killarney then fought back with their second men’s pairing of Nauroop and Hasib defeating Paul Hayes and Tom Rice from Listowel. A close second ladies went to Listowel and the score was now 6-2 in sets heading into the mixed with four sets still to play for.

Listowel only needed one to secure the win, which they got in a very tight first mixed where Killarney took the first 21-19 but dropped the second to Mike Reardon and Rita McCarthy of Listowel a nail-bitingly close 20-21. Listowel took the final mixed in two sets to leave the overall score 9-3 to Listowel.

The winning team was Rita McCarthy, Madison Carter, Margaret Healy, Esther Cronin, Becky Weiland, Oisin Moloney, James Sheahan, Paul Hayes, Michael Reardon, Tom Rice.

The Division 5 Knock-out cup had entries from Annascaul, Ballyheigue, Killarney, Moyvane and Ballybunion. Across ten matches, 60 games and 120 sets the winners were decided by a mere 6 sets with the Ballybunion Baseliners coming out on top.

Half of the matches were won by the narrowest margin of 7-5 and the first and second place battle between Ballyheigue and Ballybunion was a closely contested 6-6 draw. However, an early strong win against Annascaul gave Ballybunion Baseliners the extra points required to top the table with 33 points, ahead of

Ballyheigue second with 27 and Moyvane third with 23.

The winning team was Lorcan Briscoe, Mark Allen, Padraig McMahon, Mike Walsh, Michelle Hogan, Cyrena O’Carroll and

Danielle Noonan.

Next weekend sees several Kerry club teams traveling to Cappoquinn

in Waterford to contest the Munster Haynes Cup/Shield/ Plate competition.

The Listowel Division 4 team that won the Knockout Sheild at the Knock-Out Cup in Killarney Sports & Leisure Centre last Sunday. Front, from left: Rita McCarthy, Madison Carter, Margaret Healy, Esther Cronin, Becky Weiland. Back, from left: Oisin Moloney, James Sheahan, Paul Hayes, Michael Reardon, Tom Rice.