Kingdom Challenge Shields completed
THE finals of the Senior and Intermediate Kingdom Challenge Shields were completed last weekend bringing down the curtain on the Federation’s event for 2018, with victories for Dooks in the Senior Shield and Tralee in the Intermediate.
Dooks travelled to Ballybunion’s Cashen Course three holes down from the first leg but managed to reverse this and come away with the title after a hotly-contested battle.
The top match finished allsquare between Conor Hickey and John McCarthy of Dooks and the Ballybunion pair of Anthony Bennett and Gary Scanlon and there was an identical result in match two, where Damien O’Sullivan and Damien McGillicuddy of Dooks finished level with Ballybunion’s teenage pairing of Edmund Hayes and Philip Byrne.
So, Ballybunion still held their three-hole advantage from the first leg, but the final Dooks pair of Edward Daniels and club Captain, Karl Falvey proved too strong for Pat Harnett and Edmund Healy and finished three holes ahead after the 18th meaning that the two sides were now tied after regulation play of both legs.
The tournament rules state that in the event of a tie, the final pairings must head for the nineteenth hole which the Dooks pairing birdied to win the title.
In the Intermediate Shield, Tralee had a three-hole advantage over Castlegregory from the opening leg in Castlegregory and made home advantage in Barrow count in the second leg.
In the top match Tralee’s Mike Halloran and Ned O’Shea led from the start against Tom Moriarty and Sean O’Connor turning two up and following a great back nine with holes traded by both sides throughout, the Tralee men edged it by one hole.
In match two, Castlegregory cancelled out the result of the first match where their pairing of Sean Spillane and Tommy Higgins came from one down with three to play for a one hole win, meaning Tralee still held a three-hole advantage and it proved a bridge too far for Castlegregory as final match was called in from the sixteenth as the home pairing of Liam Hussey and Domo Lyne were five ahead of John Rowan and George Nash.
These two finals were the final action in Federation events after a wonderful year with Ballybunion as hosts and all that remains now for Captain John Fox and his officers is to host the AGM sometime in Spring before handing over the reins for 2019 to Kenmare.