Although his involvement was not until very late in the tournament, Damien Fleming played his part in Ireland’s World Cup Pitch & Putt victory in El Vendrell in Barcelona as Ireland retained the title and won the competition for a sixth time in total and a fourth in straight succession.
The Deerpark member travelled as the Irish team’s reserve as he would put in for the final after Louth’s Padraic Sarsfield had to unfortunately withdraw injured prior to the decider on Sunday morning. To that stage Ireland had dominated the tournament, becoming top seeds for the start of the knockout stages on Friday before defeating Switzerland in the quarter-finals.
On Saturday they had a semi-final victory over Galicia meaning they would play competition newcomers North Portugal in the final after they surprised hosts Catalonia in the other semi-final. Sunday’s final started with a Doubles and Singles encounter as Damien partnered with Limerick’s Kieran Earls to win their match 1up with Kildare’s Ian Dillon winning the Singles encounter to give Ireland a 2-0 lead.
The second part of the final consisted of three Singles matches as Kieran Earls’ Singles win officially confirmed Ireland as winners as Damien and Ian Dillon’s Singles matches were subsequently deemed draws despite both being ahead at the time meaning the official scoreline in Ireland’s favour was 4-1. Our congratulations to Damien on his win in the Irish jersey as he becomes the second Kerry player to win for Ireland in a Championship event after his club-mate Derry McCarthy captained the 2005 Irish side to victory in the European Championship that year.
Damien officially became the first Kerry player to play for both province and country with his appearance in the decider but an announcement prior to last weekend means he will be quickly joined by another two players in the county in achieving that feat. Both Brian McCarthy (Deerpark) and Ajay Barrett (Listowel) will be part of the Munster U16 side in Pitch & Putt Ireland’s second Inter Provincial Challenge next month after playing for Ireland in a Challenge with Catalonia last year.
In total four of the six U16’s in the Munster side will be from Kerry as Deerpark’s Ben Kelliher and Tralee’s Sophie Moynihan will be part of the team as well as the U16’s in both Munster and Leinster are joining six Ladies from both provinces to create two 12-player teams. Continuing the Kerry involvement, Deerpark and Kerry U16 Officer Gearoid Cronin has been selected as manager of the Munster U16 side for the Challenge which will take place in Larkspur Park in Cashel on Saturday November 2nd next.
Congratulations to all concerned for their selection for the Munster side in next month’s event.
