The National Matchplay Championships saw Tralee’s Catriona O’Connor come away with Kerry’s only prize from the weekend as she was one of the beaten semi-finalists in the Ladies Nett event.
As a consequence, she became the county’s only play to make the Monday of the event as she came through a Round Robin group featuring former winner of the event Elaine Quinn from Tipperary and Catherine Dillon of Kildare. She won through then to Monday’s semi-finals where she was defeated by eventual runner-up Gemma Martin from the Hillview club in Clonmel by 3&1.
In terms of the Men, Deerpark’s Damien Fleming was the only Kerry player to reach the Last 16 of the Senior Mens event as after defeating defending champion Stephen O’Reilly in the First Round and following up with a win over Frank Dineen in Cork he lost to another Cork player Eoin Shannon in the Third Round 6&5. Munster Matchplay holder Jason Cregan lost to eventual winner Ray Murphy of Cork in Round 2 as Deerpark John McGrath and Tralee’s Gavin Carroll (despite beating the runner of the last two year’s John Cahill in Round 1) were also eliminated at the same stage.
In the new Mens Intermediate and Junior competitions, Tralee’s Michael Creagh was the only Kerry player to advance to Round 2 in the Intermediate competition as his club-mates John Fitzgerald and Mark O’Regan were both beaten in Round 1 of the Junior event. The event itself was slightly overshadowed on Sunday morning by the news of the death of former Pitch & Putt Ireland President Billy Lynch as the tournament was progressing.
A great friend of the game in Kerry he will be sadly missed by many of the people in the game in the county as we offer our deepest sympathies to his family and his club Royal Meath on his sad passing. May he Rest in Peace. This weekend sees a first in the county with the staging of two Scratch Cups in the one weekend with Deerpark’s events taking place on Saturday and Tralee hosting their event on Sunday. Any enquires about tee-times are available from both clubs.
The Bob Casey Memorial Inter-Club Strokeplay meanwhile gets underway from next Tuesday evening June 11th and full details will be made available to clubs later this week.
