Deerpark’s Nathan Cronin became the second Kerry as well as Killarney player to win the Boys Plate event after Eoin O’Riordan Looney had previously done so back in 2019.
Nathan was unlucky not to advance to the Last 16 of the Championship from a Round Robin Group that featured club-mate Noah Sexton as well as Listowel’s Ajay Barrett before he defeated three Kildare players to win the title. He started off with a 6&5 win over Conor Crudden in the quarter-finals before getting the better of Dylan Kavanagh from the Poulaphouca by 9&8 in Sunday’s semi-finals.
He faced Adam Byrne from the host club Ryston in the decider and Nathan never looked back after taking a 6up lead after the first 18 holes. His eventual winning margin in the final was 12&11, one behind the 2019 winning final score for Eoin O’Riordan Looney in the 2019 final. Overall all eight Kerry players who took part n the weekend’s events all made the knockout stages of their respective competitions with Nathan’s Deerpark club-mates Bryan O’Leary and Dara Wickham both beaten in the quarter-finals of the Plate.
Tralee’s Sophie Moynihan meanwhile reached the final of the Girls event but just missed out on replicating her sister Ella’s win in the competition the previous year. Sophie won both her Round Robin matches before beating Ashgrove’s Briona Vereker 6&5 in the quarter-finals. Sophie then had a 3&2 win over Tipperary Hills’ Sarah Ryan in the semi-finals to send her into Sunday morning’s semi-finals against Sarah Cooney of Seapoint in Louth, the same player her sister Ella had beaten in last year’s decider. 
Sophie started very well against Sarah in the final over a longer distance of 36 holes taking an early three hole lead before turning 1up on Sarah. The second 18 saw Sarah pick up her game however as she went ahead early in the second 18 and eventually won the match 5&3. Sophie’s steady progress continues however as all U16’s will be looking forward to the return of the Munster U16 Strokeplay and Inter-County events on Friday August 5th in Cunnigar, Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
Castleisland Scratch Cups
Something else that made a welcome return last Sunday was the Castleisland Scratch Cups as they were held for the first time since 2019. The Danny Broderick Memorial Senior event saw a first time winner in 2020 National Intermediate Mens Strokeplay winner Michael Conway of Tralee as his 54 hole total of 25 under par gave him a three stroke victory over Cork’s Ray Murphy and Tralee’s Jason O’Regan on 22 under par. Murphy got second from O’Regan on countback.
Another Tralee player Darren Goodall won the Last 18 prize with eight under par as the Intermediate event was won by John Fitzgerald from the host club by one stroke from Cork’s Darren O’Leary after a 54 hole total of 15 under par for John. The Lorna Looney-Brosnan Junior event was won by Aidan O’Sullivan from Bruff meanwhile ahead of Darragh McCarthy from the hosts in second.
