Badminton update
The last week of March proved to be a very busy week (and a logistical nightmare for our Match Secretary Olivier!), writes Enda O'Neill, PRO of Kilcullen Badminton Club.
As we finish the group phases of the league KBC are proud to announce four teams have officially made it through to the Quarter Finals so far. Kath's Mix 5 gang needed two draws in their last two matches to secure the quarter final place; this however wasn’t going to be as easy as it seemed, as they had to play away to the first and third place teams in the group.
The first match played on Wednesday 25 March away to table toppers Skerries. In this close match the Mix 7 team managed to get a 3-3 draw setting them up for an exciting last game against Raheny. This tie turned out to be another close match with everything to lose for both teams, Raheny knew a win would place them in second place and put them through. Kath, Margaret, Dave McE and Ben managed to get the needed draw to progress to the knockout stages. A big congrats to Kath, Margaret, Dave and Ben.
John's Division 5 Mens were in the same boat in their league campaign needing four points from their last two games. The KBC outfit visited Rathmore on Wednesday 25 March and in this difficult hall the lads secured a 2-2 draw. In their final league match at home again to Rathmore the lads just required a draw to send them through to the knockout stages, a 3-1 win for Rathmore would have them leapfrog Kilcullen and put them through. The lads got off to a great start with John and Sean winning the first game in two sets, the second and third games didn’t go to plan, however, with Enda and Vincent losing their game in three sets and John and Vincent also losing their game in two. Going into the final game KBC were 2-1 down to the Rathmore lads and it was all to do for Sean and Enda.
It started off well for the KBC lads and they beat the Rathmore pair in a fairly easy first set, the KBC pair then lost the second set 21-17 and had it all to do in the third. The Rathmore pair surely thought they had it in the bag when they were 20-17 up in the last set but Sean and Enda dug deep and beat the Rathmore lads 22-20 in a cracking set, knocking Rathmore out and putting Kilcullen through to the quarters. Well done to John and his team Vincent, Sean and Enda.
Well done also to Caroline and her Grade 3 Mix team who are through to the quarter finals in the South West knockout cup after beating Abbyleix on Thursday 26 March.
Finally good luck to all the teams playing their quarter finals next week and to those partaking in the Good Friday Tournament….Up the Rags!
