Friday, December 09, 2016

Grade Two Final a cracker in Carlow.

Thursday December 9 turned out to be a great night for KBC and the Grade 2 Men captained by Eoin Bourke, writes Enda O'Neill, PRO of Kilcullen Badminton Club. Eoin and the lads had taken their place in the final after beating Johnswell on Monday 5 December in Johnswell's back yard. Carlow Lawn Tennis Club was the venue and the opposition were Carlow YM.

Carlow were unbeaten on their route to the South West League Mens Final only dropping a handful of sets on the way and had inflicted a 6-0 defeat in the group stages on the Kilcullen Men. To say Carlow were the favourites would probably be the understatement of the year. KBC were of course without regular Gar Hogan and in stepped the very capable Mick Cass who along with partner Eoin won the first game in three sets stunning the Carlow outfit with some fantastic play. David Jackson and Murt “Mandwich” Dunne were out next and lost their game in three sets leaving the final tied going into the third game. In the third game Murt and Eoin won in an epic game of badminton, it was now 2-1 to “the Rags”. David and Mick went out in the fourth game, and to watch Mick on court was like looking at a man in his twenties with the amount of court he covered, this along with some of Davids’ defence play which was just pure magic, David and Mick won the game in three hard sets. Carlow YM just couldn’t recover from being 3-1 down and captain Eoin and David stood up to the mark and won their game fairly comfortably in turn beating Carlow YM 4-1 in a great final for the KBC men.
A massive congrats to Eoin, Murt, David and sub of the season Mick on a great night, well done guys you showed great fight and determination in a fantastic match. So far Kilcullen teams have played in four SWL Mens and Ladies finals and have won three, Jens Ladies being the Grade 4 Champions and Owens Men the Grade 3 Mens Champions, roll on the SWL Mix where hopefully we can add a few more trophies to the already filling cabinet.

In other news Jennifer Monaghan's Grade 4 Mix opened their SWL mix League with an impressive 6-2 victory over Portlaoise last Tuesday 6 December, a good start for Jen, Kathrin Logan, Mari Gallagher, Sarah Walshe, Barry O’Neill, Enda O’Neill, Oisin Egan and Kasi Va.
In the Dublin District Cup Tara O’Neill, Chelsey Cox, John Mullen and Vincent Coller our Division 5 Mix B progressed to the next round of the Cup after beating St. Brigids of Dublin in a very close match 3-2. Tara's team were also out the following night against Rathmore and came away with a great 4-0 win. Also well done to Kath Logan who subbed in for the Rathmore match.

Sinead Kelly and her Division 2 Ladies travelled to Ailesbury on Saturday December 3 and secured a impressive 2-2 draw in a tough match. Well done Sinead and her team.

Don't forget you can check Kilcullen Badminton Club on www.kilcullenbadmintonclub.com or on our Facebook page Kilcullen Badminton Club for all our news and upcoming fixtures.

Pictured are Eoin Bourke Murt Dunne, David Jackson and Mick Cass Grade 2 Mens SWL Champions.