Summer Singles a great success
As our summer season comes to an end and the competitive season starts, on reflection we can honestly say that it really has been a great summer for the club, writes Enda O'Neill of Kilcullen Badminton Club. Our average over the three months of the Summer Season we had 32 people come from all over Kildare to our club and on a few occasions we had in excess of 36 players attend every Tuesday and Thursday night which is almost full capacity for a 4-court hall.
As well as keeping our current players we have also seen some new and old players come and return to KBC. Thursday the 29th of August hailed the end of the summer club and what a high note the summer club ended on, with the three finals of our summer singles competition.
Our first final was the men’s division 2 clash between Ronan Murphy and John Mullin. Ronan got off to a shaky start losing his first 3 group matches, then beating 3rd in the group Colin Pauloin-Valory in his semi-final. John was coming into the final with an unbeaten record, easing through the group stages, while easily disposing of Enda O Neill who was 4th in the table, in his semi-final. The first two sets were divided between Ronan and John but in the deciding 3rd set Ronan showed his class to beat John 21-17 thus ending his unbeaten run and winning the match 2-1 on sets.
The ladies 1 final was also an excellent match played between Emer Flynn and Sarah Walshe. Sarah reached the final beating Orla Brophy in her semi-final, while Emer beat Meave Pauloin-Valory in the other semi-final. This was an excellent match to watch and Sarah beat Emer two sets to nil 21-8, 21-17. Sarah did the club proud earlier in the week finishing 2nd in a mixed competition that she played in Baldoyle with her father Fintan Phelan (no relation to Mark!). Congrats to them both on their first mixed outing together.
After two epic semi-finals in Mens 1 that went well over the hour between Paddy Burke and Dave McClean and Gareth Hogan and Darren Lee. Paddy Burke came through winning 2-1 in a 3-setter thriller while Gareth Hogan beating Darren Lee in the other semi which was also an entertaining 3-set match between two of the young guns of the club. So the stage was set for the Men’s 1 final between Paddy and Gareth.
The first set was taken by Paddy in a closely fought game but Gareth came out strong in the 2nd and 3rd sets, clinching the match in the 3rd set 21-18 and winning the match 2-1. It was an intense group between these four outstanding players with only set differences separating first and fourth in the group. In the end Gareth Hogan became the champion singles player in the club which bodes well for KBC moving forward with so many young players coming through the juvenile grades.
A presentation night was had on Friday the 30th of August in Bardon’s where the winners and runners up of the Summer Singles were given their trophies. So as our summer ends and our autumn league begins the committee would like to thank all the club members who took part in the competition and making the summer club such a great success. We would also like to thank Clive Cole our assistant treasurer who was down every night during the summer keeping the books in order. Roll on the league and as always we welcome new players to come along and give Badminton a try after all it is the fastest racket sport in the world!!
Pictured are Sarah Walshe, Paddy Burke, Ronan Murphy, Gareth Hogan and John Mullen.
