Monday, March 20, 2017

Five fixtures this week for KBC

There are five fixtures to report on this week for Kilcullen Badminton Club, writes Club PRO Enda O'Neill, the first played on Tuesday 14 April.

Maeve Valroy and the Divisions 8 Ladies were hoping to bulid on their draw the previous week againist St Raphael's when they hosted St Brigids. Before this match Maeves team sat with seven points chasing St Pauls who had 11 points with the same amount of matches played. Maeve and the ladies needed a big win to keep them in the hunt and did so with a fantastic 4-0 win over their counterparts St Brigids. The Kilcullen ladies now have 11 points with one match left to play againist rivals St Paul's. This crucial match will be played in the complex on March 28 and a home win would almost certainly get our cup finalists into the league knockout stages. Good luck to Meave, Orla Brophy, Grace Elliot and Emer Flynn in their last match.

Also playing at home on the same night was Tara O’Neill and her Division 4 Ladies. The “Ragettes” have been cruising in this division, stamping their authority in every match so far and on this night things weren’t going to be any different as they hosted Rathfarnham. Our Division 4 Ladies Cup Champions again were straight out of the blocks holding nothing back and thrashed the Rathfarnham ladies 4-0. This keeps the KBC sides 100 percent record in the League intact and are looking like the team to beat. Well done to Tara and her team, Siobhan Willis, Karen O’Neill and Bernie Smyth on a great win. The ladies face Old School on March 31 at home and good luck to our Cup Champions.

Tara was out again with the Division 5 Mix 5 on Wednesday March 15 as they visited PBAI. Tara and her team have been holding their own in this tough group and were third in the table. St Killian's sit top of the group with 12 points and PBAI hold second with 10 points, so this was a must win match for the team. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be their night and the Kilcullen crowd couldn’t get themselves over the line on this occasion with a strong PBAI winning 3-1. All is not lost however, for Tara's side and they are still in with a shot with three to play. Tara's next outing is away to Sheriff Street on March 21 and good luck to Tara, Chelsey Cox, John Mullen and Vincent Coller in their next match.

Sinead Kellys Division 2 Ladies travelled to KADKA on Thursday 16 March in a one sided game of badminton. Kilcullen's Division 2 Cup champions sit proudly top of their group with 22 points with eight matches played. Kilcullen left the Division 2 strugglers back yard with a great 4-0 victory. Sinead and the ladies are now guaranteed a final spot in this division and it's looking likely that Ailesbury will be their challengers. Sinead and the team have one more match to play however, again to KADKA (if my memory serves me correctly!). Good luck to Sinead, Lynsey Walsh, Debbie Mangan and Gillian K Smith in their last League match.

Kilcullen's Division 2 Men are finishing their group stage on a high and after a season hampered with injuries Eoin Bourke and the lads hosted Mount Pleasant on Thursday 16 March. Mount Pleasant arrived 20 minutes late but this didn’t disrupt the Kilcullen lads focus. In a tight first game the KBC lads lost in 3 sets, David Jackson and Murt Dunne took the second mens leaving it finely poised at 1-1 going into the third. Eoin and Murt went out in the third and got a great victory after a tense 3 setter with the lads coming back from 20-17 down to win the third set in a tie break 23-21. Dave Jackson and Michael Manning went out in the fourth men and wrapped it up with another great performance giving the “Rags” a well deserved 3-1 win. The victory doesn’t effect the outcome of the group but it gives the lads a great base to build on. Well done Eoin, Micheal, David and the ever vocal Murt on a well deserved victory.

The South West League Knock out Cup now starts this week and good luck to all the teams involved.

In this week's photograph are the Division 8 Ladies, Mari Gallagher, Captain Maeve Valroy, Grace Elliot and Emer Flynn.