Rags take the Grade 2 Mix Cup home.
The venue was Carlow Lawn Tennis Club, the opposition Carlow YM. The two sides had met in the group stages with YM being victors on both occasions, but the sight of the silverware must have inspired the Kilcullen side. In a fine display of badminton Eoin and his team trounced a stunned YM 5-2 in an enthralling final with Kilcullen team playing out of their skin with some equally fantastic offensive and defensive play. Even the most senior player on the team Mick Cass (who even on his bad day is a class act), rolled back the years and was covering the court like a gazelle in his prime. This is not to take away from the effort put in by the rest of the team with David Jackson playing with an injury, Gillian K Smith just over a bad flu (which I heard was not as serious as man flu!) and Tara O’Neill competing in her highest grade to date. Murt Dunne was again his usual self, fired up and encouraging his team mates when both on and off the court.
It’s yet another piece of silverware this season for the ragettes with Gillian, Sinead Kelly, and Lynsey Walshe winning the Division 2 Ladies Cup Final and Tara captaining the winning Ladies Division 4 Ladies Cup team. From the club a massive congratulations to our Grade 2 Mix Champions on a fantastic win. The Grade 2 champions would also like to thank all those who travelled to see and support in the final.
In other news John Mullen and the Division 5 Mens team were out twice this week hosting league leaders Vikings on Tuesday 28 February and St Brigids on Friday 3 March. In the first the Rags put up a monster effort against Vikings and were unlucky not to get a win with a 2-2 draw the result. After winning first mens, both Enda O’Neill and Vincent Coller were unlucky to loose their game with the third set score of 21-19 going to Vikings. Ray Dalton and Vincent then took the third. John and Enda were unlucky in the fourth mens game and for the second time in one night Kilcullen lost a tie break set again 21-19 giving Viking a hard earned draw. In their second match of the week John and his team got their just rewards beating a good St Brigids team 3-1. This puts the Kilcullen four top of their league with three to play, but the lads can’t afford to be complacent with Viking and Clane snapping at their heels.
Thursday 2 March Enda O’Neill and the Division 6 Mix travelled all the way to Red Cross to play Wicklow Parish. The Division 6 team sit top of the league table even after their last match where a competitive Viking team beat them 3-1. Enda and the team were determined to bounce back after this defeat and did so winning 4-0. Enda and Barry (Swedey Eyes!) O’Neill took the men’s game comfortably, Jen Monaghan and Kathrin Logan then took the ladies also without much fuss. Kathrin and Enda then took the first mix in 3 sets coming back from 17-13 down in the third to win the game 21-17. In the final game of the night Jen and Barry won in two sets giving the KBC quartet a well deserved 4-0 victory. Well done Kathrin, Jen, Barry on a great performance.
Oisin Egan and his Division 7 Mens team played run away league leaders Tolka Rovers at home on Friday 3 March. This was always going to be a tough tie and were unlucky in two of the games not to get a draw from this tie. Tolka Rovers beat the KBC side 4-0 but there is light at the end of the tunnel for Oisin and his team who are still second in the group and can still progress to the knock out stages of the league. Hard luck Oisin, Ben Phelan, Fintan Phelan and Kasi Va.
Finally the club would like to wish our Grade 3 Mix team best of luck in their South West League semi final on Monday night 06 March in Carlow YM.
Good luck to all the Kilcullen teams this week in their matches and don’t forget you can check Kilcullen Badminton Club on kilcullenbadmintonclub.com or on our Facebook page Kilcullen Badminton Club for all our news and upcoming fixtures.
In the photograph are the Grade 2 Mix Winners (front) Sinead Kelly, Tara O'Neill, Lynsey Walsh and Gillian K Smith; and (back) Eoin Bourke, Murt Dunne, Dave Jackson, and Mick Cass.
