The U.L. Arena of Limerick was the venue for the Munster adult Inter County competitions on Sunday last.
Out of the 4 categories that was played off, Kerry had three teams involved and they were in Grades D, F and G with grade d having a mixture of div 1 and 2 players, grade F would be division 3 players whilst grade G would be division 4 players.
No joy for the Kerry grade G team as they suffered 9-0 defeats to both Tipperary and Cork and &-2 to Waterford.
The Tipperary encounter saw each of the mixed ties being hard fought 3 set games but all went the way of the Premier County side.
The same could be said about the Cork game, no less than 7 of these went to the third set but for some reason Kerry fell in each.
The Waterford encounter saw Kerry winning the first ladies tie and the 3rd mixed match with the third set again being the obstacle for Kerry as they lost 4 more three setters in this match.
The Kerry Grade F team was involved in a three County play off with Counties Tipperary and Cork providing the opposition.
It was the Kingdom versus the Premier County in round one with Kerry having a great start by winning the first mens doubles and both ladies doubles ties to take a 3-1 lead with 9 games in each match.
The singles were shared but in the mixed games Kerry won the first mixed match but Tipperary took the other two but Kerry were overall winners by 5 games to 4.
Kerry had to sit out round two which saw Cork take on Tipperary and it was the Rebels who came good by 6-3.
So to the final crunch game and it was the story of the winner take all.
Kerry got the good start by taking the mens singles but Cork soon took over and build up a 3-1 lead but it was Cork who finished the better.
Kerry did win the the second ladies game and the second mixed encounter but Cork were overall winners by 6-3 and took home the gold medals whilst a gallant Kerry side had to settle for silver.
But there was Gold at the end of the rainbow for a fighting Grade D team. Four Counties were involved in this contest, Cork, Tipperary, Waterford and Kerry.
Round 1 saw Tipperary overcome Cork by 7-2 but the Kingdom did one better by over powering Waterford 8-1.
So for round 2 it was winners versus losers and this saw Tipperary forging a narrow 5-4 win over Waterford but the impetus that saw Kerry win that first round game was fully embellished once again in round 2 as they had another most convincing 8-1 victory over Cork.
For the Gold medals and the honour to represent Munster in the All Ireland finals proper in about six weeks time it was now down to Kerry versus Tipperary.
The Premier County side certainly put it up to the Kingdom by taking both mens doubles but the Kerry ladies were once again the saviours of the Kingdom and they levelled at 2 games each.
The mens singles went to Kerry as did the second mixed tie so by taking a 4-2 lead Kerry knew that they could not be caught and had regained this Munster title after a number of years.
It was a great all round performance by Kerry and they now can be looking forward to the All Ireland series.
The winning Kerry panel is as follows; Niamh O’Flaherty, Sinead Galvin, Maeve Twomey, Sorcha Fitzgerald, Elaine Hudson, Fergal Hannon, Michael Crossan, James O’Flaherty, James Leane, Jonathan Keane.
Joint managers; Eric Nelligan, Tom Bourke
Juvenile County Championships
It was the Juvenile singles County Championship day for both girls and boys at the Killarney Sports Centre on Saturday last and what a mammoth days badminton it proved to be where up to 130 boys and girls competed in a programme that took over 6 hours to complete.
Ciara Hudson, Cillian Falvey winners of Un 17 singles, Maria Kenelly and Niall O’Brien runners up at the Juvenile County Championships
U11 Girls Jessica O’Loughlin Kingdom (Castleisland) defeated Graine Bradley 15/3, 15/9
U11 Girls Plate Moira Spillane Annascaul defeated Grace McGovern Kingdom
U13 Girls Deina Vesko Listowel defeated Ciara Knightly Annascaul 21/9, 21/10
U13 Girls Plate Madison Carter Listowel defeated Kiana Walsh Listowel
U15 Girls Valerie Guiney Listowel defeated Katelyn Reid Annascaul 21/17, 21/10
U15 Girls Plate Abbie O’Leary Killarney defeated Ailbhe Gammell Killarney
U17 Girls Ciara Hudson Moyvane defeated Marie Kennelly Moyvane 13/21, 21/13, 21/12
U17 Girls Plate Nicole Lewis Annascaul defeated Olivia Weslolowska Killarney
U11 Boys Ruadhan Donovan Annascaul defeated Gearoid O’Sullivan Listowel 15/11, 15/8
U11 Boys Plate Conor O’Keefe Killarney defeated Harry Curran Dingle
U13 Boys Eddie Healy Listowel defeated Tomas Ashe Annascaul 21/12, 21/18
U13 Boys Plate Tom Hoare Annascaul defeated Evan McCarthy Annascaul
U15 Boys Seamus Bradley Kingdom defeated Cathal Donovan Annascaul 21/23, 21/15, 27/25
U15 Boys Plate Shane Gleeson Listowel defeated Kris Montyvdus Listowel
U17 Boys Killian Falvey Annascaul defeated Niall O’Brien Killarney 21/17, 21/19
U17 Boys Plate Gavin McCarthy Annascaul defeated Luke O’Loughlin Kingdom
Ruadhan O’Donovan Winner of Un 11 boys singles along with Gearoid O’Sullivan runner up at the Juvenile County Championships
Singles County Championships;
The concluding stages of the C.P.C.IE sponsored adult singles County Championships will take place on Sunday next at the Killarney Sports Centre where divisions 2 and 4 in both ladies and mens championships will take centre court.
Both divisions will commence at the same time, 2 pm and all players and court helpers are requested to report not later than 1.45 pm
Sports Star Awards
The Kerry sports Star awards will take place in Killarney on this coming Friday and Kerry badminton will be represented in the personage of the Moyvane division 3 team who won All Ireland honours.
Moyvane firstly won the Kerry title and then blazed their way through Munster. In the All Ireland series they first over came the Kildare and Leinster champions, Kilcullen by 6-1 and in this round robin series they met the Mayo and Connacht champions, Ballina and by defeating the Mayo side 5-2 they had annexed the All Ireland crown which paved the way for the team to be honoured with the Kerry sports award on Friday night. Strange to relate, there will be another badminton connection at the Killarney function on Friday night.
This will be Glenflesk’s Helen Twomey who has been nominated for the sports star award due to her process in the sport of power lifting. The Glenflesk lady, of course, had made her name in the sport of badminton.
In the Kerry senior mixed doubles roll of honour she lies at number 1 as she has captured no less than 10 mixed doubles county titles in this discipline, the first one being back in 1989 with Sean Leahy of the then Ashe Club.
She has also won many ladies doubles titles in the Kerry championships and in the hard won Munster championship campaign she has won over 20 senior titles between ladies doubles and mixed doubles.
Helen started power lifting in 2014 and took to the sport like the proverbial duck to the water and she retired from badminton in 2015 to concentrate on her new chosen sport and how she has excelled since.
Her citation for Fridays function, as follows, speaks for itself on how she progressed in her new sport and the world is now her oyster.
2016 was a year of unparalleled success in Power lifting for Helen Twomey .
The 49 year old Glenflesk sportswoman who power lifts with the Peak Performance Academy in Killarney and is coached by Bobby Enright started 2016 in great style by winning the National Full Power Championships in Dublin.
On the way she broke her own World Dead lift Record, lifting 175kg and put the icing on the cake by breaking a 2nd World record for lifting a total of 360kg in her Category.
In June Helen travelled to the World Single Lift Championships in Wales clinching the World Deadlift Title with a huge lift of 176kg won again breaking her own World record.
But there was more to come…..
In October Helen lifted her way into the History books by becoming one of the first two Masters lifters to qualify for the IPF National Team.
Helen will now compete with the IPF National Team in the highest standard of Powerlifting in the World Powerlifting Championships in Belarus in June 2017. During qualifying to make the team Helen recorded an incredible 180kg deadlift.
