BADMINTON NOTES

Sunday last saw the Killarney sports centre and the Kerry Badminton Association play host to the six Counties of Munster  with the staging of  the Provincial senior 2 and the Graduate championships.

Senior 2 would be the second tier in Munster badminton whilst the graduates is open to those players graded below both senior 1 and senior 2 and who have not played Inter County at class 1,2 or 3 level and this competition generally attracts a large entry from a[[ over the Province and Sunday last was no exception with over 130 players competing on the day

Last season saw Kerry players reach 6 finals and won 3 titles. Last Sunday saw the Kerry players win out the same number of Munster titles but the number of Kerry players that contested this year’s finals was far greater than last season.

It was the graduates that stole the show from a Kerry perspective with Killarney club girl Ms Niamh Hickey being acclaimed as the “ Queen of the Court”

Miss Hickey contested all 3 finals that was open to her with her first decider being the graduates final where she met Waterford’s Jo Murphy. It was the decies girl that took control of set number 1 winning by 21-10 but the brave Kerry girl really threw everything into the second set, but it was not to  be as the title was Waterford bound on the tight score of 21-18,

But it was all uphill for Ms. Hickey after that. In the all Kerry ladies doubles decider Ms. Hickey teamed up with her Killarney club colleague Samira Hayes where the opposition was supplied by  another Killarney club player, Jeab Workman, and her Castleisland partner Michelle Beazley. It was the all Killarney pairing that took the honours in two close sets 21-17;21-17.

The second title captured on the day by Ms. Hickey was in the mixed doubles decider where she teamed up with Tiernan Lawlor of Waterford with the  final opposition being supplied by Listowels Jill Redmond and Limericks Adrian Kennelly.

Ms Hickey and Lawlor won the first set handy enough 21- 7 but the Redmond/ Kennelly combination put in a brave performance in the second set before going down 21-17 but it was Ms Hickeys day as she collected Munster Crown number 2, a day she will surely cherish for a long time to come.

The third title captured for Kerry on the day was the mixed doubles crown where the Moyvane/[Listowel partnership of Donnacha Moloney and James Leane took on Limericks Gabriel Sisson and Aaron Magee .

This was a brilliant, exciting 3 set battle with the Limerick pair capturing the first set by 21-16 but the Kerry pair dovetailed well together in the second set which they won on the same score of 21-16  and the third and final set saw it Kerry’s day as Moloney[Leane came good by 21-17.

The Kerry hard luck story of the day must be that of Donie Enright in the mens graduate singles final. The Moyvane man captured the opening set by 21-16 against Gabriel Sisson, but the Limerick man turned the game around in the remaining 2 sets winning by 21-15;21-16.

There was no Kerry joy in the senior 2 competition this year but the Castleisland club girl Edel Broderick  did reach 2 finals with both going to 3 sets and she did come  home with 2 silver medals   In the singles final in which she was the defending champion  Ms Broderick  won  the opening set against  Waterford’s Lucy Fox by  21-16; lost the second by 12-21  and just lost out in a close  hard fought  final set by 21-19.

In the ladies doubles decider Ms. Broderick teamed up with Tipperary’s Celine Connors and this pair won a thrilling opener by 22-20 but the title was set for  Waterford as Tanya Morrissey and Shauna Kennelly  came good when it mattered  most and won their title by 16-21;14-21 but overall it was not a bad day for Kerry Badminton

This coming weekend will see another hectic badminton programme to be played out, commencing with the CPC.IE   sponsored  divisions 2 and 4 singles championships to be played in the Killarney Sports Arena with the start time of 7.30 sharp. It is important that all players and court helpers report in good time.

The action stays in Killarney on the Saturday where the juvenile singles championships for all 4 age groups, under 11/13/15/17  for both girls and boys will take place with the usual starting time of 11am. Again, it is important for all involved to sign in before 10.45.

The Munster section of the  All Ireland inter County series commences in the UL, Limerick Arena on this coming Sunday  where Grades B;D/F/G  will take the floor. Kerry will not have a team in Grade B but will  have a team in each of the other sections.

In fairness, all have trained diligently over many weeks past with the D panel under the stewardship of Eric Nelligan who will finalise his team of 5 ladies and 5 men from the following panel; Sinead Galvin , Sorcha  Fitzgerald, Elaine Hudson, Jennifer Keane, Maeve Twomey ;Niamh Hickey; Fergal Hannon, Jonathan Keane, James Leane, Michael Crossan;    Chris O’Donoghue and Donnacha Moloney.

The Grade G panel have been trained and coached by joint managers Amanda Carmody and Tony O’Donoghue who wishes to acknowledge the help they have received from current div 1 County champion James O’Flaherty and also William O’Flaherty.

The final selection is as follows; Bridget McCarthy (Moyvane)Paula O Sullivan, (Ballyheigue)  Ciara Hudson (Moyvane) Rita McCarthy (Listowel) Louise Behan (Moyvane) Ger O’Connor (Killarney) Liam O’Connor (Moyvane) ;Kevin O’Donnell (Ballyheigue) Liam Barry (Killarney) Brendan O’Carroll (Causeway)

Note, at the time of compiling these notes the Grade F panel was not available.

Kerry Sports Awards

There was a notable honour bestowed on the Killarney Badminton Club last week when they were declared as one of the Kerry Sports Stars of the Year  winners at the annual  function which took place in Killarney.  This honour bestowed on  Killarney was due to the great success by the club over the past season which saw them capture many honours which included  team success  at Kerry division 3 level and the jewel in the Badminton crown was winning the All Ireland Grade F title which was a notable achievement.

All in Kerry badminton, players, mentors and supporters are requested to note that the Kerry Associations annual table quiz will take place at O’Donnell’s Bar Tralee on Friday night  February 16th and the Annual raffle will take place 2 days later during the division 1,3 and 5 doubles championships in Killarney.

As the game of badminton does not have the luxury of charging admission prices to their competitions the money accrued from functions such as the table quiz and the raffle are a vital source of income to pay off  the many expenses involved around teams hall hire , shuttles and the many other expenses incurred in trying to run a County association, so the support of all is very welcome.