Hard luck to Jacinta Dean and her Women’s Senior Cup team who fell just short to an extremely strong Munster team from Douglas G.C. this morning in their All-Ireland semi-final.
The match was played in Dun Laoghaire in almost perfect conditions with an early 8 am tee off for the opening match.
Out first were Aisling Marmion & Niamh Keilthy who faced the Douglas no.1 pairing. Aisling & Niamh got off to a slow start and by the time they found their rhythm their opposition had control of the match. The Douglas pair were relentless while the Greystones pair struggled a little on the greens and match finished 9&7.
Match two saw Sophie Lumley & Trish Sheil up against another strong pair. Douglas won the opening two holes, but both Greystones players were playing well and they squared the match with wins on four and five. The match was tied after nine, Douglas having won the eighth after a Greystones three putt for bogey, but Greystones responded immediately with a win on nine. Sophie & Trish then won the tenth to get their noses ahead for the first time in the match but the Douglas opposition threw in two pars in succession to win eleven and twelve to get back ahead.
The third pairing out today for Greystones was that of Shauna Seifried & Mary Lockhart. Shauna & Mary also found themselves two down after two but won the fourth with a par to reduce the deficit to just one. Unfortunately the putts just weren’t dropping for the Greystones girls and Douglas won five and six to get to three up and were starting to look in control. As with our first two pairs, Shauna & Mary were also finding it difficult on the greens and three putts on nine and eleven plus a missed birdie putt on twelve turned possible wins to halves and kept the match at three up to Douglas. Thirteen went to Greystones but Douglas closed out the match and the tie by a margin of 4&3 with further wins on fourteen and fifteen.
Sophie & Trish were back to just one down after fifteen when called in.
It was a great achievement for Greystones to get to the All-Ireland semi-final and the blend of youth and experience has certainly worked this year. Aisling, Sophie and Shauna have certainly been fantastic additions to the team from the junior section and with Junior Captain, Isabella Stewart still to come back into the team the future looks bright.
Well done to Jacinta and all the squad on their achievements this year and here’s to 2024.
