Hard luck to the Super Seniors team who this afternoon bowed out of the competition at the quarter final stage.
We faced a very strong Kilcock team and in very trying conditions as the matches teed off. Team manager Liam O’Shea and assistant manager Pat Barry put out a strong team but unfortunately, even with three matches at home, it wasn’t to be our day.
At home, Alan O’Sullivan & Sean Hynes didn’t have their best game at the start and found themselves five down after seven holes but they dug in and won eight and nine to get back to three down after nine.
Ray Hogan & Vincent Prendergast had a very different experience and played great to win easily 5&4. Their win included a nice birdie on the fifth and an unbelievable approach shot by Ray on the twelfth over the trees on the right hand side of the fairway to two feet. This was a real momentum killer for their opposition who had already hit their approach shot close.
Liam had elected to send Cathal Cooney & Jerry Teehan away. Cathal & Jerry have been unbeatable over the past couple of years in this competition but today they met their match in Kilcock. They never really got going and lost, uncharacteristically, 4&3.
Our final home pair of Eddie Joynt & Denis Cromie got off to a great start against a really strong pair from Kilcock and turned three up. Getting a shot on the tenth they were hoping to turn the screw but, as often happens they ended up loosing the hole and were back to two up. This buffer was gone by the fifteenth and the match back to all square. Kilcock got a massive break on the fifteenth when their third shot hit a tree and rebounded to the middle of the fairway. To be fair they took full advantage of this bit of luck and won the hole with a great up and down from the back of the green for a well played bogey. On to the sixteenth and Denis hit a wonderful tee shot to ten feet and a par was enough to win the hole and move to seventeen back to all square.
Meanwhile, away in Kilcock our second match of Stephen Aherne & Jim Ryan were fighting hard. There was never more than the odd hole in this match which turned all square and was again even-steven after sixteen. A loss on seventeen meant that all Kilcock needed was a half on eighteen to win this match.
You can never write Alan & Sean off and they had a great win on the sixteenth to get their match back to all square ( having been 5 down earlier ) and headed to seventeen giving a shot to their opposition. We found the water and moved to eighteen dormie one down.
Behind, Eddie hit a great tee shot which found the middle of the fairway but Kilcock were also on the fairway and, as had been the case all day, were thirty or forty yards ahead. Given the position that Kilcock were in Denis felt he had no choice but to go for the green and was agonisingly close to clearing the water while Kilcock just barely cleared it and then just held on above ground. As was the case with Alan & Sean ahead and Stephen & Jim away, Denis & Eddie went to the eighteenth tee box, dormie one down.
Word filtered back from the eighteenth green that Alan & Sean had lost so we needed both remaining matches to steal the tie.
Denis hit a good tee shot while Eddie’s went a little high and to the left of the eighteenth fairway. Kilcock hit two excellent drives, one to each side of the fairway giving them a choice of shots. Eddie faced perhaps a 170 yard shot to the green off Denis’ drive and it went a little high and was killed a little by the wind leaving Denis still around seventy to the pin. Kilcock hit a good shot to just short of the green and were, crucially, putting. Denis’ approach was excellent, leaving the ball perhaps five feet from the hole but above it. The Kilcock putt from off the green for the match was tentative and it remained their putt, but still for the match. The Kilcock man hit a very good putt which just ran out of legs at the hole but they were in for a bogey five, leaving Eddie a very tough par putt to win the hole and to take the match to the nineteenth. Eddie has held a good number of crucial putts over the campaign but alas, this one slid past the hole and the tie was over with Kilcock having won three matches. Away from home, Stephen & Jim were called in on eighteen.
It was sad to see this campaign end after such a good run over the past two years but the lads put up a great show as defending champions. Well done to all involved.
