It proved to be quite the weekend for father and son Gearóid and Nathan Cronin from Deerpark in Killarney as they had two major successes within two days of each other last weekend.
Nathan got the ball going by winning the Munster U16 Matchplay in St Stephens in Cork last Friday while his father followed up by winning the Castleisland Intermediate Scratch Cup on Sunday. After winning the National U16 Plate Matchplay last year, Nathan won at provincial level last week by claiming some big scalps on his way to the title.
The semi-finals of the Boys Championship event were a lockout for Kerry as Nathan was joined by Deerpark club-mates Brian McCarthy and Bryan O’Leary in the last four alongside Listowel’s A Jay Barrett. Nathan defeated Bryan O’Leary by 3&2 in his semi-final while A Jay was a 2&1 winner over Brian McCarthy in the second semi-final. The 36-hole final saw Nathan lead A Jay 3up after 18 holes before he went on to win by 4&3 to claim his first major success at provincial level after finishing runner-up in the Munster U16 Strokeplay last year.
In the Boys Plate event meanwhile there was an all Listowel final between last year’s Championship runner-up Jayden Chute and Daniel Leahy. It went to sudden death between the pair before Daniel won at the first playoff hole and went on to face Cork’s Aidan Spence Murphy from the Claycastle club in Youghal. Daniel lost 5&3 in the decider but it was a great showing again by both Deerpark and Listowel at U16 level as they claimed six of the eight prizes on offer to the Boys in Cork last Sunday.
In Castleisland last Sunday where over 100 players turned out to play in their three Mens events, Cork’s John Walsh won the Danny Broderick Memorial Senior Cup with a 54 hole score of 25 under par, defeating 36-hole leader Aidan O’Connor by a single stroke on 24 under with Tralee’s Jason Cregan third on 23 under. Listowel’s Killian O’Gorman won the Last 18 prize with seven under par meanwhile. The aforementioned Gearoid Cronin held off Tralee’s Dan O’Leary to win the Intermediate Mens event with 12 under par by a single stroke as there was a home success in the Junior event.
Vincent Barry shot six under par to win the Lorna Looney-Brosnan Memorial Cup from Tralee’s Mark Lucey as Louise Grace from the RGSC club in Dublin won the Ladies Gross prize with Margaret O’Donovan from Bruff in Limerick winning the Ladies Nett prize at the event. This weekend meanwhile sees the Munster Strokeplay Finals take place in Fermoy Co Cork with over 30 Kerry players taking part in the seven different grades of action on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday sees the Junior A and Junior B Men in action in the morning while the Ladies grades are on in the afternoon. Sunday sees the Intermediate Men play in the morning followed by the Senior Men in the afternoon. The County Board wishes all Kerry players taking part this weekend the very best of luck.
Picture is of Kerry prizewinners at the Munster U16 Matchplay Championships in St Stephens Co Cork-L to R: Bryan O'Leary (Boys Championship Semi-Finalist), Brian McCarthy (Boys Championship Semi-Finalist), Nathan Cronin (Boys Championship winner), A Jay Barrett (Boys Championship Runner-Up), Daniel Leahy (Boys Plate Runner-Up), Jayden Chute (Boys Plate Semi-Finalist).
