One medal returned from the large Kerry contingent that went to the Munster Strokeplay Championships in Collins in Cork last weekend as Deerpark’s Eileen McCarthy rounded off a good week for the Killarney club in general with a third place finish in the Intermediate Ladies event.
A member of last year’s Munster Inter-County Nett winning side, Eileen is continuing a comeback to the game after a long absence as she finished two strokes off the winning score last Sunday. Rounds of +7 and +6 gave her a +13 total as Riverdale of Nenagh’s Margaret Forde was the winner on +11 with Megan Ahern from the host club second on +12. In the Mens events meanwhile there were three Top 10 Kerry finishes in two events.
The Senior Mens saw Damien Fleming finish fifth overall after the 54 holes on 19 under par as despite being in a good position of fourth on 16 under after the first 36, he never caught fire in the playoff. John Walsh from the hosts was the winner on 24 under as Castleisland’s Aidan O’Connor had an impressive performance in reaching the playoff and finishing eighth overall on 13 under par. The other Top 10 finish was in Saturday’s Intermediate Mens event where Tralee’s Mark Lucey finished 10th overall.
Lucey was fourth overall after the first 36 holes on six under par, three off the lead but his challenge fell away in the final 18 as he slipped back to one under overall. The event was won by Morty Ahern from the host club on 15 under par. Tuesday July 8th last meanwhile saw the conclusion of the Bob Casey Memorial Inter-Club Strokeplay Championships as for the first time in six years a team from Deerpark was victorious.
Their ‘Green’ team of James Fleming, Gearoid Cronin, Connie O’Sullivan Jnr, Brian McCarthy, Niall O’Loughlin, Sean O’Mahoney, James Foley, Nathan Cronin, Mark O’Shea and Paddy Murphy recovered from losing the opening night in Tralee to win the three remaining nights in Castleisland, Deerpark and Listowel to win from Tralee C as the win prevented a fourth successive Tralee success in the competition.
The competition also meant the confirmation of the Kerry Intermediate and Junior Mens sides for the Munster Inter-County Championships in Ardnacrusha on the weekend of August 31st and September 1st with the two sides made up of the following:
Intermediate Mens
1. Con O'Sullivan Jnr (Deerpark)
2. Mark Lucey (Tralee)
3. Michael Creagh (Tralee)
4. Eamonn Sheehy (Tralee)
5. Dan Broderick Jnr (Tralee)
6. James Fleming (Deerpark)
Sub. Danny O'Leary (Tralee)
Junior Mens
1. Mark O'Shea (Deerpark)
2. Brian McCarthy (Deerpark)
3. Sean O'Mahoney (Deerpark)
4. Nathan Cronin (Deerpark)
5. Reece Sugrue (Tralee)
6. Alan O'Connor (Tralee)
Sub. Adam Ricken (Castleisland)
This weekend of course is another big occasion for Damien Fleming as he represents Ireland once more on the Mens Team for the European Team Championships in Lucan in Dublin. It comes after his appearance in the World Cup Final win over North Portugal last year as he will be playing in this event 20 years on from when his Deerpark club-mate Derry McCarthy captained Ireland to victory in this same event in Holland in 2005.
The County Board wishes Damien all the best this weekend along with the two Irish teams (Mens and Ladies) taking part.
