The Connacht Closed Championships (Grade A) took place on
Saturday 30th January in Galway Lawn Tennis Club. The event saw the
best badminton talent from across Connacht come together for a full day
of Singles, Doubles and Mixed competitions. Starting at 10am and
finishing up just before 9pm, 44 players took part and between them
played nearly 100 matches. The honours were spread across the province
- Galway took the Ladies Singles, Sligo took the Mens Singles and Mens
Doubles, Roscommon were victorious in the Ladies Doubles and a Galway /
Sligo pairing won out in the Mixed Doubles. A small Mayo contingent
managed a runners-up medal in the Ladies Singles.
There were many stand-out matches played,
but the highlights were perhaps the Mens Singles and Mens Doubles
finals. Both resulted in victories for Fintan Keown of Sligo Tennis
Club, along with his partner Graeme Watt in the doubles, in two
incredibly close games. In the Singles, Damian Hehir of GLTC had a
17-13 and 20-17 lead in the final set, but lost out to the Sligo man
23-21 in the decider. In the doubles, Mark Dolan and Joseph Keown
brilliantly staged multiple comebacks in the 3rd set, reversing 10-3
and 15-12 deficits to take the final set to a nail-biting score of
18-18, before Fintan and Graeme clinched it. Fintan and his partner
Catriona Farrell of Cortoon also took the Mixed Doubles, narrowly
overcoming Bryan & Emer Lalor of GLTC in the final. And in the
Ladies Doubles, Strokestown pairing Corina & Audrey Delaney were
too strong for the GLTC pairing of Helen Sheehan and Claire
Kenny, taking the final in straight sets. However, earlier in the day, Helen
Sheehan won the Ladies Singles against a very promising Aine Leneghan
from Newport in Mayo.
The semi-finals and finals are all listed below, and for a full
round-up of all matches, see the attached spreadsheet (
Connacht scoresheet.xlsx). Full-size photos
attached (
Finalists.zip and
General.zip in the attachments), thumbnails at the bottom.
MENS SINGLES
Semi-final #1
Fintan Keown (Sligo TC) bt Bryan Lalor (GLTC)
21-16, 21-16
Semi-final #2
Damian Hehir (GLTC) bt Graeme Watt (Sligo TC)
21-10, 14-21, 21-8
Final
Fintan Keown (Sligo TC) bt Damian Hehir (GLTC)
21-19, 13-21, 23-21
LADIES SINGLES
(no semi finals, top two from group stage went straight to final)
Final
Helen Sheehan (GLTC) bt Aine Leneghan (Newport)
21-16, 21-15
MENS DOUBLES
Semi-final #1
Fintan Keown / Graeme Watt (Sligo TC) bt Guillaume Meunier (NUIG) / Ross Creaven (Claregalway)
21-11, 21-13
Semi-final #2
Mark Dolan / Joseph Keown (Sligo TC) bt Padraic O'Dowd / John Kiernan (Boyle)
21-13, 21-19
Final
Fintan Keown / Graeme Watt (Sligo TC) bt Mark Dolan / Joseph Keown (Sligo TC)
21-18, 18-21, 21-18
LADIES DOUBLES
(no semi finals, top two from group stage went straight to final)
Final
Corina Delaney / Audrey Delaney (Strokestown) bt Claire Kenny / Helen Sheehan (GLTC)
21-11, 21-14
MIXED DOUBLES
Semi-final #1
Fintan Keown (Sligo) / Catriona Farrell (Cortoon) bt Colm Franks / Aoife Mooney (Oranmore)
21-13, 21-14
Semi-final #2
Bryan Lalor / Emer Lalor (GLTC) bt Cormac O'Connor / Claire Kenny (GLTC)
21-12, 21-14
Final
Fintan Keown (Sligo) / Catriona Farrell (Cortoon) bt Bryan Lalor / Emer Lalor (GLTC)
21-18, 21-17
Aine Leneghan (Newport), Ladies Singes RU |
Helen Sheehan (GLTC), Ladies Singles Winner |
Helen Sheehan / Claire Kenny (GLTC), Ladies Doubles RU |
Corina Delaney / Audrey Delaney (Strokestown), Ladies Doubles Winners |
Joseph Keown (and Mark Dolan) from Sligo TC, Mens Doubles RU |
Fintan Keown / Graeme Watt (Sligo TC), Mens Doubles Winners |
Emer Lalor / Bryan Lalor (GLTC), Mixed Doubles RU |
Fintan Keown (Sligo TC) / Catriona Farrell (Cortoon), Mixed Doubles Winners |
Fintan Keown (Sligo TC), Mens Singles Winner |
Command centre |
Mixed Doubles semi final #1 |
Mixed Doubles semi final #2 |
