Newman the winner in Offaly pitch & putt juvenile matchplay

Erry were the proud hosts to the Offaly Juvenile Matchplay Championship recently. It proved to be a highly competitive and exciting one day event in which 26 juveniles took part in, representing Ferbane, Tullamore and Erry clubs respectively. Following tough first and second round matches, a number of favourites made it safely through to the quarter-final stage, where the competition really took fire. Amongst the quarter-finalists were a number of members of the recent Juvenile Offaly team that won the Leinster Final including Brian Doyle, Gary Pyke, Liam Huson, Dylan Melia and David Newman. In the quarter-finals, Brian Doyle beat Gary Pyke 2/1, Colm Doyle beat Liam Huson 3/1, David Newman beat Dylan Melia 7/6 and Darren Fleming overcame Gary Fleming 2/1. In the semi-finals, Brian Doyle overcame Colm Doyle but needed extra tie holes to do so, eventually winning on the 40th hole. David Newman had a very good win over club-mate Darren Fleming by 2 holes. So the stage was set and two of Offaly's top juvenile players took to the first tee-box for battle as Brian Doyle took on rival David Newman. In a close match it was the local Erry player David Newman who took the honours winning by 2/1. David was a very deserved winner who is certainly following in the winning footsteps of his brother Graham, who has burst onto the Senior adult stage this year. Congratulations to David and to Brian on a terrific final and to all the juveniles who took part and made it a very successful championship. Special tribute must go to the Erry committee and grounds keepers who had the course in perfect condition for the juveniles and also to Joe McGrath Jnr., Una Pyke and James Walsh for their continued hard work and mentoring of the juveniles. National Mixed Foursomes The qualifying stages for this year's National Mixed Foursomes took place in Erry last week in very windy and wet conditions at Erry. The following took the two qualifying spots from Offaly: Sean Robinson & Kathleen O'Loane (Ferbane) 9up and Joseph and Tracey McGrath (Erry) 8up. The finals take place at Deerpark Pitch & Putt Club, Killarney, Co. Kerry, on September 20. National Inter-County Championships 2009 The highly anticipated 2009 championships take place this weekend, September 5th and 6th, and make a return visit to the Cloghogue Pitch & Putt Club in Newry. This will be a record-equalling fourth time that Cloghogue will hold this event. Offaly Gents finished third at the venue in 1992 and will be hoping to be in the shake-up come Sunday afternoon as the Cork team go in search of record-equalling seventh title in a row. The Offaly Gents team is lead by Larry Maher Jnr., who has become a formidable competitor and leader in the past few years playing inter-county. He will captain the team of Joe McGrath Jnr., Graham Newman, Anthony Galvin, Darren O'Connell and Mark Hogan on Sunday. The Offaly Gents will certainly be travelling with some extra confidence as they overcame near neighbours Westmeath in the annual Offaly v Westmeath challenge last Wednesday at Kilbeggan, on what was an extremely windy night. They won by 29 shots on this occasion which was contributed to in no small part by the remarkable performance by Joe McGrath Jnr, who shot 20 under par for 36 holes. This score included a second round of 13 under par! Graham Newman had an impressive score in the conditions shooting 13 under while Larry Maher closely followed with 11 under par, Anthony Galvin with 10 under par, Darren O'Connell with 6 under par and Mark Hogan on 4 under par. On Saturday the Offaly Ladies will tee off the championships with favourites for the title Dublin. The Offaly team will be led by double national champion Tracey McGrath and they will be hoping to contest for a medal position. The team is composed of Ann-Marie McCabe, Linda Flanagan, Eileen Guerin, Ger Ryan and Ann Minogue. The Offaly Ladies will be hoping to improve on recent performances as they were beaten by just 3 shots by their Westmeath counter-parts on Wednesday last at the annual Offaly v Westmeath challenge. Best wishes in the National Championships to both Offaly teams who are managed by Una Pyke and James Walsh, and who are kindly sponsored by Michael Egan, Clara Sports & Leisure Centre.