Offaly youth finals serve up exciting badminton action

Offaly"s best young badminton players met in Clonaslee Community Centre to play for the Senior U-19 title last weekend. Cormac Franks and Christian Clarke, Country Club, went into the competition with a one-point lead over Sinead Maloney and Orla Maloney, also Country Club. The competitive nature of the games was evident in the results when no pair kept a clean sheet, and many pairs defeated players that beat them in the first round. Sinead and Orla Maloney scored the upset of the day with a 30/29 win against Cormac Franks and Christian Clarke. However, this was not enough to propel them into first place because they previously lost to Emma Owens, Killoughey, and Colm Grogan, Boora, 30-28. Cormac and Christian had previously defeated Emma and Colm, so the final placings at the top were Cormac Franks and Christian Clarke, 11 wins over the two rounds, Orla Maloney and Sinead Maloney, 10 wins, and Emma Owens and Colm Grogan, 9 wins. Unfortunately, none of the top 6 players are eligible to tog out for Offaly in the Leinster inter-county competition because they are either too old, or live across the border in Tipperary. The battle for the fourth spot was tightly fought between Aoife Norton and Helen Norton, Killoughey, and Francis Egan and Kevin Egan, Boora. The two pairs finished the first round with 2 points each. In the head to head this round, Kevin and Francis scored a slim 30-29 victory. The boys went on to win two more games, while the girls could only conjure up one victory. This left Kevin and Francis to fill the fourth spot. Keith Bergin and William Jennings, Kinnitty; Colin Siu and Eoin Wall, Country Club; and John O"Brien and Ben Wilson, Ballycumber, rounded off the Senior League. Junior Girls Only 3 pairs of girls contested the Division 3 title. Evelyn Egan and Siobhan Egan, Boora, scored a 30/23 victory over club-mates Katie Molloy and Molly Molloy. Previously, they had scored a 30-25 victory over Alisha Leonard and Edel Gonoude. This was enough to secure first place for them. In the previous round, Katie and Molly outscored Evelyn and Siobhan 30-14. Since both pairs scored 4 wins, on the countback, Katie and Molly"s 23 placed them ahead of Evelyn and Siobhan"s 14. Alisha Leonard and Edel Gonoude, Killoughey, finished in third place with a win against Deirdre Daly and Chloe Halpin, Killoughey. Newcomers Natasha Mahon and Leanne Mahon, Kinnitty, and Kelly Young and Maria Kirwan, Kinnitty, dominated Division 4. Natasha and Leanne finished with a perfect score of 5 wins while Kelly and Maria suffered only a 21/19 loss at the racquets of Natasha and Leanne. However, this was not quite enough to claim the top two spots for them. Ashling Grogan, Boora, and Amy Dunican, Killoughey, combined their 3 wins in this round with 4 wins in the first round to claim the top spot. In the run-off for second place, Jayne O"Boyle and Edel Egan, Boora, had 2 and 3 wins in the two rounds to level them with Natasha and Leanne Mahon. Jayne and Edel slipped into second place since they had accumulated 63 points in their losses against no extra points for the Kinnitty girls. Natasha Mahon and Leanne Mahon, Kinnitty, finished in third place and Kelly Young and Maria Kirwan, Kinnitty, finished in fourth. Other pairs in the competition were Amy Wilson and Kellie Cornally, Ballycumber; Eabha Walsh and Diane Mahon, Killoughey, and Deirdre Murray and Maeve Murray, Country Club. Megan O"Brien and Cathy Ennis were the top winners in Division 5. The Ballycumber girls finished the two rounds with 11 wins and no losses. Claiming second place for Killoughey were Tara Phelan and Emily White with 4 wins in the second round to add to the 4 wins from the first round. By virtue of a one-point win in their head to head in the second round, Cliodhna Monahan and Siofra McCann, Killoughey, stole third place from Lauren McIntyre and Roisin Cockram, Boora. Lauren and Roisin had previously scored a 2-point win against Alison Monahan and Claire Conway, Killoughey.