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Kerry come third in badminton’s Brewster Cup

Kate Nolan and Oscar McElligott, from Listowel, on their way to winning the U-16 Mixed Doubles title at the Kerry Juvenile Mixed Doubles Badminton Championships at Killarney Sports & Leisure Centre.

Adele O'BrienKerryman

Kerry’s badminton players came third in the Brewster Cup last Sunday in Cappoquin, Co Waterford. The Brewster Cup is a team competition in Munster where each county is represented by a team, and this year, Kerry, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford entered teams to play.

The teams were fairly evenly matched, in their first game, the Kerry team went down to Waterford in 6 games to 3 after some very closely contested games. In their second game, Kerry played Cork in a very close affair in the end Cork came out on top on a score line of 5 games to 4.

Finally in their final game of the day, Kerry played Tipperary and came out on top after it came down to the third and final mixed game where Kerry’s Cathal Donovan and Michelle Beazley came out on top in a three-set affair after losing the first 18-21, 24-22, 26-24.

Team: Kelvin McNally, Donie Enright, Fergal Hannon, Cathal Donovan, Gio Gaudino, Helen Browne, Michelle Beazley, Jennifer Nash, Sinead Galvin, Deina Vesko.

Grade E Nationals

Grade E nationals took place on Saturday in Baldoyle, Dublin. Kelvin McNally (Listowel) made two out of the three finals (singles and doubles) and will compete on graded finals day, May 13. Aaron Tan made it to the semi-finals of the singles.

Juvenile Mixed Doubles Championships

The final juvenile competition of the year took place on Saturday in the Killarney Sports and Centre. Although many young player don’t really like playing mixed, there was still over 130 players competing on the day, and it was great to see such a high level of badminton being played by the young players in the county. Again, it was the Listowel club that dominated the medals as they took all four mixed doubles championships. In doing this, they have completed a clean sweep of the juvenile championships this year.

Six players completed the treble in their respective age categories, winning the singles, doubles and mixed championships. They were Anna O’Neill, Sean Kelly, Alexia Belov Flanagan, Nicole Vesko, Kate Nolan and Oscar McElligott.

Results

U-10

Winner: Anna O’Neill & Sean Kelly (Listowel); runner-up: Emily Wolska & Josiah Weiland (Listowel)

Plate

Winner: Rachel Coviet & Jack Boyle (Tralee); runner-up: Saoirse Laide & Mikey McCarthy.

U-12

Winner: Alexia Belov Flanagan & Jontie Weiland (Listowel); runner-up: Margaret Carmody & Brendan Moriarty (Listowel)

Plate

Winner: Gwen O’Sullivan (Kingdom) & Tomas O Currain (Annascaul); runner-up: Georgia Ashe & Eoin Lyne (Annascaul)

U-14

Winner: Nicole Vesko & Daniel Weiland (Listowel); runner-up: Triona Prenderville & John Joe Carmody (Listowel)

Plate

Winner: Kate Barry & Joe Barry (Listowel); runner-up: Lilianna Walukanus (Miltown) & Dylan Walsh (Kingdom)

U-16

Winner: Kate Nolan & Oscar McElligot (Listowel); runner-up: Sameera Hayes & Darius McCormack (Annascaul)

Plate

Winner: Aine Curran (Annascaul) & Biprojit Ghosh (Killarney); runner-up: Lidija Samaskaite & Ryan Henderson (Listowel)

Thanks to Suzanne and the whole Kerry juvenile committee who ran each of the juvenile competitions this year and also to all of the Kerry clubs and the players who came along and played in each of the competitions. It is always great to see such a big interest in the sport in our younger players and hopefully they will continue to play into the future and onto senior level as well.