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Report on Carrickmacross Singles |
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Written by Dermie
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Sunday, 20 December 2009 01:51 |
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Carrickmacross changed from a pairs to a singles and ran over 6 nights between Sunday the 6th and Wednesday the 16th of December. They had players ranging from Mullingar to Donegal and Derry and after some incredible qualifying nights they gathered one of the best finals nights seen in Oriel history. Any of the 12 players gathered could grace any final. With Ireland's two representatives in the World Singles in 2010 John Quinn and Eddie Curran both through and the 2004 and current National Singles Champion Kevin Conroy and Gerry McCabe being only a select few of who qualified, your guess was as good as anyone’s who would win the tournament?
List of Qualifiers:
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| Sun |
Paul Duff |
Mon |
Kevin Conroy |
Wed |
Gareth McMahon |
| Conor Mackin |
Billy Taaffe |
Stepehn McMahon |
| Sat |
John Murnaghan |
Sun
Afte
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John Quinn |
Mon |
Carol McMahon |
| Gerry McCabe |
Eddie Curran |
Patsy Curran |
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Preliminary Rounds:
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| The tie of the round was undoubtedly Kevin Conroy against John Quinn. The first few ends saw some word class shots between the pair before John took control of the game and in the end won with an end to spare. Local favourite Stephen McMahon ran away with victory over Conor Mackin. The two Currans were drawn against each other with Eddie coming out victorious. The closest match was the battle of the Redeemer pair Billy Taaffe and Gerry McCabe with Gerry eventually reaching the quarter-finals. |
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Quarter-Finals:
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| The last remaining woman Carol McMahon took to stage and for a long time looked like beating Irish International Paul Duff, until Paul suddenly stepped on the accelerator picking up a couple of 4's to win with an end to spare. Her son Gareth was drawn against Oriel skip John Murnaghan and local knowledge seemed to help with Gareth racing to an unassailable lead. John Quinn gained some revenge over Eddie Curran for his defeat in the Champion of Champions by winning 8-6. Stephen McMahon also gained revenge on Gerry McCabe for his defeat in last year’s national singles by winning with an end to spare. |
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Semi-Finals:
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| Gareth never seemed to get the speed of the mat against John Quinn, with John eventually winning with two ends to spare. Stephen on the other hand was having an extremely tight match with Paul Duff, which went tit for tat throughout. Playing the 2nd last end Paul was 2 shots to the good and surprisingly Stephen gave away 3 shots to lose. This victory setup a mouth watering final between Paul and John! |
Final:
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The final was very close throughout the match. Neither player could pull away from the other, until the 8th end, where, with Paul 8-6 down and John with the jack in the ditch and holding 1, Paul fired at his own toucher and the bowl went over the fender. This left John 5 shots up with two to go and eventually closed out the final with an end to spare. It was a magnificent final that would grace anywhere.
This was John Quinns first victory in Oriel Zone and was a very worthy winner. Paul almost did back to back singles wins in the Zone but in the end the best man won on the night.
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Last Updated on Monday, 11 January 2010 01:32 |
