Report on Cooley Open Pairs Tournament

Home

Tournaments

Tournament Reports

Written by Dermie

Thursday, 05 November 2009 19:32

The Annual Open Pairs tournament organised by Cooley Bowls Club, was held recently attracted almost 120 Pairs from all the Clubs over a wide area. Over the qualifying nights we witnessed some incredible matches.

The 10 qualifying pairs over the 5 qualifying nights were as follows:

Monday Night:-

Eddie Murphy & Colin Minnock (Louth)

Gary Mackin & Connor Mackin (Cullyhaana)

Tuesday Night:-

John Murnaghan & Paddy Hanlon (Cooley)

Danny McDonald & Sean Conroy (St. Ant Craigavon)

Thursday Night:-

Sile Garvey & Patricia Hanlon (Tandragee G.C/Cooley)

Nathan Haire & Nick Haire (HillsboroughS.C.)

Sunday Night:-

Diarmuid McMahon & Gerry McCabe (Carrick/Redeemer)

Joe Corrigan & Aidan Corrigan (St Marys Newcastle)

Monday Night:-

Gerry Crosby & Billy Taaffe (Redeemer)

John Rooney & Brendan Magennis (Clontibret)

The first two games were preliminary games with Patricia Hanlon drawn against Colin Minnock and Nick Haire against Aidan Corrigan. Patricia's match was nip and tuck throughout and only for a count in the second last end Patricia may have lost the match. The other preliminary round looked like a mouth-watering tie on paper with both men expert firers. The match did not live up to expectation with Aidan cruising home to victory with 2 ends to spare.

The second round saw the biggest upset of the night; with Patricia and Sile (playing wonderful bowls it might be added) knocking out the current National Rinks holder Aidan Corrigan. John and Paddy were drawn against Gerry and Billy. Billy took an early 6-2 lead but Paddy fought back to level the tie and never let his foot off the gas there after, in the end winning with an end to spare. Diarmuid and Gerry were involved in a great tussle with John and Brendan and up to the 6th end could not be separated. Gerry then picked a count of 3 and then 2 to win with an end to spare. In the final game of the 1st run Gary and Connor faced Danny and Sean. What looked like a classic turned out to be anything but with Sean cruising home to victory.

The Semi-finals Diarmuid and Gerry were drawn against local favourites John Murnaghan and Paddy Hanlon. Paddy won the first two ends but Gerry played a wonderful bowl in the third to pick up a count and never looked back winning with 2 ends to spare. The other semi-final was much tighter. Patricia started off very well taking a 5-0 lead, but then dropped a silly count of 4 with no bowls on the mat. Sean then continued the pressure and was 3 up last end but only for a very close tape going against her Patricia she would have forced a tied end. Instead Danny and Sean reached the final.

The final was nip and tuck up until the 7th with only 1 shot ever separating the pairs. However everything was to change in the 7th end when Gerry's last bowl went through a small gap and dropped a count of 4. The next few ends the pairs traded shots and with one end to go Sean was 4 shots to the good and both Danny and Sean playing fantastic bowls and outplaying their counterparts.. Never in your wildest dreams could you imagine what was to happen.

With Gerry needing 4 he played a wonderful fire on the backhand onto Sean’s short bowl which took Danny’s bowl out of the head and ran through and lay 3 shots. Sean was short but completely blocked the backhand. Gerry then played a beautiful draw around the head on a big swinging forehand for the count of 4.

In the extra end Gerry played another exhibition shot to trail the jack straight into the ditch with his last bowl when the game was against. What looked like a certain defeat Gerry turned around with 3 magical bowls.