Huge congratulations to Corduff and Oriel members Jim Fox, Shane Hand and Paul Duff for winning the Champion of Champions triples tournament for the second year in a row in Belfast. This win qualifies them for the next World Championships in Norway in 2026!
In the first round they started off with a comfortable 11-1 win over A Irwin. They then faced C Maybon and came out with a 9-6 victory. In the Quarter Finals they won 7-4 against D Morrison. In the Semi Finals they continued their strong form against J Quinn and came out with a 9-5 win. In the final they had an extremely tight match against a strong team skipped by Adam Rankin, with neither team giving an inch. Only 11 combined points were scored across the 10 ends, and the result came down to the very last bowl. However, the Corduff trio were able to get on the right side of the result with a 6-5 victory after a fantastic final shot from Paul Duff. Well done to the guys and wish them well for the World Championships!
Well done to all other Oriel players who competed in this weekend’s tournaments.
In the singles, Michael Hand had a good opening 8-5 win against J Gatson, but was beaten in the round of 16 against C Deering with a score of 11-8.
In the pairs, Diarmuid McMahon and Emma Colgan had a tough loss against M Hamilton in the round of 32, just missing out with a score of 9-8.
Four Oriel pairs reached the last 16 of the tournament, which is a fantastic showing for the zone.
Jason Hand and Paddy Hanlon began with a good tie-break win of 9-8 in the round of 64 against J Carson, and followed it up with a 10-8 win over G McCloskey in the round of 32. However, in the round of 16 they met a pair in top form and were beaten by R Foster 13-3.
Niall Martin and Thomas Martin started off well, picking up 3 in the last end against R McDonnell and N Alexander to win 9-8 in the round of 64. They did similar again in the round of 32, this time picking up 2 in the last end to win 9-8 again against S Trainor. In the end they were beaten by A Hunter in the round of 16 with an end to spare and the game finishing 10-4.
Finbarr Mullin and Fra Dillon had a good opening victory against K McNamee winning 9-3 in the round of 64, and continued well with a 9-6 win over J Morris in the round of 32. In the round of 16 they went up against the pair of Stevie Stafford and Aaron Ward and were beaten by the eventual tournament winners on a score of 8-2.
Marty Trainor and Stephen McMahon had a good tournament run. In the first round they had a 12-7 victory over L McCartan and in the round of 32 they came out with an 10-3 win over R Bell. They continued their good form in the round of 16 with an 11-3 victory against D Scott. In the quarter finals they had an extremely tight game against R Cochrane. This game came down to the very last bowl, but in the end the eventual runners-up beat Marty and Stephen 9-8. Hard luck to the lads and they’ll definitely be back in the future.
In the rinks Cooley had some good representation. The team of Michael Savage, Francis Woods, Ronan Hanlon and John Murnaghan played well in their opening round match, but ended up on the wrong end of the result against B Murphy, finishing with a scoreline of 13-7.
In the other rink including Dáire Trainor, Sean Breen, Terry Crawford and Sean Trainor, they had a very good tight game in the opening round against Ciaran Green, Lee Jacob, Jonathan Jacob and Jamie Glackin. In the end though they lost out to the eventual winners of the rinks tournament on a score of 11-8.
Well done to all the participants and to the winners of their respective tournaments – Gary McNabb from Mid Tyrone retained his Champion of Champions singles title with a fantastic performance. Stevie Stafford and Aaron Ward won the pairs to bring a second title of the day to Mid Tyrone, and the Donegal four of Ciaran Green, Lee Jacob, Jonathan Jacob and Jamie Glackin won the rinks. Best of luck to them representing Ireland at the World Championships! Thanks to the IIBA for organising the tournaments and to Belfast Indoor Bowls Club for hosting the day.
Categories:
Tags:
No responses yet