Report – Shane Hand Wins Kilkerley Singles Tournament Beating Brother Niall Hand In Final

After two nights of play we had 8 strong players qualify for the finals night of Kilkerley singles, and there were some great games throughout the night.

Quarter Finals
Niall Hand Vs Diarmuid McMahon – Niall Hand continued his good form in the last few tournaments and was able to beat a returning Diarmuid McMahon by 4 shots.
Paul Duff Vs Shane Magennis – A tough draw for both players as they’ve had strong seasons so far. In this one Shane started off with some good bowls and was able to come through it with a few points to spare.
Angela Routledge Vs Shane Hand – Shane started this game off strongly and was able to hold off Angela’s attempt at a comeback well, and so advanced to the semi finals.
Brendan Murphy Vs Stephen McMahon – Brendan had a tough task ahead of him taking on Stephen McMahon, but he was equal to it and was able to advance to the next round with an end to spare.

Semi Finals
In the semi finals Niall Hand went up against Shane Magennis. This was a great game where Niall Hand started very strongly and held the lead throughout the game. However Shane was not going to go down easily and made a great comeback to force a tie-breaker end. In the end though Niall was able to hold his nerve and won the tie-breaker to qualify for the final.
In the other semi final Shane Hand took on Brendan Murphy. Brendan looked to make a good start, but after the first few ends Shane took control of the tie and won the game by a comfortable margin in the end.

Final
This left brothers Niall and Shane Hand to go up against each other in the final. With both players having won multiple pairs tournaments already this year, they were both looking to add a singles title to their wins for the year. In this one though Shane was the player throwing the sharper bowls, getting bowls into the head that Niall was having difficulty getting back out. Shane was able to add to his lead throughout the game, and although Niall gained some shots back in the later ends, the lead was too big to be overhauled and Shane came out as the winner of the John Mulligan memorial trophy.

Congratulations to Shane and thanks to everyone for supporting the tournament! Check out more reports at orielzone.com. Our games are streamed at twitch.tv/OrielZoneBowls and you can watch them back at https://www.youtube.com/@OrielZoneBowls.