Updates:
SQUASH:
Ireland’s Madeline Perry and Aisling Blake seeded to clash in the semi-final of the women’s tournament at the Cannon Kirk Irish Squash Open women’s tournament in Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Club next week. With four previous wins to her credit, Perry is top seed, while Blake is at No 3. At the recent Irish Nationals, Blake beat Perry to win her first Irish title.
Other seeded players are Emily Whitlock, who is likely to face Samantha Teran of Mexico in the other semi-final. Top seeds in the men’s draw are England’s Chris Simpson and Mohd Nafiizan Adnan from Malaysia. Play begins with the qualifiers draw on Mon and Tuesday next with finals on Saturday. Entry is free and spectators welcome.
POOL:
Dubliner Fred Dinsmore has won the European 8-ball wheelchair title in Slovenia. Dinsmore beat world 9-ball champion Henrik Larsson of Sweden 5-3 in the final. Earlier in the week, Larsson has beaten the Dubliner 5-4 in the 10-ball competition.
In the 8-ball semi-final, Dinsmore had a tough outing against British player Tony Southern, winning 5-4 after pulling back from 3-4 down. Dinsmore is now competing in the 9-ball tournament and beat old rival Kurt Deklerk of the Netherlands 7-4 in the opening round.
HOCKEY
A 30 man squad has been named in preparation for next June’s the FIH World League 3 competitionin Rotterdam. Not available are experienced players John Jermyn (work and marriage commitments) and Mitch Darling.
Ireland will travel to Rotterdam, Holland from June 13th – 23 June 2013 for their World League semi-finals. They will initially play in a pool of four to be selected from Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, India along with the winner of the upcoming World League 2 tournament in France and the highest ranked second place team from the French or Russia World League 2 competition.
Some extra players are called up for regional sessions in Belfast & Dublin in preparation for the European Nations in August 2013
SNOOKER:
David Hogan made his first competitive 147 at the Talbot Snooker Classic – the seventh senior ranking tournament of the season, held in the Ivy Rooms Carlow. Hogan was playing Martin Ruddy when he made the 147; in the following frame, he made a 143 clearance.
Earlier in the week, Hogan made a 147 in practice, bringing his total in practice to 12 . The last Irish snooker player to make a maxiumum 147 in a ranking tournament was Rodney Goggins, playing Brendan O’Donoghue.
Coincidentally, it was O’Donoghue who went on to win the tournament, beating Goggins in the semi-finals and John Sutton in the final. Sutton had put out David Hogan in the quarter-finals. Details www.ribsa.net.
CANOEING
British National Sprint Championships , Nottingham (Irish highlights)
Patrick O’Leary, NUI Galway – 2nd Paracanoe K1 200m
Peter Egan/Maciej Majchrzak , SLCC – 2nd A K2 200m
Tom Brennan ,SLCC – 3nd U23 K1 200m & 4th 1000m
VOLLEYBALL
VAI Intermediate/Junior Championship Results:
Men – Intermediate Cup: Garda 5.0 beat Tallaght Rockets: 25:13, 20:25, 25:20,
25:14. Junior Cup: TCD beat UCD 2-1: 25:22, 13:25, 29:27
Women – Intermediate Cup: NUIG Allianz beat Newbridge 3-1: 25:15, 21:25, 25:10,
25:19. Junior Cup: Naas beat Garda 2-0: 25:11, 25:14
From the Herald:
TAEKWONDO:
Following his great win at the Belgian Taekwon-do Open last weekend, Conor Grassick heads to Moldova for the European U-21 Championships. Grassock, the only Irish fighter competing in Moldova, goes in the -63kg category.
In Belgium, Grassick had five fights to make the final. His semi-final against world ranked Jaouad Achab from Belgium went to sudden death, with a 3point kick to his opponent’ s head giving Grassick victory. After a 30 minute break, he then beat Germany’s Hamza Adman Karim 2-1.
VOLLEYBALL:
Dublin Volleyball Club (DVC) won’t be defending their Association Cup title after going out in a hard-fought semi-final to Trinity College in Trinity last weekend.
Trinity, who had only narrowly lost a league match to DVC in January, went on the attack from the start and won the opening set 25-17. Despite the loss of key player Nicola Horsmans in the warm-up, DVC battled on and played their best volleyball in the second set, although Trinity still went two sets up winning 25-22. They closed out the match with a 25-17 win in the third.
In the other semi-final, Santry beat NUIG, also in straight sets. Santry won the opener 25-13, but newcomers NUIG, who had put out UCD in the quarter-finals, grew in confidence and forced Santry to fight hard before they wrapped up the match at 25-19, 25-19.
Defending men’s champions Ballymum Patriots recovered from the loss of the first set to beat NUIG 3-1 in the men’s semi-finals. Aer Lingus beat UCD in straight sets to ensure a repeat of last year’s decider. Finals take place at UCD on April 27, a week after the league ends.
* Winners of the women’s Shield final were the Tallaght Rockets, with Garda taking the men’s title.
BADMINTON:
After beating Australian Wesley Caulkett comfortably in the opening round, Irish No 1 Scott Evans went out in the second round of the Australian Badminton Open in Sydney. Playing the No 6 seed Taufik Hidayat, a former world and Olympic champion from Indonesia, Evans fought his way back into the match after the Indonesian led by 11 points halfway through the opening set. Evans lost 9-21 and although he started well in the second set, went down 13-21.
* Locally, the annual Dublin and District Leagues have reached the quarter-finals stages, with a massive 1,778 matches already played this season.
SNOOKER:
Current Irish No 1 David Hogan from Nenagh is top seed for snooker’s seventh ranking tournament of the season , taking place in the Ivy Rooms’ Carlow this weekend. With the RIBSA National Championships taking place over two weekends, this is a final chance for players to boost their ranking points. Hogan needs a good result – his two wins go back to earlier in the season and he went out in the quarter-finals last time.
Chasing hard is young pretender Josh Boileau from Newbridge, who has made two finals and three semi-finals this season. Nenagh’s Brendan O’Donoghue is coming into form at the right time and nailed his first win of the season in the last tournament. In the most-closely-fought season for many years, Robert Murphy and former pro Michael Judge from Wicklow’s Q Club along with David Morris from Kilkenny are also very much in the reckoning.
HOCKEY:
Railway Union must win their match against Catholic Institute today(Sat) if they are to retain any chance of winning the women’s Electric Ireland Irish Hockey League. In a ‘double header’ at the Railway base in Dublin’s Sandymount today (Sat), UCD then face Old Alex. Both sides lost their opening matches, while the UCD squad is carrying a number of injuries. In Booterstown, Hermes host a second double header and face old rivals Loreto, who have both Sarah Clarke and Nikki Symmons back in their squad. In the earlier match, Cork Harlequins play Ards.
Action moves to UCD and Milltown tomorrow (Sun). In UCD, the students play Cork Harlequins and Hermes face the Ulster Elks. At Milltown, Loreto will play Catholic Institute, while Old Alex play Lurgan. Hosting men’s matches in Dublin are YMCA and Monkstown; rounds will also take place in Banbridge and Lisnagarvey.
OLYMPIC HANDBALL:
Tallaght-based club Lughnasa have won the IOHA Women’s Cup in DCU, beating Astra, another Dublin club based in the Ballinteer area. Tying for third place were Kilkenny Handball Ladies and Kildare.
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