(From Evening Herald Sat Sept 17)
HOCKEY: Leinster League resumes today (Sat), despite several off-season shocks. In the women’s league, Bray Hockey club who won promotion to division 1 in 2008 after a long slog over many years, have lost their entire first team, mostly due to emigration. For this season, they will drop back to Division 3. Three Rock Ladies are tipped to take their place in Division 1.
HOCKEY: Leinster League resumes today (Sat), despite several off-season shocks. In the women’s league, Bray Hockey club who won promotion to division 1 in 2008 after a long slog over many years, have lost their entire first team, mostly due to emigration. For this season, they will drop back to Division 3. Three Rock Ladies are tipped to take their place in Division 1.
Last year’s league champions Hermes take on arch rival Loreto in the pick of today’s women’s matches.
In the men’s league, Navan, who have lost seven players, again due to emigration, will drop from division 2 to division 4.
There is some good news with Athy hosting YMCA today (Sat) at its brand-new new pitch at Athy Community College. Neville Cup action begins tomorrow (Sun) with Monkstown hosting Pembroke and Corinthians visiting Tallaght to play Glenanne.
BADMINTON: Scottish visitors caused a stir at the Mount Pleasant Open in Ranelagh, which launched the new badminton season.
Top seed Scott Burnside from Lisburn had to play at his best to beat Glasgow’s Danny Leinster in the men’s singles final.
Thriller of the day was the women’s singles decider between home favourite Jennie King and Scottish no 2, Viktoria Tsvetanova which went to a tie-breaking third set. With the two players swapping scores, this couldn’t have been closer until King finally got the break she needed winning 21-19.
King then teamed up with Keelin Fox to beat Fiona and Pauline Glennon in the women’s doubles final, while in the men’s doubles, No 2 seeds Mark Cobbe and Eddie Cousins toppled top seeds Dan Magee and Niall Tierney in two sets. Winning the mixed doubles were Fiona Glennon and Dan Magee, who got the better of Tsvetanova and Danny Leinster.
Abroad, Irish No 1 Chloe Magee narrowly lost in the quarter-finals of the Ukraine Challenger to local No 1 Larissa Griga. Magee, with brother Sam, also made the quarter finals of the mixed doubles, picking up valuable ranking points.
DARTS: Martin Heneghan, a 19-year-old student at Blanchardstown IT, leads the Irish men’s team at the WDF World Darts Cup in Castlebar starting next Tuesday.Heneghan won his first cap at the Europe U-18 Cup in 2007 and two years later, captained the Irish team that took bronze at the same competition in Holland. In Castlebar, Ireland looks certain to advance to the knock-out stages, although drawn in a group with tournament favourites England. Included in the English team is reigning BDO world champion Martin Adams. World women’s champion Tina Gulliver plays for England in the women’s competition.
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| Madeline Perry |
SQUASH: Belfast Boat Club not only hosted the European Club Squash Championship, but, with a team led by world No 3 Madeline Perry, took the women’s title. In their quarter-final match against Pontefract, Perry beat former world No 1 Vanessa Atkinson after dropping the opening two games.
A victory for Senga Macfie against Kirsty McPhee saw Belfast into the semi-finals. Losing their quarter-final match to Edbaston Priory was the Fitzwilliam team led by Irish No 2 Aisling Blake.
Belfast then beat Dutch club MeerSquash despite a blip when Perry went down to Natalie Grinham, and then had an easy win over Edgbaston Priory in the final.
In an all-German men’s final, Paderborn beat Black & White Worms.
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| Natalya Coyle |
MODERN PENTATHLON: Ireland’s Natalya Coyle finished 32nd at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Moscow. Coyle, still a junior, had finished 10th in her semi-final to win one of 18 places in the final. In the men’s qualification rounds, Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe pipped team mate Eanna Bailey for 15th place.
Bailey and O’Keeffe then finished ninth in the mixed competition, thanks to a third placing in the swim and a fifth in show jumping.
CANOE POLO: In a competition dominated by a superb team from France, the Irish men’s canoe polo team finished a creditable 8th in the European Championships in Madrid. The Irish beat Sweden, Portugal and Belgium and pulled off a draw against the Italians, who finished 5th (5th). They lost to Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands and tournament runners-up Germany.
Both the women and the U-23 men’s teams finished 11th.
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