Walsh and Coote win Barton semi for Tralee on fifth tie hole

IN an all-Kerry semi-final to the West Munster Barton Shield, Tralee ended Killarney’s hopes in a marathon at the Ring of Kerry.

The issue was decided at the fifth tie hole when Ronan Walsh and Michael Coote knocked out Eugene O’Sullivan and Brendan O’Toole. Walsh and Coote had earlier won the clash of the pairs by two holes. However, sudden death was required when Tralee’s other pairing of Gerard O’Sullivan and Blain Long lost by a similar margin to Noel O’Connor and Rory O’Sullivan.

In the other semi-final Mallow, represented by David Finn, Tim O’Mahony, Mervyn Owens and Ian Spillane had a ten holes winning margin over Ballybunion.

In the East Munster section played at Williamstown, Tramore gained their expected victory with a three holes win over Dungarvan.

In the feature match, Peter Power and John Mitchel were in top form when defeating Pat Norris and Tom Melody Jnr by four holes.

In the second, the father and son pairing of Michael and Derek Burns were one down to Ian Prendergast and Donal Williams when called in at the 17th.

In the semi-finals Tramore beat the Gold Coast by four holes while Dungarvan pipped Tipperary by one hole after trailing for most of the way.

Nenagh will carry the North Munster colours to the Provincial semi-finals following a six holes win over Ennis in the Section qualifier at Limerick.

David Hunt and Paul Burke got Nenagh off to a good start with a three holes triumph over the Ennis pairing of Bob Loftus and Séamus McEnery and in the second match Collwyn Martin and Ronan Maher also won by three against Alan Considine and Stephen Loftus.

In the semi-finals Nenagh beat Lahinch and Ennis defeated Shannon.

It’s down to the last four in the South Section at Muskerry with Bandon, Douglas, Fermoy and Cork advancing to the semi-finals.

In the quarter finals, Bandon had one hole to spare over East Cork; Douglas defeated host club Muskerry by five holes; Fermoy beat Berehaven by five and Cork had seven to spare over Skibbereen.

The dates for the semi-final ties will be fixed later this week.