Century of pain over as Cahill’s Mitchelstown finally taste glory
It was a magnificent achievement by the north Cork club but it was a disappointing day for Tramore, who staged a thrilling recovery in the final of the Barton Shield against Warrenpoint only to be eventually pipped by one hole.
The year has been a personal triumph for Mitchelstown’s John Cahill, who went through the eight matches unbeaten, winning seven, and demonstrating the short game expertise that enabled him to capture four All-Ireland Pitch and Putt titles. His clash yesterday with Lurgan’s Laurence McGrady was desperately close all the way before Cahill edged ahead with a birdie at the 17th and retained the advantage at the last.
Adrian Gamble, a member of the Cork Garda team that won the All-Ireland title a couple of weeks ago, was next into the winners’ enclosure with a 2&1 defeat of Michael McSherry and the title was duly clinched by the admirably cool 17-year-old schoolboy Sean Lane, who was confident enough to take the flagstick out of the hole at the 18th when sizing up a putt of 30 feet from off the back edge of the green. His self-belief was fully justified when he rolled the ball into the cup for a one-hole win over Philip Shaw and the decisive third point for his club.
In fact, it was a thoroughly convincing Mitchelstown triumph given that John Maguire and Clem Leonard were one and two up respectively on David Magee and Gareth Hanna when they were called in.
“This means a massive amount to the club,” said Stephen Slattery, team captain. “We had nothing to show for all our efforts until we won the Munster section of the Jimmy Bruen Shield in 2006. We had been the whipping boys up to then, everybody liked the idea of taking on Mitchelstown.”
Quite clearly, team spirit was a vital ingredient in their success with Slattery pointing out that they began the campaign with a squad of 13 that covered players and caddies and it remained unaltered throughout.
“That’s it for me where the captaincy of this team is concerned”, he declared. “How could you possible cap that?”
Warrenpoint have come to Castlerock in search of a treble in the Senior Cup and Barton and Jimmy Bruen Shields. Given that they previously captured all but the Junior Cup in 1987, it would be nothing new for them, although their nerves were certainly on edge yesterday as they scraped home on the final green in the Barton Shield against a Tramore side that simply didn’t know when they were beaten.
They were seven holes down collectively with 16 holes and five behind with 11 to play before Chris Butler and Declan King launched a furious rally against Paul Reavey and Stephen Coulter and reduced their arrears to one by the finish.
Alan Thomas and David Kiely then came good against Ryan Gribben and Colm Campbell and were poised to bring the contest into extra holes when Kiely punched a delightful approach to within seven feet of the 18th flag. However, Thomas misjudged the birdie putt and Warrenpoint were able to breathe a deep sigh of relief.
Woodstock of Ennis scored a thrilling Pierce Purcell Shield semi-final win over Athenry, waging a stirring rearguard action to qualify to meet Corrstown, a 27-hole complex near Dublin Airport, in today’s final.
There are high hopes for another big performance from a Cork club when Muskerry go into battle against Portmarnock in this morning’s Irish Senior Cup semi-final.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
