Sport

Co Louth are top seeds for All-Ireland title

Amateur Scene: All-Ireland champions Royal Portrush and Roscommon came out of the hat first when the draw was made for the Suzuki…

Shay Keenan
Tue Aug 31 2004 - 01:00

Amateur Scene: All-Ireland champions Royal Portrush and Roscommon came out of the hat first when the draw was made for the Suzuki-sponsored ILGU All-Ireland Senior Cup finals to be played at Athlone Golf Club on Friday and Saturday.

Eastern District champions Co Louth, with the lowest handicap aggregate of 16, are seeded one while Kilkenny take second spot by virtue of aggregating their four lowest players. Killarney, Roscommon and Royal Portrush match each other player for player, and so were drawn by lot to determine placings.

Royal Portrush beat Co Louth in last year's final and they will cross paths in the semi-final, should Portrush beat Roscommon in Friday's quarter-final. The other semi-final is between Kilkenny and Killarney.

Portrush have all of last year's side on duty - Helen Jones, Gemma Hegarty, Niamh Quigg, Maura Diamond and Caroline Smyth - while Deirdre Walsh makes a welcome return to the Roscommon squad that includes former girl's international Deirdre Judge.

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Irish Close champion Deirdre Smith leads the Co Louth side that will have four of the side that won the eastern title - missing is Patricia Nannery due to work commitments.

Eileen Rose Power has recovered from a back injury that kept her out of the Interprovincial Championships at Ballybunion while Killarney will have the services of former professional Tracy Eakin, who missed the southern qualifier with a foot injury.

Stephanie Evans, Emma Duggleby and Clare Queen have been selected to represent Britain and Ireland in the World Amateur Team Championships that will be played at the Westin Rio Beach Resort and Golf Club, Puerto Rico, from October 20th to 23rd.

Queen (21), defeated Evans and Shelley McKevitt in a sudden death play-off to win the Ladies' British Strokeplay Championship on Friday at Alwoodley Golf Club. As an 18-year-old, she was the British Girls' Open Amateur Champion and has since gone on to win many representative honours for Scotland and a place in the 2003 team for the Vagliano Trophy Match at Co Louth. She was a reserve for this year's Curtis Cup match at Formby.

Left-handed Evans (20), has represented Wales since 2002 when she played in the Home Internationals at the Berkshire. This will be her debut while Duggleby (32), has a string of successes to her name including three Curtis Cups and was in the Britain & Ireland team that contested the Espirito Santo Trophy in 2002 in Malaysia.

The championships are being played for only the second time over two courses, the River, designed by Greg Norman, and the Ocean, designed by Tom and George Fazio, where players from the Home Nations will be competing for the Espirito Santo Trophy.

As is the case in the men's championship for the Eisenhower Trophy, the US, with 13 wins, have dominated the honours in the women's event, but with France winning in 2000 and Australia two years ago in Malaysia, the opportunity is there for another surprise.

Meanwhile, Cill Dara in their first FBD Barton Cup final take a 3-2 lead against Skerries into the second leg which will be played at the Cill Dara Golf Club on Sunday next (12.0).

The first leg at Skerries went to the wire with Niall Kennedy and Paddy Hopkins beating Paul Byrne and Eddie Maher with a birdie at the first tie hole to give Cill Dara a slender lead. Rory Cleary and Tommy Kinnane gave Cill Dara the best possible start with a two-hole victory over James Duff and Miley Plunkett.

But by the time the last match went down the 19th the sides were level at two matches each after Alec Dignam and Peter Harris beat Paul Judge and Des Scahill 4 and 3 to be followed by Kingsley Lewis and young Philip Duff with a 6 and 4 win over Pat Doyle and Sean Dowling.

Michael Murphy and former champion jockey Christy Roche squared the match with a 3 and 2 win over Declan Walsh and Morgan Grimes despite a hole-in-one by Grimes at the 15th.

Another huge crowd is expected at the Cill Dara club on Sunday, especially from the racing fraternity. Cill Dara may be favourites to lift their first title but Skerries have reached this stage on the back of some excellent golf away from home in the earlier rounds and are sure to make the second leg a fitting finale to the 100th staging of the Barton Cup.

Special trophies will be awarded on this the centenary of the first playing of the Barton Cup.

ILGU ALL-IRELAND SENIOR CUP (at Athlone GC): Friday - quarter-final: Roscommon v Royal Portrush (2.0). Saturday - Semi-finals: Co Louth v Roscommon or Royal Portrush (8.0); Kilkenny v Killarney (8.50). Final: 2.0.