With a trip to the Algarve awaiting the winners, it was appropriate that there was some red-hot scoring in the finals of the captain's prize winners tournament at Roscrea last week.

Captain's prize winners from around the country converged on the Tipperary venue with the women first into action on Tuesday when 43 points was the minimum required to secure one of the five qualifying spots. Leading the field was Jennifer Gilmore (Parknasilla) with 45 points followed by Louise Church (Castle), Grace Downey (Rockmount), Sally Donlon (Craddockstown) and Eileen Kearns (Rossmore) all with 43.

The weather was somewhat worse when the men played on Friday. Former Kilkenny hurler and manager Kevin Fennelly (Mount Juliet) took the early lead but was passed by Garret Howard (Adare Manor, 42 points), Martin Kelliher (Lee Valley, 41), Derek McGuire (Douglas, 41), John Hickey (Nenagh, 41) and Finbar Cole (Macroom, 40). McGuire was playing off two, so his 41 points represented a superb three-underpar gross score of 68.