If lightning were to strike twice, that would be bizarre enough. By a rather strange twist of fate, however, no less than three clubs have successfully defended their provincial titles in the Musgrave Crumlin Children's Hospital Club Challenge, which is editorially supported by The Irish Times, and will head off to next month's national finals of the competition in the Algarve region of Portugal.

The odd club out in the equation is Co Meath, winners of the Leinster final. Elsewhere, however, Limerick County - last year's national champions - successfully retained their Munster title over their own course at Ballyneety; Roscommon, too, used home advantage to good effect when keeping the Connacht crown, while Gracehill returned to Nuremore to retain their Ulster title.

In a Leinster final reduced to 15 holes because of poor weather, Co Meath's trio of J J O'Reilly (16), Pat Reynolds (16) and Tony Heraghty (14) brought in 65 points (in the rumble format) to finish two points clear of the Castlecomer team of Eamonn Walsh, Donal McInerney and Ann Kenneally.

Limerick County's success was hard-earned. Indeed, a countback was required before the Limerick team of John Cronin (19), Shane Foley (13) and Declan Costello (20) emerged victorious over the Nenagh team of Kevin Walsh (6), Eamon Fahy (12) and Paddy Lynch (15) after both had brought in 80 points.

Things were also tight in Roscommon where the home team of Eddie Keane (14), John Dempsey (10) and Gerry Kelly (11) had a score of 84 points, just one clear of the Mountbellew trio of James Linnane, Bernadette Barrett and Margaret Costello-Harkin. Gracehill's team of Ian Morrison (6), Neil Douglas (8) and Chris O'Hara (13) had a score of 82 points in the Ulster final at Nuremore to fend off runners-up Ashfield.

The four provincial winners will compete in the national finals at Salgados, Pinta and Villamoura old course next month.