Badminton stars laden down with medals

MEMBERS of the Ennis Tennis and Badminton Club enjoyed a lot of success at the Munster Close and Leinster Spring Open Badminton Championships recently.
Twenty-five members of the Ennis club took part in the Munster Close competition at the University of Limerick, where they won a total of 26 medals.
Ciara Dwyer won both the Munster U-15 close and the Leinster U-14 open titles. She teamed up with Megan Bredin to win the girls doubles at both championships.
Ciara defeated the first, second and third Leinster seeds to win the U-14 Leinster crown. In the final, she came up against Leinster’s number one, Sara Boyle. Ciara won the first set 21-12 but Sara levelled when she won the second 21-17. In a thrilling third set, Ciara emerged as the 24-22 winner to take the title. In the doubles final at Terenure, Ciara and Megan beat the Dublin pairing of Kate Frost and Nora O’Gorman 30-27.
In the Division 1, U-11 grade, Karen McNamara won three gold medals in singles, doubles and mixed. In the singles, she came up against clubmate Lana Browne and after a nail-biting final victory, Karen emerged with a one-point victory, 30 to 29.
Karen partnered Sally Molloy in the girl’s doubles and they beat Lana and Áine O’Loughlin (Ardnacrusha) 30-21 to take the title.
In the mixed doubles, Karen partnered Cathal Ruane and they met the Cork pairing of Thomas Howard and Aisling McAllister in the final. Howard had earlier beaten Ruane in the boys’ singles final. Karen and Cathal won on a score of 30 to 28. In the boys’ doubles’, Cathal and Broadford’s Padraic Donnellan were the runners-up.
In the U-13 Division 1, Moya Ryan won gold in the singles, doubles and mixed. In the singles, she had a 30-26 win over Róisín Dwyer. In the doubles, they teamed up and beat Karen McNamara and Sally Molloy, the U-11 winners.
Moya partnered Waterford’s Stephen Walsh in the mixed and they beat the Cork pair, Sean Howard and Mary Buckley to win the title.
In the U-13 Division 2, David Moloney and Brendan Dolan, competing in their first Munster competition, did well to reach the final, where they lost out to the stronger pairing of Killian Broderick and Seán O’Connor.
In the mixed doubles, brother and sister Maurice and Sally Molly beat the Cork pairing of Harry O’Callaghan and Grace Lane on a 30 to 22 scoreline. Eoin Flynn won the boys’ singles’ place, beating Darragh Tomlinson from Cork 30 to 18.
In the U-15 Division 2, Sophie Marron and Emma Kavanagh improved with each match and they beat Cork duo Sadbh O’Connor and Eadain O’Flynn to win the girls’ doubles’ title.
In the U-15 Division 1, Ciara Dwyer beat the Cork number one, Lisa Howard in the final. The final score was 30 to 21.
In the girls’ doubles’, Ciara and Megan Bredin teamed up and they beat the Cork pairing of Lisa Howard and Lynda Dunlea on a 30 to 26 scoreline.
Ciara and Megan participated in the U-15 inter-provincials at the weekend when they had some great battles with current Irish internationals.
This week they will be in action in Gormanstown where they, together with clubmates Amy McNamara and Kate Bredin, will represent their school Coláiste Muire in the Irish Schools Championship.