Offaly school brings home badminton medals

Four teams from Offaly travelled to Dublin for the Leinster Post-Primary Schools Badminton Finals. For St. Brendan’s boys and Colaiste Naomh Cormac girls, the ultimate goal was to win Leinster gold and a spot in the All-Ireland finals. Cistercian College, Roscrea boys and St. Brendan’s girls played in Division 3, so could go no further than Leinster. St. Brendan’s, Birr girls were the only team to come home with medals around their necks, and the colour was Silver.

St Brendan's girls

St. Brendan’s played in a group of three with Colaiste Mhuire, Trim, and Cross and Passion College, Kildare. St. Brendan’s team of Aisling Farrell, Zoe Farrell, Rachel Horan, Katelyn Canham and Molly King met Colaiste Mhuire in their first match.

The St. Brendan’s girls won all four singles and the two doubles comprehensively for a good start to the day. Against Cross and Passion College, the girls kept the pressure on and again won all six games. As winner of their group, St. Brendan’s met a very strong Kilkenny College team.

Kilkenny College started very strongly, winning the first three singles games. Aisling Farrell in 1st singles, and Zoe Farrell in 2^nd singles both scored 19 points, but that wasn’t enough in a 21 point game. Katelyn Canham won 4^th singles, leaving the score 3-1 to Kilkenny College at the end of the singles, with two more games to play. Unfortunately, Aisling and Zoe lost their doubles 21/14, but Rachel and Katelyn won theirs 21/14. Even though Kilkenny College won the match 4-2 and the gold medal, they finished with only 11 points more than St. Brendan’s for the 6 games.

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Cistercian College, Roscrea

Cistercian were seeded into a group of three with teams from Louth and Wicklow. The team of Enoch Gao, Walter Zhou, Linus Au Yeung, Diego Valenzula, and Aidan Wang met Wicklow in their first game. Wicklow proved strong opposition for the Cistercian boys and defeated them 5-1. When Louth withdrew, both Wicklow and Offaly were given walkovers. Meath were brought into the group to increase the competition. As loser of the first game, Cistercians were the first team to meet Meath. They scored a resounding 6-0 victory. Wicklow, with two wins already before they played Meath, topped the group and went on to play for the Gold and Silver medals.

St Brendan's boys

St. Brendan’s Boys also played in a group of three with St. Aidan’s CBS, Whitehall and St. Patrick’s Classical School, Navan. St. Aidan’s were the first opponents for Pierre Savy, Ryan Lagrace, Lorcan Owens, Harry Larkin, and Sean Hynes. The team lost 3 of the 4 singles games, so were on the back foot heading into the doubles, which they had to win to stay in contention for the top spot in the Pool and a place in the finals. The doubles pairs of Pierre and Harry and Ryan and Lorcan rallied for their school and won both games.

With the score tied 3-3, points were counted. After the countback, St. Brendan’s were declared the winners. St. Brendan’s were off to a flying start in the singles, winning 3 of the 4 games against St. Patrick’s. St. Patrick’s rallied in the doubles and won 2 close games. Again, a countback was required. This time, St. Brendan’s finished on the short end of the score, so lost out on a place in the finals.

Colaiste Naomh Cormac girls

Colaiste Naomh Cormac team of Aisling Mooney, Hannah Dunne, Saoirse Murphy, Ava Dunne, Siún Joyce Alana Gellar, and Aoife Gleeson met Scoil Mhuire, Trim, and High School, Dublin. Since CNC were the 3^rd school to check in, the other 2 teams began first, so CNC had a chance to scout. From her stance on court and her play, CNC knew the 1^st girl on High School was a squad player.

CNC met Scoil Mhuire, losers of the first game, in their first game. Aisling could only score 11 points in her first game, which was not enough to win in a 21 point game. Hannah levelled the score with a 21/12 victory. Saoirse stepped up and smashed and dropped with skill and won 21/3. Ava finished the singles for CNC with a 21/11 wins. With 2 games left to play, even if CNC lost both, with Saoirse’s huge victory, they were nearly guaranteed to win on point countback. Aisling and Hannah skilfully played Hannah’s singles opponent, but only managed 18 points. Saoirse and Ava scored a 21/7 victory, earning CNC a 4-2 win.

Next up were High School. Aisling could only score 7 points against the Leinster squad player. Hannah also struggled, losing by a huge margin. Saoirse got CNC back on the winning track, but had to work hard to achieve her 21/17 victory. Ava levelled the match for CNC with a 21/16 victory. When Aisling and Hannah lost 21/6, the writing was on the wall for CNC. They were well down on points. Saoirse and Ava won 21/16 to draw the match at 3-all, but CNC were down on points 112-79. High School, with 2 wins, qualified to play the final.

Coming events

This Thursday, March 5, Cistercian College, St. Brendan’s and Colaiste Naomh Cormac teams travel to Dublin for the U14 Leinster PPS finals. Then badminton goes quiet, except for Community Games, until 12 April when the Offaly U15 team travels to Dublin, unless a team of U14’s qualifies for the All-Ireland finals in Gormanstown College on 25 March.