Eamonn Darcy team come up just short

Hard luck to the Eamonn Darcy Trophy team who, after an excellent win this morning when they beat Dun Laoghaire, lost out in the final of the competition this afternoon to Woodbrook.

Karl made just one change from the team that won in the morning, bringing in Toby Murphy for Darren McCormack whose back was acting up.

First out was Dylan Holmes who despite a slow start by his high standards fought tooth and nail till the bitter end before losing out 2&1.

Our next singles player, David Byrne had been excellent in his semi final match thais morning, and despite the home advantage of his Woodbrook opponent, David was all square after nine holes.  A loss on the tenth was immediately followed by wins on the next two holes for a slender, one hole lead.  The match remained tight, with David losing the fourteenth to go back to all square and another loss to a birdie on seventeen, despite an excellent up and down from the bunker, had the shoe firmly on the Woodbrook foot heading to the eighteenth tee box.

Shane O’Connor & Daniel O’Byrne were once again paired together this afternoon and were again out as the last match. Despite going into an early, one hole lead, the pair were back to all square after six and a bad run of four holes from seven to ten saw them at four down. They steadied the ship with a half on eleven but another loss on the twelfth and a scoreline of five down with just six to play proved a mountain to high to climb and the match ended on the fourteenth 5&4.

Ahead of Shane & Daniel were the new pairing of Jamie Anderson & Toby Murphy who were two down through four holes.The lads won the seventh and eight holes to square the match but an immediate loss on the ninth set the tone for the remainder of the match with Woodbrook managing to keep the Greystones team at bay before winning 3&2.

The hero of the semi final, Adam Packman, was out third in the singles once again this afternoon, and once again found himself in a very tight match. In this titanic battle the pair were never separated by more than one hole with the lead swapping back and forth.  When called in, Adam was one up, heading for the eighteenth after another good performance.

As all this was unfolding, David was playing the eighteenth.  Showing all the composure of a player of his experience, he birdied eighteen to half the match and then birdied the long, par five decider, hitting two excellent shots to hit the green in two, to win the match.

So overall while this goes down as a 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 loss, this team have shown today and throughout the campaign, that they are capable of a lot more in the future.

Well done to Karl, Dermot and all the squad.  Well done also to the Grange ladies who won the inaugural Ladies, Eamonn Darcy event this afternoon, beating Woodbrook in the final.

A special note of thanks also to our very own Collie Dunne who conceived of this competition and continues to run it with great efficiency.