The Leinster Matchplay championships took place at the Erry pitch and putt club in Clara Co.Offaly at the week-end and despite the extremely windy weather conditions a very high standard of pitch and putt was produced by the players in some excellent matches.

Apart from the two finalists two players that stood out in the tournament were Patrick Conneely (athboy) and Liam Sherry (St Bridgets). Conneely in his first season in the adult ranks tore through the competition with some ease knocking out such notable pla yers as Paul o Gorman in round two 4&2 (o Gorman didn’t have the benefit of a warm up as he received a bye in the first) and Darren o Reilly who narrowly overcame James Carroll in the first round 1 up then beat Anto Lynch (Glenville) 8&7.

Conneely played some really excellent pitch and putt in the third round against Darren and definitely turned some heads when he came in a 9&8 winner over the former National champion .It took the infamous Sean Downes to put a stop to this whiz kid who should be extremely proud of making the semi-finals of his first Provincial tournament amongst such a high class field.

On the other side of the scale we had Liam Sherry who it would be fair to say wasn’t playing in his first championship .In some highly entertaining matches Liam beat Gary Healy (Loughlinstown) on the very last hole of the first match the lead swinging both ways during the game Liam edging Gary out at the finishing line .He then faced another tough match playing Gerard McGuirk (Cement) in round two ,Liam decided also to bring this one to the 36th hole and showing great determination he proved he was a player not to be underestimated also winning this match 1 up.Liam now faced John Ross Grangle (Loughlinstown) and the possibility of 108 holes of pitch and putt on day one of a 2 day event.

This wasn’t to be for the valiant St Bridgets man as Grangle who came off his last match a 7&6 win over the experienced Larry Mc Ginn and was in superb form . Stamina and some excellent pitching proved to be too much for Liam and his campaign was over but he proved a lot to himself and also to the spectators and fans of pitch and putt about high standards and Longevity in the game.

William Buckley who started out as tournament favourite seemed to get better as the tournament progressed as did the last winner of the title Sean Downes setting up an extremely high class final.

Buckley though was on fire and knocked in birdie after birdie never letting Downes into the game he eventually ran out a 9&8 winner to the applause of the home crowd.

Posted by Kieron Morrissey