THE Killarney squash season drew to an action-packed close with the final competition played out before a large crowd in the Aquila Club.
This was the only time throughout the season that the American scoring system was used and it made all games very competitive and entertaining with three of the four matches going the distance and requiring five games to separate players.
As expected the showpiece of the night, the Division 1 decider, lived up to its pre-match expectations with Connie Doyle and Farook Kahn going toe-to-toe in a game that had everything, including controversial refereeing decisions, fire alarms and, of course, some great squash.
Doyle raced into a deserved 2-0 lead despite the games being so close. Those watching could have been forgiven for thinking that he would close out the match but Kahn had other ideas.
He found himself beginning to control matters from the centre and had Doyle covering every corner of the court in a bid to keep points alive. Indeed Kahn managed to take the following two games and in keeping with the theme of the night, sent the match into a deciding fifth.
The final game had the two opponents playing very tight squash with Doyle, in particular, using great length to the back of the court. As per the previous four games, a real battle ensued with the lead switching between the two constantly.
Doyle eventually just managed to shade matters, coming out on top and in doing so retaining the Maurice O’Donoghue memorial cup.
In Division 4 Micheál O’Donoghue and Margaret O’Connor served up a very exciting match with O’Donoghue settling quickly and overcoming his handicap to win the first game.
The next game saw O’Connor starting to find her feet and she managed to pull away to take the second and third game. O’Donoghue rallied and worked hard to take the next game and level the match at two apiece.
The deciding game saw service switch on numerous occasions and both finalists had chances to take the match but, ultimately, it was O’Connor who finished strongest.
Images: Eamonn Keogh
The Division 3 final saw last year’s Division 4 finalist Seamus Kerrisk drawn against John O’Sullivan for what was an extremely tight match all through with both men refusing to give each other an inch.
O’Sullivan was giving Kerrisk a couple of points in the handicap but that didn’t hinder him in the slightest.
Some long rallies that saw the two covering all areas of the court had the crowd on the edge of their seats and the fifth and deciding set went all the way to 14-14 before O’Sullivan nicked the last point to clinch the match.
The penultimate game of the night paired Mike Crowley and Seán Morris in the Division 2 final and both men started level as they had the same handicap. A tight encounter was expected here as Morris had put in an extremely impressive semi-final performance and the evergreen Crowley continues to be a force after all these years.
Much to the surprise of those watching, however, the match was over and done with in three straight games with Crowley rolling back the years to overcome Morris and take the Division 2 title for only the second time.
This month’s sponsor was Mike Howard of Cross Refrigeration.
To mark the end of the squash season, a barbeque and nine-hole golf scramble is being organised for the Ross Golf Club in the coming weeks and those interested in participating should contact the Aquila Club for details.
