Ballymac Players Progress 40*20 Championship

Last weekend saw the County’s seniors, minors, intermediate, junior and Juvenile players in action at County, Provincial and All Ireland Level. On the senior singles side two Ballymac women-Maria Daly and Ashley Prendeville had comfortable wins in their first round games.Maria beat Fidelma O Reilly [Limerick] 21-2, 21-3, and Ashley came out on top in her game against Katie Costello [Roscommon] 21-3, 21-9. The Ladies Singles Quarter Finals are set for the weekend of March 22nd, where Maria plays Anna Spence or Deirdre O Donogue, while Ashley will meet the no 1 seed-Fiona Shannon [Antrim]. The winners of both these quarter finals are drawn against each other in one of the semi final groupings. Karen Lawlor came through both her Intermediate Singles games last weekend; she beat Sharon Daly in a County qualifier on Saturday and accounted for Catrriona Casey [Ballymac] in what was a Munster and County Intermediate Singles Final.
The Munster 40x20 girl’s team finished agonizingly short, in their bid for back to back titles in the Inter Provincial Team Championships in Clare last Sunday. At U13 level Martina Mc Mahon and Anna Prendeville made a great start garnering a 29-20 lead; Cornelia Prendeville and Paula Loughnane held their own going down by just two aces 22-24; the Cork pair of Catriona Casey and Aisling O Keefe came out well on top in the U15 section winning 30-9 leaving Munster 81-53 ahead just over the halfway stage. Connacht pulled back the bulk of the lead at U16 against Lisa Loughnane/Marie Collins winning 30-4 to leave the score at 85-83 to Munster. The Clare pair of Edel O Grady and Aisling Fitzgerald battled bravely in the last game going down 24-29, to leave the Connacht side ahead by just three aces at the finish 112-109. It was a brave bid by the Munster girls so close and yet so far; there is a good backbone to this team-the 60x30 series should prove just as interesting later in the year.