Jim Carvill in action (Wednesday) in the Barton Shield semi-final
19 September 2012
Carvill & Doran Help Clinch Final Place
46 year old golfing veteran Jim Carvill, who has six Cups and Shields winners medals already, will try and win his fourth Chartis Europe sponsored Barton Shield medal on Thursday as he and the rest of the Banbridge team take on the students of NUI Maynooth at Kinsale Golf Club.
Carvill, who has won all his previous medals with Warrenpoint, and his playing partner Connor Doran rallied on the back nine of their semi-final encounter yesterday against Galway’s Damien Glynn and Eddie McCormack after finding themselves two down after 16 holes.
“I said to Connor on the way to the 17th if we can finish four-four we have a chance of getting out and then you hope that the boys up front hang in there, but that’s Barton Shield for you”
A rallying birdie-birdie finish from Carvill & Doran ended the hopes of Galway’s pairing, securing the 1 hole aggregate win for Banbridge.
Up against the students of NUI Maynooth in Thursday's final, Carvill is the most experienced player and will be hoping this will help them hold off the younger college players and give Banbridge their first win in the Barton Shield since 2003 when they triumphed at nearby Lisburn.
“I don’t play as competitvley as I used too but I’m 46, I don’t have to prove myself and they (NUI Maynooth) are the up and coming players. They are a good team but we’re looking forward to it”.
2010 West of Ireland champion Rory Leonard, the playing team captain for Banbridge, was relieved after he and partner Colin Wilton edged out former Irish international Joe Lyons and Ronan Mullarney by the narrowest of margins.
“At the start we were comfortably ahead on the front nine, we were a couple up and the others (Carvill and Doran) were up and in our game we never went behind. It got to the stage early on the back nine where both games were all square then we won 17 to go one up but the lads were two down playing 17 and won the last two holes to finish (all) square and we came through at the end.”
In the Junior Cup Donaghadee progressed to their first ever Cups and Shields final after a win over Munster qualifiers Castletroy. The youngest player on their team Mark Rea at just 15 years of age accounted for Castletroy’s Keith Birmingham by a margin of 2 holes.
Team captain Gareth Stranaghan was relieved and delighted by his team’s performance which set them up for a final showdown against Connacht’s Athenry who beat the Dublin side Milltown.
“It was a real tight match from early on. At the turn the guys really rallied and around the 10th and 11th I thought we were there but it all changed very quickly. Castletroy came back at us and all of a sudden it was down to the last game."
Apart from the second match, where Donaghadee’s Stewart Boal was beaten 5/3, all the other matches went down to the last couple of holes, and it was the Co. Down men that showed they are worthy finalists, clinching three of them in very tense situations.
“It was such tight stuff. In the last match we (Alan Neill) were three-up after ten but the young lad from Castletroy (Ronan Murphy) fought back really well and it was back to all-square after 15. We went one up at the 16th and at the next Murphy went out of bounds off the tee”.
This gave Neill the opening he needed and he won the hole with a bogey five, despite finding the water right of the green with his approach.
“An all-Ireland final is hard to take in. For Donaghadee golf club this will be one of the biggest team days in our history “.
Cups and Shields
Sponsored by Chartis Europe
Kinsale Golf Club
Wed 19 September
Barton Shield Semi Finals
NUI Maynooth bt Doneraile 4 holes
(NUI Maynooth names first)
C O'Rourke & J Yates bt D Finn & J Hickey 1 hole; B Anderson & G Hurley bt T O'Mahony & A Carey 3 holes
Banbridge bt Galway 1 hole
(Banbridge names first)
R Leonard & C Wilton bt R Mullarney & J Lyons 1 hole; C Doran & J Carvill halved with D Glynn & E McCormack
Junior Cup Semi Finals
Donaghadee 3, Castletroy 2
(Donaghadee names first)
A Clegg bt D Charlton 1 hole; S Boal lost to J McDonnell 4/3; M Rea bt K Birmingham 2 holes; W McCutcheon lost to C Geary 1 hole; A Neill bt R Murphy 2/1
Athenry 3.5, Milltown 1.5
(Athenry names first)
I Dunican bt N Patterson 3/2; T Reaney bt D O'Reilly 5/3; S Glynn lost to L Conlon 3/2; M Fahy bt R O'Gorman 19th; B Mooney halved with A Stokes
Cups and Shields
Sponsored by Chartis Europe
Kinsale Golf Club
Thurs 20 September
Pierce Purcell Shield Semi Finals
0800 Gort v Foyle
(Gort names first)
R Quinn & A Edler v T Bradley & K McMorris; J Tierney & M O'Dell v J Coyle & A Jackson; P Curtis & K Mulkerrins v R O'Connor & C McGuinness; D O'Dell & D Daly v K Bradley & B O'Neill; G Broderick & J Moylan v K Crumley & C Cassidy
0850 Newcastle West v The Royal Dublin
(Newcastle West names first)
N Harnett & P Magner v C O Siocháin & M Perry; S Noonan & M Meehan v J Enright & D Murphy; L Keane & G Foley v S Guirke & R Gygax; C Cleary & S Kelly v D Shaw & R McGovern; E Duggan & D Murphy v P Dowling & E McHugh
Junior Cup Final
1100 Donaghadee v Athenry
(Donaghadee names first)
A Clegg v I Dunican; S Millar v T Reaney; M Rea v S Glynn; W McCutcheon v M Fahy; A Neill v B Mooney
Barton Shield Final
1200 NUI Maynooth v Banbridge
(NUI Maynooth names first)
C O'Rourke & J Yates v R Leonard & C Wilton; B Anderson & G Hurley v C Doran & J Carvill