Division 1: Sunday’s Well V Celtic, November 25th 2014
Tuesday November 25th 2014,
IN CORK, on a brisk cold evening outdoors, Sunday’s Well played host to Celtic, where the winner would take the 1st Division team league title for the season 2014/15.
Credit to Sunday’s Well as the courts were well warmed up before the games got going and looked well for the playoff showdown.
The Waterford side were unfortunate to be missing their number 1 player, so the rest of the team all moved up 1 position on the night.
That aside, the Waterford side were still capable of an upset.
With Sunday’s Well holding the trump cards of the Munster Champion and the current Munster no. 2 in the top two positions, and Celtic playing without their no. 1, the odds were in favour of Sunday’s Well taking those two matches, so the pressure was firmly on nos. 3, 4 and 5 to win it for either team.
The first match to get underway was between the no. 5 players, David and Conor, on the court to the left. David started well and took the first two games by playing many low kills just over the timber, sending the ball flying hard and low to the back of the court. After two games it was requested to change the ball as it didn’t seem to be bouncing upwards and was skidding a bit. The change of ball at the interval seemed to make the difference as Conor fought back well to take the next game and take the 4th game to 10-all.
With the game in the balance, David managed to hold his nerve in the tie-breaker and eked out the win to give Sunday’s Well the first match of the evening.
The no. 4 players, Ken (McCarthy) and Eoin, played at the same time on the court to the right, and thrilled the spectators with some tight rallies. The first two games were on a knife-edge, but Ken claimed the spoils from both games and found another gear in the 3rd to win 3 love.
At that point, with 2 matches up, Sunday’s Well were in a commanding position needing only 1 more match to win the league.
The next turn to play was for the no. 3 players, Ken (O’Keeffe) and Francis. It turned out to be the match of the evening going to a “5-setter”.
Ken came out of the blocks a bit better and, though the early exchanges were a bit scrappy, he took full advantage and won the first game with points to spare.
The 2nd game was a different story, as the game got into full flow, both players were clearly warmed up at this stage and with the added spice of having the league title hanging in the balance the lads pushed each other to the limit.
Francis took the second game, and put doubts into the minds of the Cork-men. The come-back was still possible.
Ken took the 3rd and Francis went up 10-8 in the 4th. Ken made a dramatic come-back, under great pressure two fantastic lengthy rallies ensued, one of which ended with a peach of a cross-court lob from Ken out of the front right which climbed high up to the rafters to finish precisely in the back corner so tight that nobody could have dug it out. However Francis kicked on and pulled it level to 2 games all and set the match up to go to a 5th for a decider.
Unfortunately for Francis the valiant efforts in the previous games seemed to take their toll, and Ken pulled away in the end to win the 5th and thus wrapped up the league for the Cork side.
With the pressure now off, John was able to play a very controlled style to beat Mark 3 love, though Mark proved he is getting closer to the top players by getting up to 9-all in the first two games, and just a few unforced errors costing him in the end.
Jaime and Ray were last on, and despite Ray claiming one game by a big margin, the Munster Champion looked in very good form in the other games and won the match to give Sunday’s Well a clean sweep.
Sunday’s Well are this season’s Division 1 team league champions.
Pictured below are the teams, and many thanks go to Greg O’Gorman and the Kilkenny Group for supplying the prizes.
Also, many thanks to Sunday’s Well for hosting the presentation and laying on some very tasty finger food.
The results from the matches were:
Sunday’s Well 20 – 4 Celtic
John Hurley 3 – 0 Mark Furlong
Jaime Balbuena 3 – 1 Ray Crowley
Ken O’Keeffe 3 – 2 Francis Power
Ken McCarthy 3 – 0 Eoin Fanning
David Ronayne 3 – 1 Conor O’Neill
