The finals of all the Oriel Zone Championship tournaments took place at the end of March in Magheracloone with some fantastic games throughout.
Rinks – Michael McLearnon, Tom Rushe, Michael Garvey and Jamie Corrigan get Fantastic Oriel Zone Paddy Martin Memorial Rinks Tournament Victory
In the semi finals Pat Cunningham, Seamus Malone, Sean Marmion and Monina Birch took on Shane Hand, Paul Duff, Michael Hand and Jim Fox, while in the other semi final Michael McLearnon, Tom Rushe, Michael Garvey and Jamie Corrigan went up against Eugene Callan, Mickey Hayes, Bernie Mackin and Tom Keenan. In both semi finals Michael McLearnon’s rink and Shane Hand’s rink took control of their games from the beginning, and the results were never in doubt from quite early on. This set up a blockbuster match between the Cullyhanna and Corduff teams.
In the final it was Michael McLearnon’s rink that started the stronger and took an early 4-1 lead after 4 ends. However Shane Hand’s rink were hanging in slowly came back into it, and picked up three 1’s in a row to leave it level at 4-4 after 7 ends. In the 8th end Michael was able to get an important 2 shots to take a 6-4 lead going into the final end. This proved vital as while Michael’s rink were holding shot with the last bowl, Shane had an outside chance at hitting the jack over to 3 of his own bowls and steal the victory. However Shane’s shot was a tiny bit too tight and hit the jack on the wrong side, meaning the Cullyhanna rink held on for a fantastic victory. Well done to them!
Mixed Trips – Emma Colgan, Diarmuid McMahon and Kevin Conroy Hold Off Late Comeback Effort to Win Oriel Zone Tommy Byrne Mixed Trips Tournament
In the trips final Emma Colgan, Diarmuid McMahon and Kevin Conroy went up against Mary Larney, Shane Hand and Paul Duff. In the early part of this game it looked like Emma Diarmuid and Kevin were going to cruise to victory, and took a commanding 9-1 lead after 6 ends. However at this point Kevin’s trip started to struggle, and Paul’s trip upped their play at the same time, and 2 ends later it was back to 9-6 going into the final end. The final end continued in this way and Paul’s trip was holding 4 shots with Kevin having his last bowl to throw. But Paul was a fraction wide with his last shot and left the jack open, and Kevin made no mistake and drew in his final bowl to take the shot back and get the win for himself, Emma and Diarmuid.
Singles – Paul Duff Finishes Strong to Win Oriel Zone Mickey McGee Memorial Singles Tournament
The singles tournament had gotten to the semi final stage, where Paul Duff went up against Diarmuid McMahon, and father took on son in the other semi final with Michael Hand going against Shane Hand.
In the first semi final it was Paul who was playing the better bowls, with Diarmuid struggling to get going. After 6 ends Paul had a 10-1 lead. Diarmuid made a valiant effort at a comeback and brought it back to 10-5 with 2 ends to go, but the lead was too great and Paul won 11-5 with an end to spare.
In the other semi final it started off quite tight, but after a few ends Michael took control of the match. He also managed to come through with an end to spare finishing with a 10-3 victory.
This set up a final between Paul Duff and Michael Hand. It started off with some big scores from either side, with Michael getting 3 shots in the first end and then Paul responding with a full house himself in the 2nd end to go 4-3 up. They then traded singles in the next 2 ends for a 5-4 lead to Paul after 4 ends. Paul then picked up another 3 to get a bit of daylight between them, but Michael was hanging in and got 2 back in the next end, and then another 1 in the 7th end to make it 8-7 to Paul. Paul then picked up an important 2 to make it 10-7 going into the final end. At this point Paul just had to keep things tight and that’s exactly what he did, leaving Michael having to try and burn the jack with his last bowl. He just missed and it left Paul as the 2025 Oriel zone singles champion!
Big congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who supported the tournamants! The full videos of the finals can be viewed at the Oriel Zone YouTube page at youtube.com/@OrielZoneBowls . Make sure to subscribe to the channel!
No responses yet