Kilrea ready for Ulster Final

The local club take on Rossmore GC, Co. Monaghan at Rockmount GC in Belfast this Sunday, August 10th.

Back in May when the Kilrea team started on this odyssey, under the stewardship of Team Captain, and Club Vice Captain Joe McCloskey they could only dream of reaching an Ulster Final.

After finishing in third spot in the Qualifying round at Ballymena GC the Kilrea team had breezed through the Matchplay stages with comprehensive victories over Ballymena, City of Derry and Malone. However they knew a potentially tricky tie awaited against Edenmore GC.

Captain Joe reinstated Gerard Donaghy to the starting line up after he had missed the previous game due to holidays, and this proved to be an inspired piece of captaincy as Gerard and Kevin Kidd got the first point on the board with a brilliant 6&5 win.

This was shortly followed by a second win as Seamus Quinn and Gabriel McTaggart cruised home 4&3. The other three games at this stage were proving to be close affairs, but it fell to the unbeaten pair of Terry Rogers and Billy Millar to secure victory for Kilrea as they won by two holes. Indeed the other two pairings on the course also were looking good as this stage as Gabriel Bradley/Dominic Kealey had gone one up after 17 holes and Uel Watt and James Henry had fought back from 4 down to draw level after 16.

Joe McCloskey congratulated all his team for what he described as a “storming performance”, and indeed Joe deserves great credit for sticking with the same team all the way through the competition.

Kilrea now move on to the Ulster Final, which will be played on Sunday 10th August. Their opponents will be Rossmore GC, Co. Monaghan. The venue is Rockmount GC in Belfast.

Indeed Rossmore are the current Ulster Champions, and they defeated Kilrea GC 3-2 in last year’s quarter final. However with this being only the second time Kilrea have reached an Ulster Final in any GUI event they will need little motivation. Everyone at the Club wishes Joe and the Team success on Sunday and hopefully they will bring home the pendant on Sunday night!