Dublin club Mount Pleasant came away with three titles from the 100-player, 11-event Munster Junior Open.
Michael Lai (BU15), Zoe Nyhan (GU15) and Anna Maria Deak (GU11) each won their respective events on a weekend where the Celtic club from Waterford doubled up with success for Aaron Knox (BU19) and Harry Knox (BU13).
Played across two venues in Cork, Highfield and Sunday’s Well, the tournament, featuring 59 boys and 41 girls, also saw titles go to Dunhill, Limerick, Gleneagle, Fitzwilliam, Freshford and Belfast.
The seven-player BU19 box event, which ended with play-offs, was won by Celtic’s Aaron Knox. The No.1 seed came from behind in the final to win 3-2 against Christian Droomgoole, the No.2 seed from Sutton, who was the BU17 runner-up at the recent Irish Junior Open.
Sutton’s Tyler Dromgoole, the No.4 seed, came third with a 3-0 play-off win over Frank O’Flynn, the third seed from Fitzwilliam.
The five-player GU19 box event was won by Shriya Drawid, the third seed from Belfast. Her four wins included a 3-0 success over Ella Walsh, the No.1 seed from Sutton, who came second ahead of Mount Pleasant’s Riley Slade in third.
The 14-player BU17 elimination event was won by Nathan Walsh, the fifth seed from Freshford. It was Galway’s Eoin Mullery, the No.8 seed, who opened up the draw by eliminating the No.1, Adam Power of Celtic, in the quarter-finals with a 3-2 win that went 15-13 in the final game.
Walsh beat Mullery 3-0 in the semi-finals and then defeated the No.2 seed, Sutton’s Samuel Hann, in the final. Mullery went on to take third place with a 3-2 play-off win over Danny Jones, the third seed from Sutton.
The six-player GU17 was won by third seed Lucy Walsh of Fitzwilliam, who defeated fifth seed Ashrakat Elmahgoub of Mount Pleasant 3-0 in the final after both had topped their opening round boxes. Top seed Zoe Sheridan took third place ahead of Highfield’s Maggie Jones, the No.2 seed.
Top seed Lai, the Mount Pleasant player who finished third in the BU15 Irish Junior Open, took the BU15 title in Munster with a 3-0 win in the final over the second seed, John Quigley of Sutton.
In the eight-player knockout event, Lai defeated fifth seed Jamie Morrissey of Celtic, who won the Irish Junior Open BU13, 3-0 in the semi-finals. Morrissey was then pipped to third place by Galway’s Jack Clery, the third seed winning their play-off 3-1.
Top seed Nyhan of Mount Pleasant defeated the third seed, Sutton’s Saibh Darcy, 3-0 in the final of the 12-player GU15 knockout event. Darcy had beaten No.2 seed Gabby Curran of Belfast 3-2 in the semi-finals. Curran clinched third place with a 3-0 play-off win over the fourth seed, Saoirse Murphy of Naas.
The 16-player BU13 knockout ended with top seed Harry Knox of Celtic coming from behind in the final to defeat third seed Josh Archer of Belfast 3-1. Archer had beaten No.2 Eoin O’Brien of Sutton 3-2 in the semi-finals. O’Brien went on to clinch third place with a 3-1 win over fourth seed Ridit Thapar of Mount Pleasant.
The top seed, Gleneagle’s Noah Counihan, took the BU13B title with four wins in a five-player box format, with Dublin duo, fourth seed Hugh Brady of Mount Pleasant and third seed Zach O’Leary of Fitzwilliam, taking second and third respectively.
The nine-player GU13 box format ended with a mirror outcome of the recent Irish Junior Open at Sutton as Limerick’s Ruby Carroll [1] took the title ahead of Celtic’s Daisy Morrissey [2].
However, their encounter was much tighter than the 3-0 in Dublin, finishing 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 15-13, 11-7) on this occasion, with Morrissey threatening a title win in the fourth game. Third seed Caoimhe English of Celtic finished third.
The nine-player BU11 box format ended with No.2 seed Dylan Dunphy clinching the title with a 3-1 (11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9) win over the No.1 seed, Galway’s Conor Mullery, in a play-off box that also featured Mount Pleasant’s Daniel Deak [4]. This trio had won the initial three groups.
Another nine-player box format was the GU11, which finished with the fourth seed, Mount Pleasant’s Anna Maria Deak, heading up the play-off standings ahead of No.1 Georgie Ryan of Windsor and No.8 Jessica O’Gorman of Fitzwilliam after they had each won the opening stage groups.
MUNSTER JUNIOR OPEN
BU19 FINAL: [1] Aaron Knox (Celtic) WON 3-2 (5-11, 11-9, 3-11, 11-6, 11-9) v [2] Christian Dromgoole (Sutton). THIRD PLACE: [4] Tyler Dromgoole (Sutton) WON 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-7) v [3] Frank O’Flynn (Fitzwilliam)
GU19: Belfast’s Shriya Drawid [3] topped the box standings ahead of Sutton’s Ella Walsh [1], with Mount Pleasant’s Riley Slade [2] in third.
BU17 FINAL: [5] Nathan Walsh (Freshford) WON 3-1 (7-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-4) v [2] Samuel Hann (Sutton). THIRD PLACE: [8] Eoin Mullery (Galway) WON 3-2 (4-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-13, 11-8) v [3] Danny Jones (Sutton)
GU17 FINAL: [3] Lucy Walsh (Fitzwilliam) WON 3-0 (11-0, 11-2, 11-5) v [5] Ashrakat Elmahgoub (Mount Pleasant). THIRD PLACE: [1] Zoe Sheridan (Sutton) WON 3-1 (11-3, 11-9, 2-11, 11-6) v [2] Maggie Jones (Highfield)
BU15 FINAL: [1] Michael Lai (Mount Pleasant) WON 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-4) v [2] John Quigley (Sutton). THIRD PLACE: [3] Jack Clery (Galway) WON 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9) v [5] Jamie Morrissey (Celtic)
GU15 FINAL: [1] Zoe Nyhan (Mount Pleasant) WON 3-0 (11-1, 13-11, 12-10) v [3] Saibh Darcy (Sutton). THIRD PLACE: [2] Gabby Curran (Belfast) WON 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-2) v [4] Saoirse Murphy (Naas)
BU13 FINAL: [1] Harry Knox (Celtic) WON 3-1 (6-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-3) v [3] Josh Archer (Belfast). THIRD PLACE: [3] Eoin O’Brien (Sutton) WON 3-1 (4-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6) v [4] Ridit Thapar (Mount Pleasant)
BU13B: [1] Noah Counihan (Gleneagle) won all four box format matches to finish top ahead of [4] Hugh Brady (Mount Pleasant) and [3] Zach O’Leary of Fitzwilliam
GU13: [1] Ruby Carroll of Limerick topped the play-off box standings ahead of [2] Daisy Morrissey of Celtic, with [3] Caoimhe English, also of Celtic, third.
BU11: Dunhill’s Dylan Dunphy [2] topped the play-off box standings ahead of Galway’s Conor Mullery [1], with Mount Pleasant’s Daniel Deak [4] third.
GU11: Mount Pleasant’s Anna Maria Deak [4] topped the play-off box standings ahead of Windsor’s Georgie Ryan [1], with Fitzwilliam’s Jessica O’Gorman [8] third.
