Great Achievement By Brackey Pair O’Neill And Devlin.

Thursday 18.08.2011

Club

O Neill and Devlin dominate Ulster Junior Championships

The traditional 60×30 game may be at a low ebb in Ulster at present but two Brackey players made a determined effort to give the game a higher profile this year and to date they have been very successful. Shane O Neill and Barry Devlin showed that they were capable of taking on and beating more experienced opponents when they won the inaugural 60×30 Nationals and have since gone on to win the Ulster Junior singles and doubles championships.

In the doubles competition Devlin and O Neill recieved a walkover in their quarter-final when Monaghan’s Michael Clerkin and Micky Duffy pulled out with an injury and the pair then disposed of another Monaghan partnership Terry Kiernan and James Gavigan in the semi to set up a clash with the reigning Ulster Champions Cavan’s James Brady and Patrick Clerkin in the final. The Tyrone men had complete control of the match from the very outset and reeled off a 21-12 21-14  scoreline to dethrone the Ulster Champions in their home alley of Kingscourt.  Devlin and O Neill now meet their Leinster counterparts in the All Ireland semi-final in Loughmacrory on Sunday at 2pm. Their opponents will be either David Hope and Michael O Brien from Offaly or Wexford’s Jason Murphy and Eugene Kelly who met in the Leinster final on Sunday. O Neill and Devlin have a great chance especially with home advantage which should be worth a few points in each game to them and their prospects of reaching an All Ireland final are very real.

Singles title to O Neill

The Ulster 60×30 Junior Singles campaign was dominated by Tyrone players Barry Devlin and Shane O Neill who overcame all opposition to make it through to the final. Devlin was in great form throughout the competition and accounted for Monaghan’s Micky Duffy and Cavan players Brendan McCormack and Conor McMahon on his way to the final. O Neill was equally impressive in disposing of the challenge of James Gavigan and Terry Kiernan from Monaghan and Cavan’s James Brady although Brady did take him to 19 in the second game of their semi-final.

Sunday’s final in Kingscourt was an epic struggle with O Neill justifying his favourite’s tag when he led 16-8 in the first. However Devlin fought back with great determination to level at 18 and both players then swapped points to be level at 20. Devlin had a great chance to take the opening game but fluffed his opportunity and O Neill recovered for a 21-20 win. The second game was also a tense affair but O Neill with the first game under his belt was the more assured player and always seemed to have everything under control running out a 21-13 winner to take the title back to the Brackey club. His opponent in the All Ireland semi will be either David Hope from Offaly or Paul Lambert from Wexford  of whom are formidable singles players. However O Neill has done a lot of top class training and will be confident of putting up sturdy resistance which could be good enough to come out on top.