Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 5:00pm

Midland bandminton titles for Mullingar and Moyvore

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Some of the Mullingar men who contested the Grade 5 final.

The Midland Badminton League came to a rousing finale last week when the Grade 5 and Grade 6 finals were played.

It was a case of a mixed night for Mullingar with the team taking the honours in Grade 6 while going under to Moyvore in the Grade 5 decider.

Grade 5

Moyvore 10 - Mullingar 7

These two clubs also met in the final of this grade last year. However, the result proved different in 2010. A close match was anticipated and that was exactly what transpired as fortunes swung one way and then the other.

Mullingar won both men's doubles as Sean Kelly and Declan Slevin overcame William Keegan and Michael Monaghan and Frank Cotter and Kevin Smith got the better of Stephen Fay and Alan Keenan. The Moyvore lads did their bit for the cause with both pairs picking up a set in each game.

Carmel Burke and Ann Marie Creagh won the first ladies in straight sets for Moyvore against Marie Bardon and Margaret Murphy and everything seemed to be going as expected with the sides tied at 4 all. However, Mullingar gave themselves a great boost when Margaret Lynch and Sue Whyte pulled of a surprisingly comfortable win for Mullingar against Caroline McCaughey and Michelle Rushe to give them a 6-4 lead and undo the good work done by the Moyvore men.

The mixed games were always going to be close so that slender lead was no guarantee of overall success. Moyvore squared up the match as Michelle restored her confidence when pairing up the Keego to beat Marie and Declan in two sets. The second and third doubles were on court at the same time. Carmel and Alan had a great battle with Sue and Frank winning in three sets while Ann Marie and Mono squeezed past Margaret Murphy and Kevin 21-19, 22-20 in a very exciting game. By winning the three mixed games, Moyvore had gone into an unassailable 10-7 lead and so the last match was not played.

Moyvore avenged 2009 but Mullingar must be rueing the fact that the strong pairing of Margaret Lynch and Sean Kelly never got to take to the court. Caroline and Stephen are reported to have also been disappointed that they didn't get a chance to get on either and to hit the winning shuttle for Moyvore!! We'll never know how that game may have turned out.

Grade 6

Mullingar 9 (343 pts) -

Milltown 9 (322)

This was another match that promised to be tight because the two earlier encounters had been close during the league phase. That's how it turned out again, however, after three games it looked as if Mullingar were going to win in a canter.

They won the opening men's doubles in straight sets - Tony Cotter and Barry Hogan seeing off Mike Dillon and Stephen Somers. Rose Cotter and Caroline Kelly repeated the trick against Celine and Fiona Geraghty. Gerard and Sean Somers put in a huge effort against David Geoghegan and Jim Whyte but came off second best 21-19, 18-21, 22-20. Milltown did get their first win when Carmel and Katie Somers won second ladies against Susan Forde and Tina Gaffney which left the score at 6-3 going into the mixed doubles.

Caroline and Barry widened the gap again with another straight set win over Celine and Stephen and Milltown must have wondered how things were going to stop the town team. The second mixed doubles game featured the mother/son combination of Rose and Tony and everyone could have been shaking hands when this game was over. However, Gerry showed all his experience when partnering Celine to start the comeback by coming out on top in a really good three setter.

With the score at 9-5, Milltown could not afford to drop a single set in the last two games and Carmel and Mike insured that it would go to the final game by defeating Tina and David. This saw the youthful pairing of Katie and Sean take on the experienced Susan and Jim and youth came out on top in straight sets to tie the match at 9 sets all.

However, Mullingar had done the damage in the earlier matches with convincing wins and racked up the points which proved to be the difference between the teams.