Royal Portrush captain Paul Rohdich said the Fred Daly trophy is finally coming home after a narrow victory over Greystones in their Underage Inter-Club final at Castletroy today.
Luca Rogers secured a 3&1 win over William O’Riordan in the decisive match to secure a 3-2 victory for the boys from Portrush.
Elsewhere, Forrest Little edged out Carton House, 2-1, in the Girls’ Inter-Club decider with Amelia Lanagan’s stunning birdie on the last enough to get them over the line.
Baltinglass won the Boys’ Foursomes and Lahinch were crowned champions in the Boys’ Inter-Club final.
However, it is Rohdich and his players who won the Fred Daly prize and he knew their history with Roganstown had its own part to play in their success.
“A lot of practise, the guys are dedicated, you don’t have to ask them to do anything, a lot of of hard work,” said Rohdich.
“I have to thank Roganstown, a couple of years ago we had them in a friendly and they actually had won the Fred Daly and Senior Cup. We wanted to see the standard and we asked them for a friendly up to Portrush.
“The nice thing is they brought the trophy. It was only in Portrush for a day and now it is going back to Fred Daly’s town for a little bit of fresh sea air for 2023.
“Our boys were brilliant, they were fantastic, their hard work has paid off. Practising, they have hit 1000s of balls, this is what we were aiming for.
“I was actually quoted two weeks ago that we were bringing the cup back to Portrush and it came through, they were absolutely fantastic.”
Royal Portrush beat Lahinch 4-1 earlier in the day and that semi-final success set them up for a tough final pairing, and first out Dylan Holmes defeated Adam Bunchanan 4&2 for Greystones.
But Stuart Nesbitt had already registered the first point of the day for Royal Portrush, he won 5&4. Jensen Boyce also won 4&3 and despite Toby Murphy’s 5&4 win, Rogers put the result beyond doubt on the 17thgreen.
In the Girls’ Inter-Club the drama continued all the way to the 18th where Lanagan secured the second win for Forrest Little. Grace Dowdall had earlier won her match while Alex Cunningham pulled one back. However it was Lanagan who sealed the win.
“We came here not expecting to do anything, for us the achievement was getting here,” said Forrest Little Captain Martine Denihan.
“And then when we got into the semi-final this was huge, getting here today even but when you get here you want to get a bit more don’t you. Something about today, you wanted now to win all of a sudden.
“I am so delighted, I have known these since they have been seven or eight years of age. Our club has never been here before, I’m in awe of the whole thing. I’m proud of the girls.
“It was pressure and tension all the way, and to get a chip in like that and putt it, from one of our girls who was under huge pressure, it was amazing.”
Lahinch were the Boys’ Inter-Club winners after they finished narrowly ahead of Killeen and there was further drama in final match of the day where, as light began to fade, Baltinglass defeated Monkstown on the second extra play-off hole.
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