Cunningham and Williams lead the field after day one of the Irish Masters in Herbert Park.
A great days weather helped get the Division One of the Irish masters Championship off to a flying start. Simon Williams and Ed Cunningham are undefeated after two rounds beating Patsy Fitzgerald and Andrew Johnston respectively in close matches. The losers both had clear cut chances to win the match. Both Williams and Cunningham won 2-0 in the afternoon to lead the table. Conor Broderick came back well against Michael O’Shaughnessy to win 2-0 in the morning session. Michael looked to have game one wrapped up while on peg and four back, before a 25 minute flurry from the sleepy student put Michael a game down. G. Healy and N. Healy had a close match in the morning, Gerard winning out with two “on time” turns to rob the match away from Nathaniel.
Division Two was a quieter affair as many were abroad on International duty etc. Nevertheless, Robert Barklie stamped his authority on the division with an excellent two games against Evan Newell and Car von Schmieder. Evan looked to have a strangle hold on his game, before Robert hit the lift facing four back and peg and three turns later Robert had won the match.
All in all, a good start to the tournament. There a several matches to make up, particularly in Division Two and I remind you that these are to be completed by June 21st. If you are unavailable for the next round of games in Newcastle you must inform the manager at your earliest convenience.
PS. 3 subsequent matches in Div 2 now posted. This means that Russell has now joined Robert, both unbeaten, heading this division.