The Roscommon team which included Boyle's own, Padraic O Dowd, Bernie Lavin, Sean Carroll, John Kiernan, Ruth O Hart and Mandy Toolan, played in the Kingfisher Sports Centre of NUIG last Sunday in the Inter-County All-Ireland Finals. I'm attaching an extract of the report written by Cormac O Connor in Galway here...
Morning semi final vs Roscommon was a very tight affair with many games going to a Third set.
Damien Hehir got the team off to the ideal start in a high quality men's singles tie vs Roscommon's Polish native Marcin Paluch winning a thrilling 3 setter.
However Helen Sheehan was pipped in another tense affair in ladies singles going down narrowly 21-19 in the 3rd set.
Galways first men's pairing of Colm Franks and Ross Creaven never got going and suffered their first inter county loss of the season so Galway trailed 2-1 at this point in the best of 9 match.
Galway also lost 2nd men's doubles when Stephen Keane and Damien Hehir lost in a match that like almost every other in this semi final went all the way to a third set.
However the Galway 2nd ladies of Orla Bishop and Susan Gilmore manged to win their game in another 3 setter to leave the score at 3-2.
First ladies of Helen Sheehan and Joanne Gilmore were involved in a titantic struggle with the Roscommon sister pairing of Audrey and Corina Delaney. This was a game Galway could not afford to lose as they would have been 4-2 down with Roscommon only needing 1 of the remaining 3 mixed to knock Galway out. The Galway pair somehow fought back and edged a thriller 21-18 in 3rd set to level the tie overall at 3-3.
Momentum was now fully with the Galway team after that epic ladies doubles win and 3rd mixed pairing of Bryan Lalor and Susan Gilmore continued their unbeaten intercounty record this season won in the straight sets to suddenly have Galway ahead at 4-3 for the first time having trailed Roscommon all morning long.
Suddenly it was Galway who needed only 1 of the 2 remaining mixed to reach the final. The second mixed pairing of Ross Creaven and Claire Kenny won the first set and things were looking good. The first mixed pairing of Cormac O'Connor and Joanne Gilmore after a poor opening set loss stormed back to win the second set 21-10. However before they had a chance to start the 3rd set, Ross and Claire were on the verge of winning the second set and the match clinching point to reach the all Ireland. Despite some nervy moments Claire and Ross played brilliantly to squeeze the 2nd set 22-20 and Galway were through without having to play the 3rd set of 1st mixed.
Galway went on to beat Meath who had come through the second semi-final 5-1 and they took the All-Ireland title.
Congratulations to all of the Roscommon team on reaching the All-Ireland semi final which in such a close affair could have gone either way if luck had been with Rosommon on the day.
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