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The Tower Bar brought their season to a successful conclusion when at the Glenryan Tavern last Monday they captured the Crean and McGarry trophy after a ding dong battle in the final with the Shamrock Bar.
The Tower Bar had it put up to them in their semi-final against the Joshua Tree before they emerged as four games to two winners.
Martin Cotter took the first game of this semi-final with a win over Tom Barrett and Cotter was followed by team-mate Robbie Hendrick who outscored Jim Fowler to make it two nil.
John O’Shea then made it three nil to the Tower before David O’Donovan and Sean Downey hit back for the Joshua Tree to make it 3/2, but Eddie Cull won the required sixth game to send the Tower through to the final.
Meanwhile the Shamrock put themselves in a similar position in their semi-final against the Gerald Griffin as Peter Quinn and Jason Kavanagh had them two in front before the Gerald Griffin won their only game through Kevin McDonnell at number three.
John Twomey and Damian Foley won their respective games at four and five to send the Shamrock into a final meeting with the Tower Bar.
The final saw the Shamrock persevere with the same first two players as had played in the semi-final and won for them while the Tower made a change which proved vital in hindsight.
Peter Quinn toed the oche for the Shamrock against Tower bar player Martin Cotter in the first game of the final and began with a frenzy of scoring.
Quinn threw in hands of 80, 140, 140 as he took the first leg on a double five, but Cotter hit back as scores of 99, 100 and a 135 helped him to a double 12 checkout to square.
The deciding leg saw Cotter hit scores of 45,100,100, 140, 96, and then hit his double10 for the game.
Jason Kavanagh was next up for the Shamrock along with the Tower’s John O’Shea and in a very tame opening leg it was O’Shea who edged it.
Both players then opened up in the second leg as O’Shea hit scores of 97, 138 and a 140 as against Kavanagh’s three hands of 100, but again it was O’Shea who edged it to put the Tower in a very commanding position.
Damian Foley was the number three player for the Shamrock as he went to the oche against Sean Daly of the Tower, and it was the Tower player who took the first leg only for Foley to hit back and take the following two legs to put the Shamrock on the scoreboard.
The fourth game saw Robbie Hendrick of the Tower and Craig Sproat of the Shamrock face-off and it was the Shamrock player who won out here by two legs to nil.
Sproat hit scores of100, 100, and a 125 as he won the first leg and he followed with top hands of 100, 129 and a 160 as he won the second leg to tie up this game at the interval.
The resumption saw the Tower re-establish their lead as Eddie Cull won against John Nyhan.
Nyhan won the first leg of this clash after he threw in hands of 120, 125 and a 139 but Cull hit back as hands of 100 and a 140 helped him to level.
The deciding leg of this fifth game saw both players throw well below their capability but however it was Cull who eventually took the game.
The sixth game of the evening brought together Shamrock player John Twomey and Tower player John “Dinny Bob’s” McCarthy and it was Twomey who won here by two legs to nil, throwing in a maximum score of 180 as he took the second leg to once again square this final.
The final game of the night saw Steven Quinn of the Shamrock take the first leg from Tower player Anthony Murray as hands of 56, 100, 100, and 140. 16, double twenty gave him the lead.
Quinn again started off the second leg with two hands of 100 but he then lost his way on his double out and watched as Murray stole the leg from him.
Quinn was unable to regain his form from the opening leg, in the third and deciding leg, and it was Murray with hands of 78, 100 and a 103 along with a double 16 checkout who took it for victory to the Tower Bar.
Frank Goulding.
