ALISON Coffey (Warrenpoint) put the trauma of a car crash last Sunday near Manorhamilton behind her yesterday to qualify for this morning’s semi-final of the Lancome Irish Ladies Close Championship at Enniscrone.
The car in which she was the driver turned over completely and was written off but the girls in the car insisted on travelling in an alternative vehicle to compete.
Dickson was beaten at the 20th by Irene Murphy (Park) in her first round match but Coffey stormed through 36 holes qualifying and three match play rounds to reach a semi-final today with fellow international from Dublin Suzanne Fanagan.
The other semi-final will be a repeat of the Munster decider a month ago at Thurles where Curtis Cup star Eileen Rose Power beat Ada O’Sullivan.
Coffey after eliminating former international Carol Wickham yesterday morning faced Ulster team-mate Paula Gorman in the afternoon quarter finals.
Gorman, originally with Malone but now working as a software engineer in Dublin, caused the shock of the second round when she beat Leinster champions and leading qualifier Hazel Kavanagh two and one.
In the quarter-final Coffey, unbeaten in last year’s home internationals in Scotland won the first two holes but was one down to Gorman at the turn.
It was nip and tuck from there to the 15th at which they stood all square but Coffey then won the 14th in birdie four where she pitched five feet and the 17th which Gorman three putted
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A CRAZY number of unforced errors against Cavan, needless mistakes and an enigmatic tactic of persisting to kick long and hope for something, anything to break so nearly ended Fermanagh’s interest in the Championship.
The feeling is they’ve missed the boat.I wouldn’t be so sure.
Cavan might yet rue the goal misses by Jason Reilly in the early moments of the second-half of the drawn game, and several others before Raymond Gallagher’s wonderful strike, point and Liam McBarron’s two chances almost chinned them.
As with Fermanagh, they too suffered from poor distribution to their forwards and were reliant on the free-taking skills of Peter Reilly and Raymond Cunningham.
Despite all the chances and the possession earned easily from opposition errors, their manager Martin McHugh will have been concerned with the fact only two points from open play were scored in last week’s second 35.
The worry for McHugh is that his team failed to put away a Fermanagh side which for three quarters of the contest persisted with an unproductive, error-prone long game of hit and hope.
Cavan are favoured.
Yet, the draw hinted Cavan could still be left feeling decidedly blue if their young and promising opposition gets its act smartened up before the fat lady sings.
Don’t rule out a shock...
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THE largely disappointing senior fare in Ulster this year has overshadowed some exceptionally entertaining action in the minor championship.
Antrim’s five goal demolition of the Donegal defence was probably the big story so far at U18 level while the best performance during the four initial minor ties was undoubtedly
Monaghan’s fully-deserved success over Derry.
However despite the Farney heroics, many are fancying the eventual winners this year to come from tomorrow’s Omagh curtainraiser between the youngsters of Tyrone and Armagh.
Tyrone managers Mickey Harte and Father Gerard McAleer will admit their charges were a tad fortunate to beat Down in the preliminary round.
Late goals from the persistent Aghaloo wing-forward Stephen Donnelly and St Patrick’s Dungannon schoolboy Richard Thornton helped Tyrone to a flattering five point success over the Mourne lads.
But perhaps it wasn’t a great surprise that Tyrone looked a little out of sorts on May 18.
The St Patrick’s Academy contingent had only joined up with the squad a fortnight earlier and inevitably there was a certain amount of tiredness in the legs after the heroics of both the Hogan Cup men and the county vocational schools players who had reached their All-Ireland final.
Nearly a month on, and the Tyrone management will be expecting a much more flowing effort tomorrow.
