Leinster Dominate Interprovincials

The 2019 Interprovincials were held over the weekend of the 6th & 7th April in Baldoyle Badminton Centre. Saturday saw teams from all four provinces compete across the U13, U15 & U17 categories, whilst Sunday hosted the Grade A event.

Amond Coaching Academy was well represented over the course of the weekend with players competing for Leinster teams at u13, u15, u17 and also with Academy coach John Amond captaining the Grade A team.

In the u13 event Ciara O'Shea helped Leinster to an 8-1 win over Ulster and a 9-0 win over Munster winning both her games in the ties. Leinster's u15 team beat Munster 8-1 and had a hard fought 6-3 win over Ulster to secure the crown. James Fleming was on form in his mixed doubles boasting a 100% success rate while he won 1 of his 2 boys doubles games.

AC Academy's David and Kevin Downey were in emphatic form helping the Leinster U17 team to cruise to victory. The twins didn't drop a single set between them with David winning his mixed game in style and Kevin won both his mixed doubles games at a canter. The twins then teamed up in the boys doubles and were even more convincing winners in both their ties against Munster and Connacht trouncing the opposition as Leinster romped hom for an 8-1 win v Munster and a 9-0 win over Connacht.

Sunday morning was the turn of the Leinster Grade A team to continue the dominance and they duly delivered. AC Academy coach John Amond had a tough act to follow to try and keep up with his academy troops from their previous day's exploits. John was captaining the Grade A team and played a captain's role winning all 6 of his matches on the day, 3 Men's Doubles and 3 Mixed as Leinster made it a clean sweep beating Ulster 8-1, Munster 9-0 and Connacht 8-1 to reclaim their Grade A Interprovincial crown.

Grade A

Winner – Leinster

Runner Up – Ulster

With all four provinces competing in the Grade A, Leinster came away as the run away winners, only losing two matches across the whole competition. Leinster’s results are as follows: bt Ulster 8-1, bt Munster 9-0, bt Connacht 8-1. Ulster claimed the silver medals with victories over Munster and Connacht.

U17

Winner – Leinster

Runner Up – Munster

With only losing three games and one match throughout the competition, Leinster showed their dominance with a 9-0 win over Connacht and a 8-1 win over Munster. Munster claimed the silver medal with a 6-3. Munster needed three key victories in order to claim the silver medal.

U15

Winner – Leinster

Runner Up – Ulster

There was not a lot of difference between the top two teams in the U15 competition. With both Ulster and Leinster taking two matches each in the doubles the tie would be determined by the singles and mixed doubles. With Leinster winning both the singles they would only need one win in the Mixed Doubles to claim the Gold Medal. Leinster won the overall tie 6-3.

U13

Winner – Leinster

Runner Up – Ulster

The U13 competition showed some of Ireland’s top young players competing for their province. Leinster came away with the strong victory winning both their ties 9-0 vs Munster and 8-1 vs Ulster.

Tournament results below

http://www.badmintonireland.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=1BD6D49C-EC64-4FE2-B9ED-0A44BE123ABE