Boyle Community Tennis Club is hugely proud of the achievement of our Ladies Grade 5 team who battled against a tough Portumna side on the clay courts in Castlebar to emerge as Connacht Champions.
The road to the final of the Connacht Winter League was not easy but our ladies meant business from the get go!! They topped their table in the group stages with wins recorded against Sligo, Ballina & Claremorris and with a semi final win against Galway the stage was set for the final. A huge shout out to the ladies squad pictured below who all played and recorded victories in various matches along the way.
Boyle Ladies Grade 5 Squad: Julie Reynolds, Deirdre Moore, Priscilla Beirne, Niamh O'Connor & Geraldine Austin.
The final was held on Sunday 11th February in Castlebar Tennis Club, their clay court surfaces took a little bit of getting used to!! For the final versus Portumna the Boyle team consisted of Deirdre Moore & Niamh O'Connor and Geraldine Austin & Priscilla Beirne playing as doubles partners.
Boyle Grade 5 Ladies Connacht Final Team: Priscilla, Niamh, Deirdre & Geraldine
Boyle and Portumna Ladies Grade 5 Teams in Castlebar before their final.
The Boyle team took to the courts and Deirdre & Niamh produced a strong opening performance to win in straight sets, 6-1 6-2. That put 1 match on the board for Boyle, unfortunately up against strong opposition, Geraldine & Priscilla lost their match in straight sets. 1-1 in matches and now a rest break until the second set of matches - all to play for!! On a cold, showery day in Castlebar keeping warm until courts became available for the deciding set of matches was a challenge for all the supporters and more importantly players!!
A court became available and Deirdre & Niamh were first to start their match. The break did them no favours and they had soon lost the first set 6-1 and were 5-2 down in the second set. Things were not looking good for Boyle as Geraldine & Priscilla took to the court to start their match and the ladies also lost their first set 6-3. Then Deirdre & Niamh both decided they had not come this far in the competition to go out without a fight!! They steadily played their way back into the match, winning four games in a row, to take the lead in their second set at 6-5. The next game would mean either a set victory for Boyle or Portumna to push the set to a tiebreak - Portumna were not ready to let this one go and won this crucial game to level the set at 6-6, a tiebreak would have to decide who would take the second set. Again the ladies held their nerve and came out winners of the tiebreak - now their match was poised at 1-1 in sets and a Championship tiebreak would need to be played in order to decide the third set.
Meanwhile Geraldine & Priscilla could see the action happening on the nearby court and realised their team mates looked to be turning their match around. Buoyed by this, they started to also dig deep, rally well and began winning games in their second set. Back with Deirdre & Niamh a championship tiebreak, (first to 10 points), was under way to decide who the match winners would be!! It was now hard to stop Deirdre & Niamh who were definitely on a roll and with nerves of steel Boyle won the extremely tight tiebreak 10-8 , the comeback to beat all comebacks secured another match and put Boyle 2-1 up in matches!! Geraldine & Priscilla knew the smiles and applause from the Boyle supporters meant their team mates had put them in a strong position. A win from them would be victory for Boyle but if they lost it would mean 2-2 and 2 players from each team would have to be nominated to play 1 more deciding set!! After a long afternoon of tennis already this was not the best prospect for either teams!!
Geraldine & Priscilla matched their teammates fighting spirit and won their second set 6-3. Another championship tiebreak was on the cards to decide this match - spectators fingernails were now well and trully bitten!!! First to 10 points - for Boyle it would mean a match win and for Portumna a match draw and more tennis for all.... A very tough faught tiebreak ensued but it was to be Boyle's day Geraldine & Priscilla holding their nerve and winning out 10-6. Connacht Champions!!! The final result 3-1 to Boyle - the scoreline not reflecting just how difficult this final had been.
Smiles all round from the Boyle team with their winning trophies after the presentation.
Now the phones really started hopping on the club whats app!! Every Boyle Community Tennis Club member so proud of the team and club achievement. This win would not have happened without the clubs all weather synthetic court surfaces which were laid in 2021 and most recently, in October of this year, the installation of floodlights. The courts and floodlights meant that practice for this league for the first time was happening throughout the winter evenings – not possible in Boyle previously. The ladies will have to continue their practise sessions as they will now face the equivalent Munster Champions at a date yet to be announced.
A good time to express thanks from Boyle Community Tennis Club to the organisations who have awarded grants which have helped transform the club over the last few years. Thank you to the Department of Sport for awarding Sports Capital Programme funding to initially enable synthetic grass court resurfacing. Also thank you to Roscommon County Council for their contribution towards the floodlights under the Community Support Fund. Lastly but by no means least, the club would like to thank each and every person who has contributed to our most recent floodlights fundraising effort. Without this fundraising and additional club funds invested neither of these significant projects would have happened. 😊😊
The team was welcomed back to Dodd's in Boyle on Sunday evening by their clubmates for some well deserved celebrations!!
Team Captain Fiona Lavin welcoming home the Connacht Champions.
Finally thank you and congratulations to all our dedicated Boyle Tennis players who participated in the Connacht Winter League. We had four teams taking part in the competition, great representation from our small but mighty club!!