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Team Event
For those who wonder why Taghmon have been the dominant club in Wexford for the past number of years, a trip on Saturday last to the Ramsgrange Community College for the county juvenile league finals would have provided the major part of the answer. The Taghmon club had eight teams participating in the tournament and swept the boards in all grades with victories in the under-11, under-13, under-15 and under-17 championships. The competition itself was a very successful one day event that had a total of sixteen teams taking part from five separate clubs, Taghmon, Gorey, Monaseed, Shelburne and Terrerath. Play began at 10:00 a.m. and under the direction of under-age officer Nicholas Murphy it continued until early evening. Games were played on a round robin system so all teams got plenty of matches and much needed experience against different opposition.  Those club’s and players who stayed away were not alone the losers on the day, but are likely to lose out in the long term as clubs that fail to properly look after their young players are likely to have little or no future. The list of winners and runners-up in the event are as follows:
 

Under-11:
Winners: Taghmon (James Caroll, Nicholas Murphy, Fiona Bennett)
Runners-up: Terrerath:
 

Under-13
Winners: Taghmon A (Thomas Furlong, Nicholas Murphy, Clodagh Kent, Ciara Dunne)
Runners-up: Taghmon C (Connor O'Keeffe, James Whitney, Colm O'Dowd, Fiona Bennett, Naomi Ryan)
 

Under-15
Winners: Taghmon A (Seamus Whitty, Garvan Kelly, Eimer Dunne, Kate O'Gorman)
Runners-up: Gorey (M. Redmond, G. Kinsella, R. Cleary, N. Fortune)
 

Under-17
Winners: Taghmon A (Aoife Bennett, Eimer Dunne, Seamus Whitty, Padraig Fanning)
Runners-up: Taghmon B (Mai Kelly, Steven Kelly, Ciara Sweeney, Kevin Shannon)

Non-Squad Championship
There were 7 clubs represented and 244 games played over two days in the Wexford Juvenile B-Tournament held in the Ramsgrange Community School. Tournament organiser Nicholas Murphy was a busy man ensuring that everyone was on the court at the appointed time plus he had the added complications of needing to vacate the hall both evenings for the County Charity qualifiers. Luckily Nicholas had plenty of able volunteers available and the event went smoothly and finished on time. When all was done and dusted Nicholas thanked all the players for their cooperation, and he had a special word of thanks for the various umpires and all who had helped him out over the two days. He reminded those present of the four person team event which will be taking place in the New Year plus the juvenile county championships.  All competitions were played on a round robin system and the winners were:

Under11: Karen Butler, Mary Tyrell, Declan Power, Dean Murphy, Dylan Clarke (Davidstown), Siobhan Creane, Eimer Lacey (Terrerath), Fiona Bennett, Jack Dunne, M.J. Dunne, Noel Dunne, Nicholas Murphy, Declan Carroll, James Carroll, Stephen Stafford, Stephen O’Gorman (Taghmon).
Under 13: Gemma Creane, Maureen Dunne (Terrerath), Debbie Murphy, Paula Greene, James Nolan, James Greene, (Davidstown) Conor O’Keeffe, Andy McGrath, Thomas Furlong, James Whitty, Richard Stafford (Taghmon), Sean Kavanagh, Adam O’Connor (Clonroche).
Under 15: Aoife Bennett (New Ross), Natasha Smyth, Niamh Fortune, Kerri Daly, Laura Byrne, Colin O’Toole, Joe Berney, (Monaseed), Kate O’Gorman, Garvan Kelly, Roy Sweeney, Seamus Whitty, (Taghmon), Barry Carton, Colin Doyle, Paul Foley, Joe Harrington, Kevin Doyle, Gavin Murphy, Darin Murphy, Mark Jeffers (Clonroche) Walter Cahill (Terrerath).
Under 17: Anne Kirwan, Brian Nixon (Gorey), Ciara Sweeney, Padraig Fanning, Denis Banville, Stephen Kelly, Kevin Shannon (Taghmon), Leon Galvin (Terrerath), Danielle Kehoe (Clonroche)

County Championships
The finals of the Wexford Juvenile Championships which took place in Taghmon on Friday last turned out to be one of the largest ever held in the county and a credit to the administration skills of Nicholas Murphy, and his organizing committee of Miriam Butler and Clem Daly that they succeeded in completing the competition on the same day. Proceedings began at 9:30 a.m. and before the last shuttles were struck at around 7:30 p.m. that evening a feast of badminton had taken place in the three court Community Centre complex. As was expected the finals were dominated by members of the County Regional Development Squad, but there were fine performances from many non-squad players especially in the under-11 category where the benefits of squad coaching would not yet have born fruition. There were numerous stars on the day and included Nicholas Murphy (Taghmon) who won both singles and doubles titles in the under-11 and under-13 age categories. Dimitri Panagopoulos (Clonard) who won the under-17 singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles, but in a strange twist of results the Clonard player performed better in the older age-group that in his own under-15 category where Alan Nolan (Taghmon) dominated proceeding by winning a hat-trick of titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. In the girl’s events there was double success for Clodagh Kent (Taghmon) in the under-13 grade and a singles and doubles titles for Laura Lynch (New Ross) in the under-17 category.  The full lists of winners are as follows:

Under 11
Girl’s Singles: Karen Butler (Davidstown) defeated Fiona Bennett (Taghmon) 15/8
Boys Singles: Nicholas Murphy (Taghmon) defeated James Carroll (Taghmon) 21/6
Girl’s Doubles: Fiona Bennett/Claire McGuinness (Taghmon/New Ross) defeated Karen Butler/Ciara O’Riordan (Davidstown/Clonard) 15/12
Boys Doubles: James Carroll/Nicholas Murphy (Taghmon) defeated Jack Dunne/Declan Carroll (Taghmon) 15/9
Under 11 Plate
Girls Singles: Claire McGuinness (New Ross) defeated Ciara O’Riordan (Clonard) 11/1
Boy’s Singles: Noel Dunne (Taghmon) defeated Dylan Bookle (Terrerath) 11/7

 Under 13
Girl’s Singles: Clodagh Kent (Taghmon) defeated Ciara Dunne (Taghmon) 15/4
Boy’s Singles: Nicholas Murphy (Taghmon) defeated Thomas Furlong (Taghmon) 15/5
Girl’s Doubles: Clodagh Kent/Ciara Dunne (Taghmon) defeated Fiona Bennett/Claire McGuinness (Taghmon/New Ross) 21/1
Boy’s Doubles: Thomas Furlong/Nicholas Murphy (Taghmon) defeated Harry O’Riordan/Connor O’Keeffe (Taghmon) 21/12
Under-13 Plate
Girl’s Singles: Maureen Dunne (Terrerath) defeated Gemma Creane (Terrerath) 11/8
Boy’s Singles; Andy McGrath (Taghmon) defeated Paul Breen (Monaseed) 11/5
Girl’s Doubles: Emily Kent/Maureeen Dunne (Terrerath) defeated Gemma Creane/Louise Bennett (Terrerath) 11/6

Under 15
Girls Singles: Laura Butler (Davidstown) defeated Aoife Dunne (Taghmon) 15/8
Boy’s Singles: Alan Nolan (Taghmon) defeated Dimitri Panagopoulos (Clonard) 21/9
Girl’s Doubles: Aoife Dunne/Eimer Dunne (Taghmon) defeated Aoife Bennett/Laura Butler (New Ross/Davidstown) 21/15
Boy’s Doubles: Alan Nolan/Garvan Kelly (Taghmon) defeated Maurice Redmond/Garrett Kinsella (Gorey) 21/10
Mixed Doubles: Alan Nolan/Aoife Dunne (Taghmon) defeated Dimitri Panagopoulos/Eimer Dunne (Clonard/Taghmon) 21/13
Under-15 Plate
Girl’s Singles: Natasha Smyth (Monaseed) defeated Niamh Fortune (Monaseed) 11/8
Boy’s Singles; Paul Foley (Clonroche) defeated Matthew Nolan (Monaseed) 11/2
Girl’s Doubles: Kiera Butterly/Niamh Fortune (Monaseed) defeated Natasha Smyth/Laura Byrne (Monaseed) 11/9
Boy’s Doubles: Matthew Nolan/Colin O’Toole (Monaseed) defeated Barry Carton/Mark Jeffers (Clonroche) 11/9
Mixed Doubles: Colin O’Toole/Laura Byrne (Monaseed) defeated Paul Breen/Kiera Butterly (Monaseed) 11/8

Under 17
Girl’s Singles: Laura Lynch (New Ross) defeated Laura Butler (Davidstown) 21/7
Boy’s Singles: Dimitri Panagopoulos (Clonard) defeated Alan Nolan (Taghmon) 21/17
Girl’s Doubles: Laura Lynch/Marie Kelly (New Ross/Taghmon) defeated Laura Butler/Aoife Bennett (Davidstown/New Ross) 21/9
Boy’s Doubles: Terence McSweeney/Dimitri Panagopoulos (New Ross/Clonard) defeated Matthew Doyle/Stephen Kelly (Taghmon) 21/9
Mixed Doubles; Eimer Dunne/Dimitri Panagopoulos (Taghmon/Clonard) defeated Marie Kelly/Garvan Kelly (Taghmon) 21/17.
Under-17 plate
Girl’s Sinlges: Aoife Dunne (Taghmon) defeated Danielle Kehoe 11/0
Boys Singles: Thomas Foley (Clonroche) defeated James Cooney (Clonroche) 11/6
Girl’s Doubles: Aoife Dunne/Eimer Dunne (Taghmon) defeated Kerri Daly/Ann Kirwan (Gorey) 15/9
Boy’s Doubles: Thomas Foley/James Cooney (Clonroche) defeated Padraig Fanning/Seamus Whitty (Taghmon) 15/12
Mixed Doubles: Ann Kirwan/Garrett Kinsella (Gorey) defeated Natasha Smyth/Colin O’Toole (Monaseed) 15/4