Victor Leinster Senior Open Championship 2010   

Top Wexford performer in the competition was Laura Butler (Davidstown), who picked up a runner-up medal in the ladies doubles and reached the semi-final of the ladies singles.  Butler & partner Jennifer King were the number 2 seeds in the ladies doubles and justified their seeding by progressing to Sunday’s afternoon final against the top seeds Emma Calow and Sinead Chambers from Ulster.  The Leinster pairing showed no nerves and got off to a flying start taking the opening set 21/19. The 2^nd seeds then had an opportunity to cause an upset as both pairings matched one another point for point in the 2^nd set before the Lisburn duo just held out to win narrowly 21/19. The final set was another hard fought affair but the top seeds just held a slight advantage and closed out the set to take the title 21/16. 

Laura also progressed to the ladies singles semi-final with the highlight her quarter-final victory over the former Irish Senior Champion Jennifer King.  Laura lost the opening set 21/17 to King, but showed good courage to fight back and take the next two sets 21/18, 21/17 to set up a semi-final meeting with top seed Sinead Chambers.  Chambers always held the upper hand in the semi-final encounter, but was made to work hard for her 21/12, 21/13 victory over the improving Wexford player.   It was good weekend for the Davidstown player who also made the mixed doubles quarter final, before she and William Gourley lost to Mark Cobbe & Kirsty Kelly 21/18, 21/17.

Laura Lynch (New Ross) and her partner Norma McIntyre advanced to the semi-final of the ladies doubles with some fine performances on route.  They had a narrow 21/15, 17/21, 21/17 victory in their opening games against the Ulster and Muster combination of Hannah Orr & Ciara Pender.  A quarter-final defeat of Grace Webster & Siobhan Grehan 21/12, 21/18 put them into Sunday morning’s semi-final against Emma Calow & Sinead Chambers.  The overnight break did the Wexford/Dublin pairing no favours however and they rarely troubled the top seeds losing 21/11, 21/13. 

Laura was eliminated in her opening game in the ladies singles losing 21/14, 21/14 to Kirsty Kelly.  Laura also went out early in the mixed doubles when she and partner Dave Waller lost 21/18, 21/15 to Conor Hickland and Hannah Orr.

The improving Vincent Mackay made the men’s singles quarter-finals with victories over Gavin Higgins & Fiach O’Rourke.  This is Mackay’s 1^st year on the national circuit and the Eagles player turned in his best performances of the season with a 21/17, 17/21, 21/11 victory over Higgins and an impressive 21/16, 21/15 defeat of O’Rourke.  Mackay faced a daunting task in his quarter-final match where he played the Irish International and 3^rd seed Niall Tierney.  It seemed to be all too much for the Wexford player in the opening set as the experienced Tierney dominated to win 21/6.  The 2^nd set however was a different matter as Mackay matched his opponent ace for ace, before losing narrowly 24/22. 

Alan Mackay overcame Welsh opposition in his opening men’s singles encounter defeating Richard Morrissey in three exciting sets 21/16, 18/21, 21/14.  The Wexford player found himself on the wrong end of a three set defeat in the next round as he was eliminated by Andrew McKee (Ulster)  21/17, 17/21, 21/11. 

The brothers Mackay teamed up for the doubles and made the quarter-finals, before losing in three sets to 22/24, 21/19, 21/9 to Scott Burnside & Conor Hickland.  The 4^th competition in a row that they were eliminated in a three sets encounter.