European AC Championship - Day 2

[<<] [>>] by Stephen Mulliner at Carrickmines, Ireland
17th September 2011 (Other News)

The Carrickmines weather has to be experienced to be believed! Heavyish rain and bright sun have alternated at roughly two hourly intervals yesterday and today. Round 1 of the knock-out contained good wins for Andreas Alvarez-Sala, the strongest of the three young Spanish players and for Ben Reeves-Smyth, one of the younger Carrickines members.

The quarter-finals went with seeding although the presence of Simon Williams in the Mulliner/Williams match meant that any result was possible. Stephen completed two sextuples, in turns 7 and 6 respectively, aided by an 8 yard cut-rush peel of rover in game 2. Better to be lucky than smart.

Kieran Murphy, 21, is one of the Trinity croquet "squad" and is a great prospect for Ireland. He got away first against Stephen in the semi-final but unexpectedly failed a tight 2-b. Stephen then produced his third sextuple. A fourth seemed on the cards in game 2 until the bombard after 4-back worked far too well and the penult peel only went through by 2 yards. The rover peel was attempted from 11 yards and bounced out. Kieran got going off the contact but missed a roquet after hoop 2 and Stephen soon finished.

Andrew Johnston and Mark McInerney shared the first two games with triples. Game 3 contained some early interactivity until Mark took a ball to 4-b and Andrew missed the long lift. Mark has some adventures in his delayed TP but brought it home to set up a rematch with Stephen of the 2000 Europeans final.

Round 1
Andrew JOHNSTON 26 v Roar MICHALSEN 2
Ben REEVES-SMYTH 26 v Danny JOHNSTON 18
Nathaniel HEALY 9 v Andreas ALVAREZ-SALA 26
Juan BRAVO-FERRER 0 v Mark MCINERNEY 26
Stephen MULLINER 26TPO v Fergus McINNES 15
Simon WILLIAMS 26 v Andres DE DIEGO 13
Kevin WELLS 6 v Richard GRIFFITHS 26
Kevin GARRAD 2 v Kieran MURPHY 26

Quarter-finals
Andrew JOHNSTON 26 v Ben REEVES-SMYTH 6
Andrew JOHNSTON 26TP v Ben REEVES-SMYTH 0
Andreas ALVAREZ-SALA 3 v Mark MCINERNEY 26TP
Andreas ALVAREZ-SALA 0 v Mark MCINERNEY 26TP
Stephen MULLINER 26SXP v Simon WILLIAMS 0
Stephen MULLINER 26SXP v Simon WILLIAMS 9
Richard GRIFFITHS 2 v Kieran MURPHY 26
Richard GRIFFITHS 14 v Kieran MURPHY 26

Semi-finals
Stephen MULLINER 26SXP v Kieran MURPHY 8
Stephen MULLINER 26 v Kieran MURPHY 2
Andrew JOHNSTON 26TP v Mark MCINERNEY 0
Andrew JOHNSTON 10 v Mark MCINERNEY 26TP
Andrew JOHNSTON 2 v Mark MCINERNEY 26TP