Meath's Junior B doubles reach Leinster Final

Leinster semi-final report


Flanagan & O'Reilly return to Leinster final stage

The Crossakiel/Kells partnership of Eugene O’Reilly and Peter Flanagan have reached the Leinster final for the second year in a row after a commanding win over brothers Brendan and Diarmuid Burke from the Kells club in Kilkenny.

The first game started off at frantic pace, with both teams determined to get the early points on the board. When things settled down the Meath men began to take control and picked off their scores to build up an early lead, going 8-4 up. The Kilkenny partnership rallied and reeled off aces at will to go 12-8 up, showing that their first appearance at this stage of the Leinster championships was fully merited.

Flanagan called a strategic timeout at this point and on the resumption Meath upped a gear and regained control of the match, with some good kill shots from both O’Reilly and Flanagan to surge ahead once more. Meath were now leading 18-12. Kilkenny only managed 2 more points, before Meath closed out the first game 21-14.

It was Kilkenny who were first out of the blocks as they opened up Meath to lead 6-0 early in the second. game. Again, Meath called for a timeout to break the run and this ploy again worked well with Meath regaining serve on the re start. Flanagan’s serving was paying dividends, helping to tie up the scores 6-6. O’Reilly switched his serve at this point and almost immediately Kilkenny struggled. This allowed both Flanagan and O’Reilly to pick off some excellent rally winning kills with comfort. Meath took a firm grip on proceedings and eventually ran out worthy winners by 21-10.