County Armagh Golf Club's encouraging season on the team matchplay front was enhanced on Sunday 17 June when both our Jimmy Bruen Shield and Barton Shield sides extended their stays in those competitions.
Declan McReynolds named a Jimmy Bruen line-up that was unaltered from their first round defeat of Cloverhill in May and, this time, they made the trip to the neutral venue of Killymoon for a one-off clash with Kilrea.
A rather cagey set of opening exchanges meant that each of the first three matches left the 8th green at all square. However, the County Armagh foursomes pairings of Jonathan McKnight/Stephen Catterall, Shea Brady/Nigel McMahon and John Vernon/Gary McCourt would soon turn up the heat on their opposite numbers.
After their 4-1 defeat of Kilrea, County Armagh's Jimmy Bruen Shield hopefuls will now meet Lurgan in the quarter-final.
Brady/McMahon capped a fine day's work when Nigel sunk a point-notching birdie putt on the 15th, before Vernon/McCourt responded to the disappointment of surrendering an early lead by ripping through their opponents once again and ultimately sealing a 4&2 win. Then, with McKnight/Catterall taking a slender one-hole advantage up the last, Catterall drained a 30-foot raker to finally dispense with their Derry adversaries.
So, County Armagh had now constructed an impregnable 3-0 scoreline, which became a final second round result of 4-1 in their favour when Jimmy Wilson/Calum Connell were narrowly beaten in the penultimate encounter and Samuel Jenkins/Mark Elliott prevailed impressively by 2&1 in the last. This sterling showing from Declan's Jimmy Bruen troops sets up an intriguing quarter-final bout with Lisburn, which is to be completed by 16 July.
Meanwhile, in the Barton Shield, having received preliminary and first round byes when both Edenmore and Mannan Castle were unable to field an opposition, Richard Black's four-man squad were pitted against Dungannon in the second round at Rossmore.
This tournament is also contested in a one-off foursomes format, and the tricky twosome of Stewart Stevenson/Joe Rooney were two up with two to play before their Dungannon counterparts staged a late rally to share the spoils. Nonetheless, they had posted a valuable half point that provided a platform for the dynamic duo of Jarlath McReynolds/John Maguire to complete the job.
And, indeed, McReynolds/Maguire were in control for most of their game, eventually closing out both individual and overall victory when Maguire rolled home a birdie putt on the 17th green. As a reward for their efforts, skipper Black will take his Barton quartet back to Rossmore next month, when they'll hope to give similarly short shrift to another set of near neighbours, Lurgan, in the third round.
On the same day as the Barton and Bruen boys' progression, Tim Teahan's All-Ireland Four-Ball Trophy gang opened their fourth round fixture against North West of Donegal with a marvellous 4-1 first leg triumph. And, 24 hours earlier, the promising panel Fred Daly Trophy panel emerged from their second stage first leg tie at Cairndhu having pocketed an excellent 2.5 of the five points up for grabs. The juniors' second leg will be played in the Cathedral City on Sunday 1 July.
As County Armagh's productive inter-club campaign continues apace, this weekend (22-24 July) will see the Ulster Cup, Sam Rutherford and Senior Cowdy groups take on Ballybofey, Omagh and Downpatrick respectively. Best of luck to all three and, win, lose or draw, ongoing thanks to everyone involved for giving up their time to represent any of our club's teams.