Martin and Diarmuid Mulkerrins will aim to become
the first Galway doubles pairing since 1985 to win the Senior Men’s Doubles
title. They face the defending champions Diarmuid Nash and Colin Crehan in the
final on Saturday in Kingscourt, Cavan. The Galway team reached the quarter
final in 2017 and 2018 but never progressed to the semi finals stage. The Clare
team of Nash and Crehan beat Cavan’s Paul Brady and Michael Finnegan in last
year’s final while they finished runners up to the Cavan pairing two years ago.
Nash reached the 40x20 All-Ireland singles final
last month where he lost to Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy, the same man who beat
Martin Mulkerrins in the All-Ireland semi-final. Crehan suffered a surprise
first round defeat in that competition but he reached the semi-finals of the
Nationals, where he suffered an agonising one-point defeat to his doubles
partner. Nash is an excellent doubles player having won the last two World
Championship doubles titles with McCarthy.
The left hander is ranked number two in the singles
rankings, with Martin Mulkerrins in third and Colin Crehan in fourth. Diarmuid
Mulkerrins is outside the top ten but he competed in the U21 singles and became
All-Ireland champion after a nail biting final. The Moycullen pairing won their
opening round game by one point against Peter and Patrick Funchion of Kilkenny.
The final scoreline was 8-21 21-10 21-20. They then beat Daniel Relihan and
Michael Hedigan of Cork 21-19 8-21 21-8 in the semi-final.
The game is due to start at
The action starts tonight in Nenagh as Graham Casburn and Morgan Duggan travel to Nenagh for their All-Ireland Silver Masters B Doubles final before the Mulkerrins brothers are in action on Saturday. Sunday sees Aisling Ní Mhaoileáin and Eimear Ní Bhiadha in the Ladies Junior Doubles final while 60x30 All-Ireland doubles champions Diarmuid Mulkerrins and Cian O’Conghaile pair up for the U21 final. Mulkerrins could win two All-Ireland finals in two days as he plays in the Men’s final on Saturday.
Pierce Lalor and Brendan McNeela
are in the Emerald Masters B All-Ireland final while Morgan Darcy and John
Keleghan are one game away from the Over 70 title.
Friday
26th April
Nenagh,
Tipperary
Silver Masters B Doubles: Graham Casburn/Morgan
Duggan (Galway) v Joseph Ryan/Finbar Ryan (Tipperary)
Saturday,
27th April
Senior Men’s Doubles: Martin Mulkerrins/Diarmuid
Mulkerrins (Galway) v Diarmuid Nash/Colin Crehan (Clare)
Sunday
28th April
Ladies Junior Doubles: Aisling Ni
Mhaoileáin/Eimear Ní Bhiadha (Galway) v Marguerite Gore/Cora Doyle (Wexford)
Ruby Masters Doubles: Bert
Kelehan/Michael O’Malley (Galway) v Sean Ryan/John Rossiter (Carlow)
U21 Doubles: Diarmuid
Mulkerrins/Cian O Conghaile (Galway) v Eoin Brennan/Connor Murphy (Kilkenny)
Emerald Masters B Doubles: Pierce
Lalor/Brendan McNeela (Galway) v Donal Hayes/Tim O’Shea (Limerick)
Over 70 Doubles: Morgan Darcy/John
Keleghan v Tony Campbell/Derek Howard (Kildare)
