Rocket Padel, Bristol
The Four Nations Super Seniors tournament, 2024, took place at Rocket Padel, Bristol on March 9th and 10th and once again we were invited to send both men’s and ladies teams.
The men’s age categories were +50yrs, +55yrs and +60yrs while the ladies were +45yrs, +50yrs and +55yrs. In 2023 our men finished on equal points with England but having won the head to head match, England were rightly declared the winners. Could we go one better this year? The opening match on the Saturday morning was against reigning champions England and we got off to the best possible start winning all three matches for the loss of just one set.
In the afternoon we had a reasonably straightforward victory over Scotland despite losing the +55yrs match. It was all to play for on the Saturday against a hugely improved Welsh team who had won their first ever international match the day before by beating Scotland. Thankfully our team rose to the task in hand and quickly clinched the decisive 2-0 lead leaving the final match as a “dead rubber”. This meant that the men’s team became the first Irish padel team ever to win an international competition something that we are very proud of.
Our ladies team finished a creditable second place having beaten both Scotland and Wales by a 2-1 scoreline. Although the matches against defending champions England were considerably closer than last year we still lost 3-0 with only our +50yrs pair of Jenny O’Brien and Jane McLaughlin managing to win a set.
The Irish Padel Association extend thanks to tournament director Tim Edwards for a well organised event and hope that he will invite us again next year!
Ireland men: David Borton, Barry Coffey, David Flynn, Peter Lowther, Conor McCullough, Garbhan O’Nuallain, John Sheridan.
Ireland ladies: Debbie Brown, Marjorie Croke, Yvonne Flynn, Rufina Kissane, Jane McLaughlin, Jenny O’Brien, Samantha Thornton