The 5th staging of the John Smith Scratch Cup takes place this coming Saturday in Ierne. The event has seen terrific crowds and wonderful scoring as well as some epic finishes since its debut on the calendar in 2010. John Smith is one of the stalwarts of the game and the players have great respect for John’s contribution. It is a great honour for any of the top players to get their name on this prestigous cup. In addition to having John in attendance. Saturday will also see the Dublin Scratch Cup takes its place on the Scratch Cup Series as Event number 2 on the 2014 schedule. The Series sponsors Halpenny Golf will be there too with a stand showcasing the great array of stock from their stores around the city. Saturday will also see the 1st trial in the Inter County process for the Gents & Ladies inters & juniors trying to secure a place on the Dublin team for the inaugral Leinster Inter County in August.
With all this going on the serious business of the day won’t be forgotten and that is securing the title and winning the John Smith Cup. No one has managed to sucessfully defend the title and that trend won’t change on Saturday as our holder Gavin Carty is currently out injured and sadly won’t be able to play on Saturday. Gavin was the 1st home winner of the event and you can be sure the Ierne faithful will hope history will repeat itself and that a home player wins the cup this weekend. The Ierne guys failed to sparkle at their own scratch cup in April with just John Coady making the final round.
One former winner expected to challenge strongly is JR Crangle, the Loughlinstown man won the title in RGSC in 2012 and would dearly love to do the Ierne double having captured the Johnny Crean cup in April. Another player who likes the fairways of Gracepark Road is Lucan’s Chris Gallagher, he has enjoyed happy times in their scratch cup and would dearly love to keep the Cup in Lucan for another year. Erins Isle Paul Nolan and Mark Millar should be there or therabouts on Saturday as well as they know the Drumcondra venue very well. One man who would love to get his hands on this cup would be Junior Smith. Junior was third in Ierne in April and was winner in his own scratch cup in RGSC in October.
There is no certainty the winner will come from inside the pale though and with the likes of Irish Open Winner Eamon Gibney, Sean Goggins and Ian Farrelly likely to compete, they too will fancy emulating Declan McConville’s success in 2011 when as a Cloghogue player he won in a play-off in Portmarnock. A number of the regular players like Ian Dillon and Frank Ryan are away on International duty and we wish them well.
With prizes too in the Inters / Juniors & Ladies Section, the competition will be very stiff and we hope to see the big guns in these grades out competing on the day.
Whatever the weather on Saturday, history dictates it should be a bumper crowd a buzzing atmosphere and a fantastic event and we hope to see the Dubs out in force supporting your own scratch cup.
You can catch all the build up on the Dublin Scratch Cup series site http://www.dublinscratchcupseries.com.