New faces bidding for a famous double for Mannan Castle

Victorius Mannan Castle last year

Daily Mail
19 Apr 2009

THE five heroes of Mannan Castle’s memorable win in The Mail on Sunday Classic last year have had to stand aside and let two new faces take over in the inaugural Irish Mail All-Ireland Fourball Trophy.

John Clarke and John Lane won the Mannan Castle matchplay pairs championship and the club decided they should be the ones to play in the Irish Mail Trophy, which is the successor competition to the Classic.

The pair from the Carrickmacross club got off to a terrific start with an impressive 5&4 first round win over local rivals Nuremore, who have themselves been winners of the Daily Mail Foursomes and Irish Champions of The Mail on Sunday Classic.

Clarke played in two qualifying matches last year in the Classic and did travel to El Rompido in Spain for the finals as a reserve, but did not play.

Club captain Patrick Brady said: ‘Mannan Castle is an incredibly competitive club. We have over 200 golfers who want to play every weekend and of course they all wanted to play in this new competition. The boys did great to win in Spain, but we felt it was right that the two Johns should represent the club after their win. They have made a great start and it would be an amazing double if we could win this event as well.’

In last November’s final, the five heroes – Shane Corr, Seamus Finnegan, Mark Lambe, Barry McCourt and Thomas Pepper - beat English club Nevill, whose team included English Amateur Champion Todd Adcock.