Cork's Catriona Casey & Aishling O'Keeffe have retained their O'Neills All-Ireland Senior 40x20 Doubles title after a tough battle with Kerry's Maria Daly & Ashley Prendivlle.
Kerry got off to the better start and went 4-0 ahead, before a couple of nice kill shots from Casey helped Cork draw level at 4-4. Never more than a few aces were between the sides in the opening stages, and at 14-14 the tie was set up nicely. Prendiville & Daly were finding their range with their sidearm kills and were putting the Cork girls under pressure with a series of long rallies.
But with O'Keeffe retrieving balls around the front and keeping rallies alive, Casey found the bottom brick from the back wall as closed out the first 21-16.
From here they kicked on took a commanding 14-3 lead in the second with clinical play around the front court. Kerry kept plugging away, refusing to go down without a fight and by getting back to 19-11 their was slight optimism that they could reel in the Ballydesmond duo. But a loss of serve without any points gained was followed up with two quick points for Cork to seal the win 21-11.
This was Casey & O'Keeffe's second successive title and they will enter the upcoming World Doubles Trials in a fortnights time in high confidence of becoming Team Ireland's Senior DOubles pairing for this summers World Championships.
