Lawrie defends laurels

Having to burn the midnight oil at Royal County Down last year changed the pattern of the Irish Close Championship. It's back to the old ways of matchplay all the way as more than 180 hopefuls tee off this weekend in chase of the title held by Peter Lawrie from Newlands who pulled off a surprise by beating Garth McGimpsey in the final last August.

Today, the higher handicap players will battle their way through for the right to meet the big guns. That's not to say that today's competitors, in the Bank of Ireland sponsored national championship, will not figure in the final shake-up.

There are many players of note who will be in action today. Former runner-up JP Fitzgerald (Co Louth), newly-crowned South of Ireland champion Patrick Collier (Limerick) and former Irish senior international James Kane-Nash (Royal Dublin) are among the first-day starters which gives an indication of the strength of the challengers, many of whom will have a free day tomorrow as a number of the lower handicap contenders have scratched.

Among them are Lee Dalton from Waterford, John Foster who won the Ulster Youths' Championship at Malone on Thursday, Andre Hogan and Gerry McAleese. There are also a number of today's players who now have a bye because their opponents have also pulled out.

There is still a top-class field left and picking a winner would be akin to naming the winner of the Grand National. Defending champion Lawrie has not had an outstanding season to date and may find it difficult to hang on to the title as many others are lining up to take over.

The four provincial champions, Jody Fanagan who won the West, Patrick Collier (South), Michael Sinclair (North) and Sean Quinlivan (East), who also added the Mullingar Scratch Cup to his collection, are all included. Quinlivan, however, is probably more at home in strokeplay than matchplay.

Garth McGimpsey and Eddie Power, both former winners, Bryan Omelia, Paddy Gribben, Niall Goulding, Ken Kearney, Adrian Morrow and Irish Youth champion Nigel Howley from Ballinasloe must all fancy their chances of lifting the trophy on Wednesday evening.