Grand Prix victory for Andrew Gillespie
Andrew Gillespie won the 2017 SWDDL Grand Prix following a 5-1 win over 2015 runner up James Byrne in Kilcar House, this is a double start tournament and on the night the standard was good on the doubles. James won the opening leg in the final before Andrew won the next five legs including 151 and 101 checkouts. In the semi-finals Andrew had a hard fought win over fellow county and O’Donnell’s team mate John Menchia winning it 4-3 while James came from 3-1 down to beat John McHugh 4-3. In the quarters Andrew had a great battle with young Alex Hughes winning 3-2, James beat Kieran Gallagher also 3-2, John McHugh beat Seanie Boyle 3-0 while Menchia beat Adrain Byrne also 3-0, in the prelims Menchia beat David Fuller 3-0 and Adrian beat Kenneth Kennedy 3-1.