Kingsway’s young guns are final favourites

Ironically, Laura Montgomery’s girls sat down to their turkey dinner on the back of a trouncing from neighbours Larkfield in the Senior Cup quarter-final but have thrived in 2012 against teams more their equal.

The football style split of the Premier League into two sections has enabled emerging Kingsway to really come into their own with an impressive string of results – nine wins and a draw in all competitions so far in the new year.

In the league they have done the double against each of the North Down trio of this weekend’s opponents Holywood, Bangor and Donaghadee and emphatically beat Causeway at the end of last month having previously drawn with the Ballymoney outfit.

The silver lining to being beaten at the last eight stage of the Cup was dropping into the subsidiary shield and convincing victories over lower league sides Westside and Portadown have taken Kingsway to the verge of retaining the Valerie Walsh Plate.

Only formed four seasons ago, Kingsway won two trophies on finals day last year and are poised for another double this time with both the Firsts (2.30pm) and Seconds, who face Graduates Thirds (11.30am) in the Mona Baird Shield decider, in action at Lisburn Racquets.

The senior side’s results have been particularly impressive considering the age profile of the squad and Montgomery is understandably delighted both with the talent coming through and the consistency and maturity her young charges have shown.

“It’s exciting to be involved in finals day, especially for ourselves as a local club, and hopefully all the hard work the girls have put in through the season will be rewarded with some silverware,” says coach Montgomery.