JUVENILE  COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sunday saw a marathon day of handball throughout the county, with the juvenile county championships in all grades being played out as far as semi-final stage. We would like to thank St. Mellans handball club, Tydavnet handball club and Bawn handball club, for hosting the event.
Conal Mc Kenna Emyvale & Gary Mc Elroy Bawn reached the u/17 boys final.
Conor Mohan Tydavnet & Gavin Coyle Bawn reached the u/16 boys final.
James Mc Cague Tydavnet & Martin Mullen Harps reached the u/15 final.

Ryan Mohan Mellans & Aron Mohan Mellans reached the u/14 boys final.

Justas Dambinskas Harps & Cailean Myles Harps reached the u/13 boys final.

Eoghan Mc Ginnity Harps & Jakup Szkup Harps reached the u/12 boys final.

Louise Mc Ginnity harps & Viktorija Kaklauskeite Harps reached the u/12 girls final.

Casey Treanor Tydavnet & Caoimhe Mohan Tydavnet reached the u/17 girls final.

Sara Boyde Bawn reached u/14 girls final with her opponent still to be decided.

Saoirce Boyde Bawn reached u/16 girls final with her opponent still to be decided.

HARPS HANDBALL

Monaghan Harps dominated the Under 12 and 13 grades in the County Championships.  Pride of place goes to two newcomers in the Girls Under 12 grade.  Viktorija Kaklauskeite just recently started to play handball and she progressed through 3 rounds of competition to reach the final where she will meet team mate Louise Mc Ginnity who shows signs of following in her brother Eoghan’s footsteps.  No predictions as to who will win this final on January 6th.
It was no surprise to see our two World medalists Eoghan Mc Ginnity and Jakub Szkup reaching the Boys Under 12 final.  The standard of play was a marvel to watch from all six entrants.  Newcomers Mikolaj Szkup, Tiernan O’Rourke, Deivydas Kaklauskas and Konrad Kowal showed great skill and really enjoyed competing against the top players. Final prediction: Eoghan to win.
Justas Dambinskas and Cailean Myles reached the Under 13 final which is a repeat of the Under 12 final of last year.  Prediction: Justas to reverse the result this time.
Martin Mullen was delighted to reach the Under 15 final where he will meet hard-hitting James Mc Cague.  Martin has improved his handball skills this year and has been helping to coach the younger players.  Prediction: A third game decider.
Others who took part for the club were Ciarán Cassidy, Ibrahim Sultan, Corey Mc Ardle and Patryk Sikora.  All players were showing off the new club jerseys which are proving very popular with the young players.
We wish all our players, parents and coaches a very happy Christmas break and look forward to 2013.

TYDAVNET HANDBALL

The club had twenty two juveniles taking part in the juvenile championships at the weekend and after some great performances and some near misses we have two players through to the county finals and may have more as some of the grades were uncompleted. James McCague has made it to the U15 final and Conor Mohan has made it to the U16 final which will be held in January. Well done to both and they knocked out some very strong players along the way.

The club are currently running an adult team league with 40 taking part and this is nearing the semi-final stages. We also have two teams taking part in the county GAA league and both are going well so far. We have also entered a team in the new county senior club league which used to be called the Lakelands league back in the 80’s and 90’s. This is a great competition where each of the top eight clubs play against each other in a league format and can be seriously competitive at times. Finally we would like to wish all our members a peaceful and happy Christmas and a special mention to our life long club president Jack Murphy and his wife Elaine over in Washington.

MELLANS HANDBALL

Juvenile County Championships. The Juvenile county singles championships were on last weekend and some on Monday evening, the boys played on Sunday where we had limited success, in the U12’s Ryan Harnet made the semi-finals but played well through-out, the U13’s we had 2 semi-finalists in Gary Mohan and Cormac Mc Kenna, the U14’s was our only success as its an all club affair where Aaron Mohan will face cousin Ryan Mohan in the decider after Christmas (possibly January 6th), the U15’s were unlucky not make another all club affair as both Gary Mc Kenna(D) and James Mc Kenna(S) lost on the 3rd game decider, and by all accounts played very well and both could have won their particular games, but wasn’t to be, in the U16’s we had no joy at all as no players made any inroads in the championships , in the U17’s we had no players on show at Bawn and this is something we will be looking at carefully for future championships as a lot of time and effort is put in at club and county level to facilitate players of all grades and standards, and more respect must be shown to such people and competitions, but make not doubt it will be addressed. The only girls grade to be played were the U12’s Monday evening past, we had 2 girls in Maebh Mc Cluskey and Aoife Teirney who made the semi-finals and were unlucky not to go all the way, but never the less all girls from all clubs must be commended and with a bit more practise and belief you never know.

Juvenile Club Leagues. We had to postpone having the Club Juvenile league finals until tomorrow night Friday the 21st of December as some leagues were not at final stages, the first final will be starting at 6pm, so we ask all the players that were involved in the leagues to come down not just the finalists, we will have some food and a draw for a few spot prizes, this will bring the curtain down on this side of the handballing year and we hope to organise some different events after the new year.

All the younger players that are on Saturday evenings are also asked to come down tomorrow evening for the fun and food and this will also end all handball for the year but don’t worry we will resume action in the New Year.

Mono League. The Mono league final took place Sunday evening past where The Green Team took on the White Team. It was the White Team of Ian Treanor, Owen Treanor, Gabriel Mc Aree, Daniel Finnegan and Aidan Kerr who defeated the Green Team of Padraig Mc Kenna, Kevin Treanor, Brian Mc Kenna(O), Damien Mc Clave and Pronsias Mc Kenna, it was the early games which done the damage and left an ever steeper hill to climb as each player played, but all credit must go to the winners and thumbs up to a valiant effort shown by the green team even as some players that played and were not feeling that well. So it goes to show where Aidan who played his first league and Daniel who came out of retirement played pivotal roles in the teams success, so it shows it’s a game never to late to take up or to get back into, fair play to all concerned.

GAA Leagues.  Our senior team played last Monday where they defeat a Harps Emyvale combined team, the GAA “A” team tasted its first defeat at the hands of Corduff, and Mellans “B” beat Mellans “C”, would the captains of all teams in the senior or GAA either email myself or contact Kevin so I can have all results for notes every week.

Club Shop. Only a few days to go for them last minute “prezzies”, so why not check out the club shop for some of our handball gear, it’s normally open Friday evenings from 7-8pm but may be open a few extra hours leading up to Christmas, the “Sky Bounce Ball” is ideal for beginners from about 6 to 10 years old, U12 & U13 boys & girls use the “Challenger 2 Ball or now the new Junior Ball”, U14 to U17 boys use the “Dark Blue Ball” and girls from U14 to U17 now have a new “Pink Ball”, senior balls are also available, we also have gloves adult and juvenile so now all age groups are covered, also a limited number of goggles left available as our stock took a bit of hammering the last few weeks, but remember it is important all those age groups play and practise with the ball you will be using in competition, “something’s might make good stocking fillers for the 25th”.

GAA Handball Show. The last of this years Series 4 of the Handball show is on tonight Thursday the 20th at 9pm, series 5 is scheduled for the new year in January on Monday the 7th, 14th, 21st and the 28th at 8pm.

Happy Christmas. These are the last notes going to print before Christmas so the club would like to wish one and all and happy and safe Christmas and a prosperous new year to everyone inside and outside the club and we hope to see all back in action in the new year, I would think the maple will be under a bit more pressure after the extra pounds are on, so lets hope 2013 is as enjoyable as 2012 and lets hope for plenty of success as the year progresses.

CARRICK HANDBALL

This year’s John Joe Cumiskey Final took place last Saturday evening in the Emmet Centre between Team D (JohnFarrell,Lee Conlon,Jim Hayes and Glenn Reilly) and Team F (Michael Duffy,Tim Oliver,Brendan Mc Nally and Tommy Troy).This turned out to be the most dramatic Final in years with only two aces separating the sides at the end.First on court was Glenn Reilly and Tommy Troy with Glenn comfortably winning the first game 15-7.Tommy opened well in the second game and pushed Glenn all the way but Reilly was to strong and ran out the winner 15-11.Next on court and playing in his third final in a row was Tipp ace Jim Hayes against Corduff ‘young Gun’ Brendan Mc Nally.These two had a ding dong battle in the league and they served up more of the same with Jim opening impressively in both games butit was Mc Nally who held all the aces winning both games 15-11,15-11.Next it was the turn of the hard hitting Lee Conlon and Corduff Sharpshooter Tim Oliver.These two were evenly matched with both men displaying their best and only six aces separated them at the finish with Lee grabbing the spoils 15-10,15-14.The  big guns then took centre stage with John Farrell holding a sizable thirteen ace advantage over the BawnKingpin Michael Duffy.The Creevy man looked confident in the early exchanges against a nervous looking Duffy.Michaelquickly upped it through the gears and found his range with a fine killing display taking the first game 15-8 and leaving a mere three aces in the difference.It was all down to the last game and Michael with serve raced to a 3-0 lead.Signs were looking ominous for John but the Carrick ace hit back to go 6-3 in front.Michael regained serve and treated the audience to some of his trademark kills racing to 13-8 lead and only 2 aces away from victory but Farrell seemed oblivious to the pressure as he hit back with fine kills of his own to go 13-11behind.The scene was set,the pressure on, Duffy had to win by 4,Farrell only needed 1 to draw and 2 to win.Both men exchanged sevre with both deadlocked at 13-11 before Michael drawing on all his experience sealed the deal winning 15-11.Thanks to all those who participated in the league.