ALL IRELAND SILVER FOR MONAGHAN U 14/15 TEAM

Monaghan Under 14/15 team were runners-up in the All-Ireland Club final last week-end in Kilkenny.  Congratulations to the Monaghan team, Mark Mc Donnell, Gavin Coyle, Gary Treanor, James Mc Kenna, Conor Leonard and Gary Mc Kenna.  The boys played the Connaught winners, Galway in the Semi-final.  Each match consisted of two games to 15.  The first Monaghan match was Mark Mc Donnell and Gavin Coyle, and they started well with Gavin serving with tremendous power, and Mark hitting some fine crack serves.  They took the first game 15-10, and settled down to play some consistent handball in the next game to win 15-0.  This set up a good lead for the next Monaghan duo, Gary Treanor and James Mc Kenna.  Once again the Monaghan Boys served well and followed up with good rallies and safe play to protect the Monaghan lead, and they won the match on a score of 15-8,15-9.  Monaghan lead 60-27 going into the last game, which meant they had an unassailable lead, but it was important for Conor Leonard and James Mc Kenna to get a practice match together before the final.  Conor showed a great deal of style during his play and both himself and James played well to win the match 15-8,15-10.  It was a fine victory for Monaghan and meant they were straight in to an All-Ireland final in the afternoon.

In the final, Monaghan were up against a strong Tipperary team, who had just defeated a fine Kilkenny side in the Semi-Final.  Monaghan were pretty much upbeat for the task ahead.  Once again, Mark and Gavin started first.  They were playing Michael Mahon and Conor Bannon.  The Tipperary duo got off to a lead of 8-1, but the Monaghan lads knew that every point was important for the team and they rallied back to 6-11, but the Tipperary lads took the first game 15-6.  Once again in the second game, Tipperary got off to a lead of 9-1, but Gavin produced some fine served which were too powerful for the opponents, to come back to trail 8-12.  Tipperary got back in to serve and won 15-8.  In the second match, Gary Treanor and James Mc Kenna were up against a very strong Tipperary pairing, Ian Bradshaw and Eoghan O Flaherty.  The Tipperary lads were well used to playing together, and got off to a flyer of a lead, 12-1.  It was a tough game for Monaghan, as no matter what Gary and James tried to do, they were ousted by the Tipp pair.  Monaghan lost the match 2-15,1-15.  Unfortunately for Monaghan, this meant that Tipperary were the winners, so the last match was immaterial.  Conor Leonard and Gary Mc Kenna played the last game against Tipperary and it was difficult to play, knowing the match was over, but they played their best, and lost 6-15 in the first game, before Tipperary retired from the second game with an injured player.  Well done to all the team, All-Ireland Runners-up.  The County Board would like to thank the parents, coaches and players concerned, and also to Stephen Callery and A2B travel,  for transport to and from the venue.

TYDAVNET HANDBALL

Club League

The Tydavnet handball club league is up and running and following are the ten teams of four taking part: 1 Paul Cassidy, David Treanor, Damien Martin, Damien F McKenna. 2. Noel Bogue, Patrick McMahon, Conor Bogue, Michael McCrarron. 3. Steven Treanor, Pete Larkin, Shane Bogue, Kieran Treanor. 4. Peadar Sherry, Conor McDonald, Gary Holohan, Emmett King. 5. Pat Meehan, Brendan Finan, Kevin Maguire, Conor Boylan. 6. Michael Eoin McMahon, Damien McKenna, Emmett Caulfield, Kevin Treanor. 7. Kevin Boylan, Martin McEntee, Conor Holohan, James Morrow. 8. Cormac Sherry, Kevin McCague, Mark Clifford, Niall Boylan. 9. Ray Leonard, Martin Kilpatrick, Sean Mohan, Conor Leonard. 10. Mickey Holohan, Donal McCague, Declan McCarville, James McCague.

Juvenile League 

The juvenile leagues take place every Tuesday with two groups taking part:

Group 1 (6pm)

Conor Creighan, Ronan Clerkin, Liam McCague, Eanna Deery, James Sherry, Ronan King, Mark Mohan, Conor McMahon, Killian Sherry, Darragh McCague, Lorcan Deery.

Group 2 (7.30pm)

James McCague, James Curley, Conor Mohan, Fintan Hackett, Shane McMahon, Ben McDevitt, Kieran McGuirk, James Sherry, Matthew Rowe.

Congrats to Conor Leonard who was part of the six man under 14/15 Monaghan team who took silver in the All Ireland Club Championships at the weekend.

HARPS HANDBALL

Team of Six Win Silver

Congratulations to the Monaghan U12/U13 team that reached the All-Ireland final in Kilkenny on Saturday.  While well-beaten by Tipperary in the final, the Semifinal win over a very experienced Galway team was one of the most exciting matches ever seen at the O’Loughlin Gaels venue.  First into action was the pairing of Eoghan Mc Ginnity and Jakub Szkup.  They fell well behind early on but recovered well to take the first game 15 to 13.  The left-sided Galway player was dominating the second game but with every point counting the Monaghan lads needed to stay in contention.  This they did with superb retrieving and killshots. Galway won this game 15-13 leaving the overall scores level.

Next up was the pairing of Justas Dambinskas and Caileán Myles.  On the Galway team was Diarmuid Mulkerrins, brother of National champion, Martin.  This was always going to be tough for Monaghan and indeed in the first game Monaghan came out second best.  Justas in particular was forced into many errors and Galway won 15-8.  Again in the second game Monaghan were well behind and facing overall exit from the competition. Trailing 13 to 6, with Galway just needing 2 points for victory, an incredible comeback began with Caileán Myles killing into either corner on numerous occasions.  This was Caileán’s finest hour and he somehow managed to haul back the deficit and win by 15 to 13.  This left the overall scores of 56 to 51 – a 5 point lead for Galway.

However the final Monaghan pairing of Aaron and Ryan Mohan put Monaghan into the lead by winning their first game 15-3.  They now needed just 8 points from the final game for victory.  Galway actually won this game by 15 to 14 so that the overall score was 80 points to 74 – a narrow 6 point win for Monaghan.

With Colin Ryan, World U13 Champion and the powerful Sean Hayes on the Tipperary team for the final, it was always going to be an impossible task for the Monaghan boys and what followed was a clear easy victory for Tipperary by around 80 points to 30.  Monaghan Harps would like to thank the Munster team for agreeing to allow the subs to play the last game and this allowed Harps player Konrad Kowal get a game and also receive a silver medal. A very sporting gesture.

BAWN HANDBALL

Congratulations to Gavin Coyle and the Monaghan 14/15s team making the All Ireland finals of the team of 6 competition on Sunday.

Juvenile training-Saturday evening in the alley. 1st group (beginners) starts at 5pmfollowed by the 2nd group at 6pm.

County GAA league-starts Wednesday 21st, fixtures will be in the alley.

Senior league-starting Monday 26th with a home game against St Mellons.

Club league fixtures are in the alley. Games start A.S.A.P. Please get the games started and played on time.

Membership-Could any outstanding membership money be paid to Rosemary as soon as possible. Thank you.