ALL-STAR NOMINATIONS

Two of the most dedicated and hard working members of the Monaghan handball community have been deservedly honored by the Ulster Council , in the Ulster All-star nominations. Austin Mc Kenna has been nominated as “official of the Year”. Austin has long been a powerhouse in Monaghan handball and really outdid himself this year with his tireless work at the World Championships. Martin Mc Entee has been nominated as “club person” of the year. Martin retired from teaching last year but if anyone thought he was going to sit back and take it easy in his old age, they were sadly mistaken. Martin has doubled his efforts as the driving force in Harps Handball Club with his undeniable coaching talent spawning a number of future stars. Award night is scheduled for Feb. 9th.

BAWN HANDBALL

Juvenile handball- the juvenile finals started on Saturday evening with Sarah and Saoirse Boyd in action ,a mixed result with Sarah winning her game but unfortunately Saoirse ended runner up. Congratulations to Sarah on her county title. Hard like Saoirse, there’s always next year! On Sunday we saw Gavin Coyle in action first he hit the ground running and his opponent had no answer to a great display of handball! Next up we had Gary Mc Elroy in the under 17s, winning the first game well but then having to work very hard in the second game coming from behind to win it with a spectacular last shot! Well done and Best of luck to all in Ulster games.
Senior leauge- on Monday night the Bawn team travelled to St. Mellons and came away with a win! There is no game next Monday.
GAA leauge- continuing Wednesday nightwith both teams in action.
Juvinile training- Saturday night 5-7PM.
Ulster championship- All players please check the fixtures in the alley to make sure you know when and where you are playing.

MELLANS HANDBALL

Juvenile County Championships. The Juvenile county singles finals were on last Saturday and Sunday, in Tydavnet the girls finals were held where Shauna Mc Aree retained her title in the U16 final where she overcame Saoirse Boyd from Bawn in some convincing style winning 21-0, 21-4 congratulations Shauna, and in St.Mellans our only other finalists were Ryan and Aaron Mohan who meet in the U14 final, the first game started off at a rapid rate and with Ryan’s power play left Aaron is disarray and Ryan took the game 15-2, but Aaron never gave up the fight and using his head slowed the whole game down and using a lob serve and took the 2nd game 15-10, going into the 3rd game it was nip and tuck the whole way  and going point for point it was Aaron slowing the game down that proved pivotal again as he took the tie-breaker game and title 15-13, both player must be commended as its not easy to play a club member in any kind of final so well played all. In the Minor Championships Ryan Treanor lost in a 3rdgame tiebreaker against James Mc Murrow. The club would like to wish all county winners all the best as they go forward into the Ulster end of things now.

Club Juveniles. We had our juvenile club finals Tuesday evening past full results next week. We also hope to run off some other format of a league for the juveniles over the next few weeks and we will be looking at running off some inter club blitz’s during the coming months so please all players keep practising on your own time until these events are organised. The beginners will also be back on Saturday evenings starting this Saturday coming the 12th, normal times 5 and 6pm, all new comers welcome, 5 Euro registration fee.

Table Quiz. We are running our annual Table Quiz on Friday February the 1st in St.Mellans all support would be very much appreciated, some fun and food in store, would all the captains of the Mono League insure that all of their team members have been notified about the table quiz and all bring or at least be part of a table.

Senior & GAA Leagues.  Our senior B team lost to Bawn Monday evening past, no results from the GAA league this week, 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. Still all handball gear available for all players, shop opened Fridays 7-8pm.

GAA Handball Show. Series 5 of the handball show is continuing on January the 21st and the 28th at 8:30pm.

HARPS HANDBALL

Congratulations to newly-crowned County champions Louise Mc Ginnity, Eoghan Mc Ginnity, Justas Dambinskas and Martin Mullen.
Louise defeated fellow clubmate Viktorija Kaklauskaite 15-11 and 15-9 in the Under 12 Girls final. This was a close affair and the scores were level on many occasions.  A feature evident throughout was the ability to take backwall shots- a skill that requires much practice. The deciding factor was Louise’s serve down to the left hand of her opponent.
The Boys Under 12 final produced many excellent rallies from both Eoghan Mc Ginnity and Jakub Szkup.  However, as predicted, Eoghan’s ability to finish with numerous “killshots” made all the difference. He went on to win easily on the scores 15-2. 15 -5.
In the Under-13 Final Justas Dambinskas reversed the result of last year by defeating Cailean Myles over three very exciting games.  The scores: 15-11, 13-15 and 15-8  accurately  reflect how close this was. In the end Justas retrieved most of Cailean’s hard serves and seemed to have the edge in fitness despite his opponent having the better shots.
Martin Mullen defeated a very gallant James Mc Cague in a nailbiting encounter in the Under 15 final.  This match could have gone to either player.  Martin was in command in the first game and indeed led 7-3 in the second when James found a serve that produced many points.  The stage was set for a very tense decider.  James took command early on and looked to be on his way to victory.  Martin, however, changed his serve and punished James with speedy passing shots.   Martin just managed a narrow victory by 15 to 12.

TYDAVNET HANDBALL

The county juvenile handball championship finals took place over the weekend, with the girls playing in Scotstown and the boys playing in St Mellans. Laura Holohan and Caoimhe McMahon played on Friday night in Scotstown and both were defeated after playing very well in the girls U14 championships. Then on Saturday Casey Treanor and Caoimhe Mohan played in the girls U17 championship and both played very well with Casey winning the competition.

Then on Sunday in St Mellans we had James McCague playing Martin Mullen from Monaghan Harps in the U15 final. After a great battle James lost out by two aces in the final game with a scoreline of 15 – 11, 10-15, 15-13. Next up we had Conor Mohan in the U16 final against Gavin Coyle from Bawn. Conor is one of the best juvenile handballers inour club but on the day he simple had no answer to the power and precision of Coyle who must be a good bet for an Ulster and possibly anAll-Ireland title. All of our players will have learned a lot from playing in these finals. Well done to all who competed in the championships and those who made the finals and keep practicing.

ADULT HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Our adult players have all begun their quest for championship honours in all the grades from minor to novice 4 to senior and we wish them all well in the weeks ahead.

JUVENILE LEAGUES

We have 22 juveniles taking part in our juvenile leagues and with fiveweeks remaining most players are still in contention.