Handball

TYDAVNET HANDBALL

Last weekend saw a busy few days of handball in Scotstown with the Tydavnet club hosting the Silver Masters section of the Irish Nationals. Two of our own were competing in this grade, Cormac Sherry and MO “the Roofer” Mc Mahon. Both won their early rounds and reached 1/4 final stage where Cormac lost to the eventual winner Kenny Curran and MO just didn’t get his usual precision and lost to John Mc Geogh.

Sunday was finals day and Tydavnet hosted the Diamond Masters A final between Eugene Kennedy (Dublin) and John Rossiter (Carlow). This was a fabulous display of handball and it was never more evident that handball is a “GAME FOR LIFE” as these veterans put most guys half their age to shame with agility, power and accuracy that blew the spectators away. John won the first easily 21-3 but Eugene was determined to put up a fight and that’s exactly what we got with Eugene eventually taking the second 21-20. Eugene then went on to triumph 11-4 in the tie- breaker.

The Final of the Mens C was also held in Scotstown and again was a tremendous match between Sean Dingey (Down) and Peter Flanagan (Meath ). Sean eventually won with a nail biting 21-20 finish in the second.

HARPS HANDBALL

The handball club was delighted to host several top matches in the Irish Adult Nationals last weekend. Players from Antrim, Clare, Kildare, Limerick, Louth, Wexford and Wicklow travelled to Monaghan to compete. On Friday eveningMartin Mc Entee had a 2-game win over Louth’s John Kelly but lost to Wexford’s Tony Breen the following day in the Semifinals. Clare’s Jamie Lynch had a similar win over Monaghan player Padraig Mc Kenna.

On Saturday Antrim’s Tony Caddell won a marathon match against Wicklow’s Gerry Mc Grath. This required a tie-break finish. Player of the weekend was Kildare’s Niall O’Connor who had a convincing victory over Clare’s Niall Malone. Limerick’s C J Fitzpatrick played Jamie Lynch in the Men’s 23 Semifinal. However the Clare player had to concede the match early in the first game due to a shoulder injury. On Sunday in Kingscourt Niall O’Connor won the final by beating C J Fitzpatrick in a tiebreak. Anthony Caddell won the Emerald A Masters final by beating Tony Breen over two games. Local player Terry Mc Elvaney, fresh from his Under-19 win last week , played in the Men’s B grade at the Tyrone venue of Cappagh. There he defeated Wicklow’s James Gregan and Dublin’s Shane Hennelly to progress to the Semifinals. However he lost to eventual winner Barry Devlin from Tyrone.

Thank you to all officials who helped out in Monaghan throughout the weekend. The visiting players highly praised the welcome received and spoke glowingly about the quality of the court.

With the Nationals over for this year attention now turns to the One-Wall tournaments which take place throughout the country. Players wishing to take part must enter online on the GAA Handball website. Tournaments to watch out for are Williamstown, Mount Talbot and Breaffy House.

The County Board is running a Blitz competition on Saturday at the St. Mellan’s venue in Truagh. This is open to any boy or girl under 11 years. Registration is strickly from 10am till 10.30am and an open draw will take place from all the entries.

MELLANS HANDBALL

Adult Club Competitions. The club Singles finals were both played on Thursday evening past, first into the alley was the Division 2 final for the “Gola Furniture” Trophy which was between Gary Todd and Bernard Treanor, right away Gary spotted Bernard was a right hander and started with a lob serve down the left which Bernard struggled with, and this proved a great success as Gary ran away with the first game 21-2, the second game was a more even affair as Bernard started to come to grips with the lob serve and both players were tit for tat up to 14-14, but Gary using tack-tics again called a time out just as Bernard was starting to assert authority on it and this proved another turning point as Gary closed the game out at 21-15, it was hard luck to Bernard because he made some uncharacteristic mistakes, but all the plaudits must go to Gary in probably only his second full year of handball is featuring in finals within the club and on the county stage, well done Gary, the Division 1 final for the “Silver Hill” Trophy was between Eamon Todd and Ian Treanor this went to a 3rdgame tie breaker where Eamon came out victorious on a score line of 21-7, 19-21, 21-11, Eamon’s serving to both right and left in the first game was outstanding in the first game as the score line suggests, but Ian clawed back in the second game and done well to curtail Eamon’s all out action play, but in the 3rd this level couldn’t be maintained and Eamon ran out eventually winner 21-11 to secure the title, well done Eamon.

Irish Nationals. We had 3 players from the club that took part in the nationals at the weekend, Michael Todd played in the “Diamond Masters A” where he first played and defeated Gearoid O Fatharta from Galway in a tie breaker 20-21, 21-8, 11-5, but his next opponent was a more sterner test in Eugene Kennedy from Dublin where Mickey lost 2 straight 21-5, 21-8, John Treanor played in the “Golden Masters B” where he first defeated Steven Mc Inerney from Limerick in a tie-breaker 18-21, 21-9, 11-2, but his next match he lost to his old friend and Worlds doubles partner Mickey Quinn from Armagh 21-16, 21-16, Padraig Mc Kenna played in the Harps in the U23 singles where he lost to Jamie Lynch of Clare 21-5, 21-7, it was just one of them nights for Paudie where things just didn’t happen for him, but well done to all that participated.

U11 Handball Blitz. The county are holding an “U11 Blitz” this Saturday morning coming the 4th of May in St.Mellans Complex starting at 10:30am sharp, we will be doing registration from 10 to 10:30amm and will be drawing up the program from what ever names we have by 10:30, and will not be excepting any other names after that, so any U11 players both girls and boys that are interested in playing to be down by 10am to be sure of a game, thank you.

GAA Leagues. The GAA League final was played on Saturday evening past in St.Mellans where our “B” team took on Corduff in the climax of the league, but it wasn’t to be as the team on the night lost, first in was Patrick Mc Kenna(PH) where he found the going hard and lost the 2 games 21-8, 21-11, next in were the doubles of Brendie Keenan and Shane Treanor(M), the boys clawed the game back and with some good rally play from Brendie and killing from Shane the team lead by a point going into the deciding game, but Brian Mc Kenna(O) the team captain also found it hard going as he lost 2 straight games to Brendan Mc Nally and so lost the title, but never the less well done to all who played on the night and also to Gabriel Mc Aree and Ryan Treanor(T) who featured for the “B” team throughout the league.

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