Club Notes
St.Mellans Handball Club
Cumann na mBunscol. It was a very busy day and successful day last Thursday as we hosted The Cumann Na mBunscol competition in St.Mellans, even though a school’s competition it proved a very successful day for club members as they took home 5 of the 8 titles on offer and also 2 runner up positions, in the Boys U11 Singles Shay Mc Kenna Deravoy NS took that title, the Boys U11 Doubles Winners were Shane Kelly & Paidi Mc Carey also Deravoy NS, and in the Boys U13 Singles Daragh Mc Carey again took another title for Deravoy NS, in the girls section Danielle Meehan Clara NS took the U13 girls singles and for Knockconan NS Eimear Mc Anenly & Ashling Mc Kenna took the girls U13 Doubles title defeating Deravoy’s Ava Mc Kenna & Beibhinn Mc Cluskey , and in the Girls U11 Singles Naofa Mc Meel from Clara NS was runner-up, a brilliant win from all over, all these wins gives everyone another day out next week as they head for Belfast for the provincial finals on Wednesday the 1st of February, The Boys Competitions will be hosted at Gort na Mona Handball Centre, and the Girls Competitions will be hosted at Saint Paul’s Handball Centre, again everyone enjoy the day and if successful in Provincial games there will be a national day on February 18th most likely in Kingscourt.
Gael Linn. We hosted the Gael Linn competition on Saturday evening past, 5 teams took part ourselves, Bawn, St Galls from Belfast and Carrickmore & Greencastle from Tyrone, it was mixed competition with girl & boy playing as a partnership, first in was Eimear Mc Anenly where she played Sophie Garcia from St.Galls and Odhran Mc Meel played Lorcan O Rawe, then Eimear & Odhran partnered each other in the doubles for the 3rd game against St.Galls, here our two defeated the Belfast pair on an overall aggregate score of 59-41, then in the Ulster final they played a Greencastle pairing of Emma Conway and Sean Mc Glinchey, in the first girls game Eimear put in a brilliant performance against Emma, one if not the top female at her age in Ulster, then Odhran defeated Sean in his singles and together the defeated the Tyrone pair in the doubles match, but just fell short on over all aggregate score, but still we have another day out as we go into the “Solas” competition as runners up, ana mhaith Eimear agus Odhran in sna dha cluiche.
Juvenile County Championship. The Harps hosted the remaining outstanding juvenile singles fixture the Boys U16 final, this pitted Donnacha Mc Cluskey against Harps player Calum Sherry, the two hard hitting players served up a great game with Calum coming out superior, Calum put down an early marker leading 6-0 before Donnacha got off the mark, Calum was in serious form and not matter what Donnacha threw at him he was there to lift and to punish at the same time, Donnacha struggled to get any kind of serve going with only serving 2 aces in the whole game, but even some serves which were good Calum picked them, and so Calum stormed on to take it 15-4, we knew with the form Calum was in that we needed a big game to tie it, but Donnacha again wasn’t allowed to settle with been pushed back all the time, he did get a few good passing shots but if they weren’t very exact Calum punished, Calum just got back into his groove and took the game and title 15-3, generally over all Donnacha didn’t play close to his full potential but never the less full marks must be given to Calum as he played the best game I ever saw him play, congrats Calum and well deserved.
Juvenile Coaching & Leagues. All juvenile leagues and coaching as schedule before, Eoin will be sending out a message to all parents asking are all kids interested in play in the new doubles league 4 player format, a bit of fun to finish of the season.
Mono League. The Mono league final will be played Saturday evening past, here The Shamrocks of Dylan Mc Kenna, Declan Mc Kenna, John Treanor & John Mc Carron took on St. Pats of Vinney Campbell, Chrissy Meehan, Donnacha Mc Cluskey & Patrick Mc Kenna, first to play was Donnacha & John, here they boys took a game each, John won 21-16, Donnacha won 21-15, next in was Vinnie where he played Dylan, here probably more match time the alley proved dividend for Dylan as he took both games 15-5, 15-3, next in were neighbours Chrissy & Declan, here Chrissy was his usual busy play lifting everything but Declan didn’t wilt and stuck to the task but Chrissy just got over the line 21-17, 21-17, finally to play was Patrick & John, John proved just too strong on the day for Patrick and he took both games 21-8, 21-13 to seal the title for “The Shamrocks”, two deserving teams for the final, thanks to Mono for their continued support and a massive well done Eoin who streamed the final live on Facebook, a great job and high compliments all round Eoin on a job seriously well done, you are dragging us all in kicking and screaming into the future!!!!!!!!!!!.
Mono League Wnrs ’22 ’23 John Treanor Declan Mc Kenna John Mc Carron Cpt & Dylan Mc Kenna, Christopher Mc Kenna Club Chairperson
Mono League R-up ’22 ’23 Donnacha Mc Cluskey Chrissy Meehan Capt Patrick Mc Kenna & Vinnie Campbell
Adult Club Singles & Doubles. The adult club singles 2nd round fixtures are out, the “Robert O Reilly Engineering” Cup (D1), “Gola Woodworks” Cup (D2) & “Tunnel Kerr” Cup (D3) are all up and running, good luck everyone, please check fixtures for time and ensure you are available.
Adult County Championships. The adult county championships are now down to finals we have 5 players that have made finals, in “Nov B Final” Karl Mc Meel will represent St.Mellans where he took on Darragh Roe from Corduff last night (Wednesday) the 1st of February in the Harps Complex @ 7:30pm, after that @ 8:30pm in Nov A Joe Kelly played Barry Finn from Corduff, in Junior we have an all club affair as Eoin Treanor takes on Fergal O Neill, this was fixed for tonight (Thursday) but Fergal is unavailable so will be re-fixed for next week, also Oisin Hagan will be playing Carrick opposition in the minor final, no date yet, we will send out messages when we get confirmation on the minor and Junior finals dates, good luck to all in action, full reports next week.
Ulster Adult Championships. Good luck to Joe Kelly V Diego Di Folco Cavan & Patrick Mc Kenna V Steven O Neill Antrim Junior B Singles Sunday February 19th in St.Mellans
Ladies County Open. The inaugural “Ladies Open” is being finalised and we will soon have fixtures out.
Registration. If any member still hasn’t paid their “club Membership” can do so through Foireann,, so go to www.foireann.ie and get registered and paid up, any issues contact a member of the committee, NB players are not eligible to play in county, provincial or All Ireland events if not registered with Croke Park.
Alley Bookings. The new “online” booking system for the club is proving a great way to book the alleys, but for some reason if your booking is cancelled in any competition please make this aware on Whatsapp groups available, on the “committee”, “team League” & “juvenile” APPS, this will leave members then that they can avail of the free slot, the first member to “thumps UP” the message can claim the slot, even during the league 95% of all games were played but some outside the allocated time of games, and this left a gap that could have been filled, so please be mindful of especially our “younger” players to give them as much access to the alleys as possible, thank you.
By Mark McDonnell Mon 27th Feb
