This Friday night 19th April is the date for the rescheduled long awaited county senior final.This final promises to be an epic battle. Paudie (the Prodigy) Mc Kenna is seeking to de-throne Terry (the Terminator) Kiernan. Paudie from Mellans has been growing in stature and power over the last number of years and is now ready to take on the might of ” the Terminator” although , Terry won’t be rolling over easily. Terry has been unequalled in the County for many years and many believe is still at his peak.

Kick off time is 8.30 in Scotstown with the Nov.2 doubles final as warm-up act at 7.30.

It was a weekend to remember for Carrick ace Conor O Gorman as he captured the Monaghan Junior singles championship in fine fashion with a hard fought victory over the  hotly fancied Eamon Todd(st Mellans).

After loosing the first game 21-12 Conor had to pull out all the stops to win a nailbiting second game on the narrowest of margins 21-20 thus setting up a tie breaker to see who would book there place among Monaghan’s senior ranks and it was the Emmet Sharpshooter who took command running out the victor 21-8.But the winning wasn’t over yet for O Gorman as the following day he travelled south to compete in the annual One Wall competition in UL Limerick  where he won the Mens B plate.It was a great weekend for Conor and just rewards for a player working hard on his game and improving every year. Not only has he won these two significant titles this year he has also made the breakthrough in Ulster winning a Junior B Doubles title with John Farrell jnr.Well done also to Neil Mc Eneaney who this year reached the Novice 4 county final only to be pipped at the post by Corduff Young Gun Brendan Mc Nally.Neil is an up and coming prospect and no doubt he will move through the ranks in the next few years.Other players deserving a mention for their efforts this year include young Oran Kiernan  who reached the Ulster U/14 final and also Niamh Farrell who won the Ulster Ladies Junior B title.Best of luck to Terry jnr who plays in the Senior Singles county final this Friday night in Tydavnet.Terry faces a mammoth task when he takes on St Mellans Ace Paudie Mc Kenna.

Two county handball finals fixed for Scotstown this Fridaynight

There are two county finals fixed for Scotstown this Friday night. First off at 7.30pm is the novice two doubles final between Brendan McNally andNiall Reilly from Corduff and Darrin O’Reilly and Paul McKenna from St Mellan’s. Hopefully this will be followed by the refixed senior final between current holder Terry Kiernan from Carrickmacross and St Mellan’s Padraig McKenna. Last Friday in the minor final Emyvale’s Darren Doherty defeated  Bawn’s Eugene McGeough at the Scotstown venue. This was an excellent match that went to three games to decide the winner.

Bawn handball club, No luck for Gary mc Elroy and Gavin Coyle in roscommon last Sunday where they played on the monaghan u16-17s team against a cork team , cork proved to strong on the day, best of luck to them in the Irish juvenile nationals in Clare this weekend.   There will be a charity handball competition on 14-15-16th of Juneas part of the back to the rocks of bawn festival and to celebrate 80years of handball in Bawn,  details later. Condolences from the club to Michael moynagh on the death of his uncle Pakie moynagh and also his mother in law i

Nov4 Doubles County Final. The much awaited Nov4 County Doubles final between Brian Mc Kenna(O) & Aidan Kerr and Gary & Christopher Todd was played on Thursday evening past, starting 9pm this marathon of a game wasn’t finished until almost 11. The first game was won by Brian and Aidan 21-11, but the Todd’s made them work all the way and being 5-18 down put them out 3 times without points before Brian & Aidan won it, the second was the same only the other way as Gary and Christopher closed in out 21-13, so going into the decider it was all to play for and no player let up at any time as all were diving through the alley for everything, but as most be a winner prevailed and Brian and Aidan won it 21-14 and ended a very entertaining game, exactly what the game of handball is all about, special thanks most go to Damien Mc Clave who refereed a very demanding game and even though questioned several times stood firm on his decisions, and probably the happiest of all was the ball because there was no mercy shown on it as it got the full whack from all players every time, all players most be commended on a very entertaining game and well done to the new champions Brian & Aidan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Senior County Final. Padraig Mc Kenna’s senior final against Terry Keirnan is on Friday evening coming the 19thof April in Tydavnet, the curtain raiser to this game is the Nov2 Doubles final where we have Darrin O Reilly & Paul Mc Kenna(O) in action where they are taking on a Corduff pairing, good luck to all our 3 players on the night, all support is very much appreciated.

One Wall. The handball club is officially opening the first of the one wall facilities in the parish this Saturday evening coming the 20th of April in Carrickroe Community Centre at 5pm, the handball club have identified the schools as the starting point for the basis for the future of the club and are trying to get one wall up and running at all 4 schools which serve our local children, Carrickroe was the easiest and fastest to get up and running so in conjunction with the school and the community centre committee we have developed a one wall facility in the community centre, we will be having a bit of fun and maybe a bit of a competition to start us up and running, so all pupils past and present with parents and teachers are invited to come along for a bit of fun, we will be looking at Clara, Knockconan and Edenmore over the summer months to try and develop this also, we have visited the schools already but there is a bit more work to be done at the 3 remaining schools but with a bit of help from the schools and community we hope to develop them shortly.

GAA Leagues. The GAA League final which was cancelled last week still has not been re-arranged, but when we get confirmation of all details we will publish and text around.

Adult Club Competitions. The Singles finals are fixed for Monday evening coming the 22nd of April, the Division 2 final is between Gary Todd and Bernard Treanor which will serve of at 8pm and the Division 1 final between Eamon Todd and Ian Treanor will proceed after that, The High House and the Coalisland Fireplace Doubles have now reached semi-final stages and will be played this week coming.

Juvenile County Team. Well done to Gary Mohan as he was part of the Monaghan county U12/U13 team that won Ulster last weekend, now they face a team from Munster possibly this weekend coming, good luck Gary and the rest of the county team.

Juvenile County Doubles. A list of the doubles both girls & boys that are entered into the county doubles for our juveniles is on display at both alleys so keep practicing as this will be the last juvenile outing of the year, these games will be played off very soon so keep going and try and go out on a high boys and girls.

 

The Monaghan U12/13 team experienced the agony of defeat in Roscommon on Sunday by the narrowest of margins.  A single point was all that separated Monaghan and Tipperary.  The total scores were 67 to 66 in favour of the Munster players.  To make matters worse Tipperary went on to win the final by a big margin.  This was a competition that Monaghan could have and should have won.  However in congratulating the Tipperary team it must be admitted that this was a below par performance by the Monaghan players.  For the record the scores were as follows: Cailean Myles and Gary Mohan shared a game a piece with John Mc Grath and Matthew Spain 13-15, 15-8.  Justas Dambinskas and Eoghan Mc Ginnity also shared with Sean Hayes and Sean Mc Adams 3-15, 15-12.

Likewise Konrad Kowal and Jakub Szkup drew with Daire Madden and Jack O’Keefe 15-2, 5-15.

Several of our young players will travel to County Clare this weekend to compete in the Junior Nationals.  Good luck to newcomer James Allen on his first big competition.  Other experienced players include Eoghan Mc Ginnity, Jakub Szkup, Justas Dambinskas, Ramunas Ramanauskas and Terry Mc Elvaney.  The following venues will be used by the players: Tulla, Clarecastle, Newmarket-On-Fergus, Shannon, Kilkishen and O’Callaghan’s Mills.

Monaghan Harps is delighted to be host to some of the Adult National matches on the weekend of April 26th.  We are looking forward to greeting Clare’s Jamie Lynch and Limerick’s powerful hitter C J Fitzpatrick. An example of the latter’s ability is that he easily beat Galway’s Martin Mulkerrins in the 60×30 Final last year.  Martin Mc Entee has his opening match at the home venue against Louth’s John Kelly who incidently was his partner in the recent World Championships. Should he win he will play Wexford’s Tony Breen who beat him at the Citywest venue.