Handball News
STAMP THEIR MARK ON ONE-WALL NATIONALS
600 of the country’s top handballers converged on the City West Hotel in Dublin last weekend to compete in the 2012 Irish One-wall nationals. Six Monaghan players , Pete Larkin in emerald masters,Conor Mc Donald in Golden masters , Paul Cassidy in silver masters,Christopher Mc Kenna in under 23b,Darren Doherty in under 17 and Eoghan Mc Ginnity in under 11 ,did their county proud by reaching the final in their categories, each taking inspiration from the others as they won round after round to reach their final. Pete,Conor,Paul and Darren fell at the last hurdle but Christopher and Eoghan added the one-wall national title to their impressive list of wins. Eoghan impressed everyone throughout the weekend growing in confidence and precision with every game and like all real champions, he saved the best for last with serves and kills that would make Paul Brady envious. Christopher’s confidence also soared with each win and his customary power and agility gave him a convincing win in his final. Over 2000 spectators watched the handball over the weekend and the event was an enormous success and boas well for the world championships which take place at the same venue in October.
HARPS HANDBALL
Having conquered Mount Talbot and Williamstown recently, Eoghan Mc Ginnity went one further last weekend when he took home the National One-Wall title in the U-11 age group. It took three days of intense handball, a nerve-wracking tiebreak quarterfinal and five strong opponents but eventually the title was Eoghan’s. Success was due to his superb serves and to the accuracy of his kills shots allied to his tremendous speed and fitness. A huge crowd of supporters and admirers followed his progress at the Citywest arena in Dublin. His results were as follows:
Victory over Ben White of Tipperary by 31-9; Victory over Caolán Mc Cartan of Tyrone by 31-8; Victory over Dylan Hanley of Roscommon in tiebreak by 5-2 (16-16); victory over Darragh Curran of Tyrone by 17-12 and finally victory over Cian O’Driscoll of Cork by 21-11.
Congratulations to Eoghan and also to Conor Mc Donnell who reached the golden Masters Final only losing out to Armagh’s Conor Mc Mahon by a single point. Ramunas, Justas and Louise Mc Ginnity also competed in their respective age groups but lost out in the early rounds.
MELLANS HANDBALL
Feile Na Gael. Our Feile na nGael Team took part last week in the Competition at The City West Hotel in Dublin, there were 5 teams in the boys 4B section but after 2 teams withdrew it left our boys going in against Clarecastle the strongest team in the group and it took them some time to settle and get use to the court, but never the less they done ok but lost the 2 games, James and Gary Mc Kenna lost 14-21 and Ryan and Aaron Mohan lost 11-21, all in attendance agreed that if the boys had got their first game under their belts they would definitely given them a better game as proved in their second outing when they took on Clogh 1, all 6 players played here and with that bit of extra alley time the boys started to so more of what they were capable of with James and Cormac Mc Kenna winning 21-9 Gary Mc Kenna and Gary Mohan winning 21-13 and Ryan and Aaron winning 15-0. Never the less even though the team didn’t taste success this time round playing in different alleys against different players from all over the country will stand to all in good stead for future competitions. On Thursday evening their was what was described as a very well run and supported parade from Croke Park to O Connell St and on to Abbey St, this was yet another enjoyable part of the whole event for all players, coaches, family members and supporters. Hard luck to the team of James Mc Kenna(SH), Gary Mc Kenna(D), Aaron Mohan, Ryan Mohan, Gary Mohan and Cormac Mc Kenna(SH) the club would like to thank the coaches Michael Mc Carron , Michael Todd and Eamon Todd for helping the boys over the past few weeks leading up to the competition and have no doubt we will see these bunch of boys back in national competitions for years to come.
National One Wall Competitions. We had 2 players from the club who entered the National One Wall Competition at the weekend also in The City West, Johnathon Mc Kenna entered the Challenger Beginners, winning his first game Johnny bowed out in his second game. But there was better news as Christopher Mc Kenna(PJ) won the 23 and Under B defeating James Smith from Wexford in the final, well done boys.
Summer Play. That wraps up all our handball competitions for the year and we hope to see all and more back in the new handball season, but remember that the world championships are coming up in Dublin in October and anyone thinking of competing should be playing continually over the summer break, parents as we have seen over the past month or so the weather has not been kind to the kids for outdoor activities so why not pop into the alleys and have some light exercise in dry warm conditions.
