MONAGHAN’s FINEST DO BATTLE IN TYDAVNET
Friday night 5th. April sees the climax of the county’s senior,junior and minor championship. The action takes place in Tydavnet ,starting at 7pm. Entry fee is €3 (all proceeds going to juvenile development ).
The senior final sees the reigning champion Terry “The Terminator” Kiernan defending his title against Padraig” The Prodijee”Mc Kenna. Both Terry and Padraig are playing inspiring handball at the minute so a thrilling final is promised.
The junior final comprises of Eamon Todd and Conor O Gorman. Both players have improved beyond recognition over the last year and either man is worthy of promotion to senior status.
Darren “The Distroyer” Doherty meets Eugene Mc Geogh in the minor final. These guys may be young but their pedigree has been proved on many occasions already.
Get your seat early as places are limited.
RAMUNAS ‘S BID FOR GLORYRamunas Ramanauskas has fought his way through a highly competitive grade and has now reached the u/17 all Ireland Final. Ramunas’s power and killing ability is nothing short of awesome, he justify idly impresses everyone that watches him play. He is the “Gentle Giant” of juvenile handball and his final opponent, Robert Fox from Meath ,will need to be on his game to take this Giant down. The final takes place in Gort Na Mona on Saturday 6th April ,and all of Monaghan wish Ramunas luck.
MELLANS HANDBALL
All Ireland Semi-Final. Hard luck to Christopher Mc Kenna(D) & Terry Mc Elvaney who lost to Killian Carroll and Patrick Herilry from Cork in the U21 Doubles All Ireland semi–final last Friday afternoon in Tydavnet, playing in front of a large crowd of spectators the two boys just didn’t play to the level of play that we all know both are capable of, they lost 2 games straight 21-4, 21-7, this Cork pairing were a seriously strong combination and proved so on the day, but still well done to the Christopher and Terry on reaching the semi’s.
All Ireland Final. Michael Mc Carron’s “Diamond Masters A Singles” All Ireland final is fixed for Sunday coming the 6th of April at 2pm in Kells where he takes on John Rossitor from Carlow, we hope as many can travel to support Michael as he attempts to notch up yet another handballing title, also the club would like to wish all the best to Terry Mc Elvaney who plays in the U21 Singles final also on Sunday in Mullingar and Ramunas who plays in the U17 Singles final on Saturday in Gort Na Mona, so lets hope for a hat trick of All Ireland Handballing titles for the county over the weekend.
Junior County Final. Eamon Todd’s Junior Final has been fixed for tomorrow (Friday) evening in Tydavnet @ 8pm where he takes on Conor O Gorman from Carrickmacross, good luck Eamon, so travel up and show your support.
Senior County Final. Padraig Mc Kenna also togs out tomorrow evening in Tydavnet after Eamon in the Senior county Final where he plays the reining county champion Terry Keirnan from Carrickmacross @ 9pm, so again lets travel and show our support for both our players on the night.
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.
GAA Leagues. The GAA “B” team played Wednesday evening past against Tydavnet in the league semi-final and came out victorious on a very tight score line, first into the alley was Brian Mc Kenna(O), then the doubles of Patrick Mc Kenna(PH) and Brendie Keenan, with Shane Treanor(M) finishing of the mission in style, now the boys have already played the final last night (Wednesday night ) against Corduff so lets hope the ball has kept rolling and another county title will be reported on next week.
County Juvenile Teams. The U14/U15 county team which included Gary Mc Kenna, Aaron & Ryan Mohan were to play Tyrone in the Ulster Semi-final Monday evening past in Eugene Quinns of Armagh but was cancelled and has to be re-fixed possibly early next week, good luck boys when it happens.
Adult Club Competitions. Singles are at final stages now and both games will be fixed shortly after a few county finals have been played first. There are now fixtures up for all both sections in the club doubles competitions, the High House and the Coalisland Fireplace Doubles have been emailed out and are on the notice board in St.Mellans, please keep all the games played up to date as much as possible.
HARPS HANDBALL
Tough Tasks for Ramunas and Terry
Monaghan Harps Handball club is proud to have 2 players competing this weekend for All-Ireland titles. Ramunas Ramanauskas travels to Gortnamona in Belfast on Saturday where he plays Meath’s Robert Fox in the Under 17 Singles final. Terry Mc Elvaney travels to Mullingar on Sunday for his Under 21 Singles final against Galway’s star player Martin Mulkerrins. The programme of games in Belfast begins at 12 noon while the fixtures in Mullingar begin at 2pm.
Of the 2 players Ramunas has perhaps the better chance of winning his first ever All-Ireland title. His opponent Robert Fox is a very capable player who has been coached by famous Meath senior player Tom Sheridan. However the Harps player has trained hard for this final and is in top condition thanks to numerous practice matches and a tough encounter in the first round of the Irish Junior Nationals last week in Roscommon where he beat Mayo’s T J Byrne over 3 games. Ramunas has been coached by Martin Mc Entee since he was first introduced to the game 5 years ago and indeed Ramunas was first to acknowledge that Martin’s astute coaching tactics got him through to this final.
Terry, along with his doubles partner Christopher Mc Kenna, lost out to Cork’s Killian Carroll and Pa Herlihy in Scotstown last week in the Under 21 semifinal. It is a great achievement to be into the singles final and to be up against easily the top player in the country at this grade. Mulkerrins competes at the highest level and is hot favourite to add the Under 21 Singles title. Terry is relishing the encounter.
Irish Junior Nationals
Congratulations to Jakub Szkup, Justas Dambinskas and Ramunas who qualified last week for the Irish Junior Nationals which will be held in Tulla, County Clareon April 19th. They join several others from the Monaghan club who have already qualified. Only the top 16 players in each grade in the finals. However there was disappointment for Hubert Sheinbach and Konrad Kowal who both lost out in their pre-qualifiers last week in Curraghboy.
TYDAVNET HANDBALL
County GAA leagues and championships
The Tydavnet A team were narrowly defeated by St Mellan’s B team in the GAA league semi-final at the weekend. Our senior league team are on top of the leader board and awaiting to see if its Mellans or Corduff they meet in the semi-final.
Three county finals in Scotstown this Friday night
There are three eagerly awaited county finals being played in Scotstown this Friday night. First off at 7pm is the junior final between Conor O’Gorman from Carrickmacross and St Mellans Eamon Todd. This is followed at 8pm by the minor final between Emyvales Darren Doherty and Eugene McGeough from Bawn. Finally the senior final at 9pm is between defending champion Terry Kernan from Carrickmacross and Padraic McKenna from St Mellans. This is arguably the best ever line-up of handballers to play in the Scotstown venue and the complex will be rocking on Friday night.
