Eugene Mc Geogh, Paul Cassidy & Darren Doherty at Minor Final 2013
EMYVALE HANDBALL
Darren Doherty defeated Eugene Mc Geogh in this years minor county final.
Congratulations to both players on a great match. Darren took the first game 21 10 but Eugene came back in the second all guns blazing and could do no wrong! Darren did well to recover from 18 5 down but Eugene took it to a tiebreak with a 21 18 win in the second game. Darren fired off shot after shot in the tie and won his first Minor County title taking the tiebreaker 21 5.
Junior Nationals in Clare
A great weekend of handball was enjoyed by all at the Junior Nationals event in venues across Clare last weekend. Monaghan have some fine young handballers but on this occasion the titles remained elusive. Darren Doherty played some great matches, but was knocked out in the semi finals by his old foe from Clare, Colin Crehan in the 17 & Under event. In this particular grade (17 & Under) any of the final four could have taken the title, one spin of the ball can make a world of difference as Darren found to his cost in game 2 of the semi final. At 19 all, he lost his chance to finish the match, and it then went to a tie which didn’t go his way. Congratulations to Terry McElvaney from the Harps club who was the only Monaghan player to win the National title when he defeated Clare man Jamie Lynch to take the 19 & Under trophy.
MELLANS HANDBALL
Senior County Final. Congratulations to Padraig Mc Kenna who won the senior county final against Terry Keirnan from Carrickmacross on Friday evening past in Tydavnet, the disappointing thing from a spectators point of view was that Terry had to retire after the end of the first game through injury, Paudie ran into an early 10-3 lead but slowly Terry started to claw his way back into it, and at 12-10 this had all the ingredients to be a brilliant game, but never the less it is great to see the Dermott Mc Kenna perpetual cup back in the club for the first time since Michael Mc Carron won it back in 2002, well done Paudie.
Novice 2 Doubles Final. It was not as good for our Nov2 double finalists Darrin O Reilly & Paul Mc Kenna(O) as they lost the county final to Corduff pair Brendan Mc Nally & Naill Reilly, the boys lost 2 games straight 21-8, 21-12, even though the Corduff pairing were strong our players didn’t play to their full potential, hard luck Paul & Darrin.
Juvenile County Team. Hard luck to Gary Mohan and to Gary Treanor(T) as they were part of the Monaghan county U12/U13 & U16/U17 teams that lost their All Ireland Semi-finals last weekend in St.Comans Roscommon, Gary Mohan and his U12/U13 came the closet to an All Ireland title as they were defeat by Tipperary 67-66 who eventually went on to beat Wexford in the final 75-56, Gary Treanor in the U16/U17 lost their semi to Cork 60-30, also their victors Cork went on to win the final against Kilkenny 60-29, hard luck to all the county boys but it goes to show we are still mixing it with the best in the country.
One Wall. The handball club has officially opened the first of the one wall facilities in the parish last Saturday evening in Carrickroe Community Centre, we hope that as we widen the facilities for our juveniles we will reap the rewards for our club, schools and the parish in the future, a special word of thank most go to Paul Cassidy who kindly came down and marked out the lining for the one wall area, thanks very much Paul.
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 that were fixed for Monday evening past were canceled and are now being played tonight (Thursday), 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.
Irish Nationals. We have 3 players taking part in the nationals at the weekend, Michael Todd plays in the Diamond Masters A in St.Mellans at 9pm, John Treanor also has home advantage as he plays in the Golden Masters B at 8pm, and the new county senior champion Padraig Mc Kenna togs out in the U23 singles in Monaghan at 8:30pm against Jamie Lynch of Clare, this should be a cracker of match as these boys both have the experience of being world champions at juvenile level, hard luck to Eamon Todd as he didn’t progress from the qualifiers for the nationals, St.Mellans will be busy all weekend as there are games on all 3 nights so be careful if you are thinking of playing over the weekend.
Terry Mc Elvaney with Robbie Mc Carthy
HARPS HANDBALL
National Champion for Monaghan Harps
A stunning weekend at the Irish National Championships for Monaghan Harps Handball club.
Monaghan Harps Handball club added a national title in what has become another successful year for the club. Terry Mc Elvaney, fresh from his silver medal in the All-Ireland series, went one step further by winning the National U-19 Singles title in County Clare.. Having defeated Roscommon’s Gordon Nolan from Roscommon in the Semifinal by 6 and 4, Terry took on local player, Clare’s Jamie Lynch, in the Final. He was in major trouble in the first game with Lynch reaching game point 20-15. Terry called on all his resources and pulled back the points to win by 21 points to 20. The second game was equally close 15-15 until the Harps player extended his dominance to win by 21 points to 15. Congratulations Terry. What a year so far! Terry is not resting on his laurels however and he has entered the adult version of the Nationals which take place at Ulster venues this weekend. In fact the Harps complex will host several top games with players coming from as far away as Wexford, Clare and Limerick. Terry’s beaten opponent will be playing as will Limerick’s C J Fitzpatrick.
The club sent a strong team of 9 players to these National championships which were held over the weekend at 9 different venues in County Clare. The Harps players were welcomed at venues in Clarecastle, Newmarket-On-Fergus, Kilkishen, Tulla and Shannon and the results were amazing – a National winner, a National finalist, a semi-finalist and a quarter-finalist. In fact most of the Harps players had to pre-qualify some weeks ago in order to be invited to Clare. Hubert Sheinbach and Konrad Kowal lost their matches in the early rounds in Roscommon. Jakub Szkup easily qualified from the Williamstown venue. However he lost out in a tiebreak to Tyrone’s Ronan Curran. James Allen lost his match to Galway’s Mikey Kelly and Louise Mc Ginnity competed well at the Shannon venue. Justas Dambinskas played his best-ever handball to progress to the last four. There he lost to Darragh Canavan, son of Tyrone’s legendary footballer Peter, in a tie-break. Next up was Eoghan Mc Ginnity and he progressed to the semifinal meeting with the much-talked about Wexford player Glen Murphy Butler. Eoghan produced his best performance of the weekend and won many admirers for his brilliant win over 2 games. In the final Eoghan lost to his keen rival Tyrone’s Lorcan Mc Bride in straight games. Ramunas Ramanauskas was excellent in his win over Galway’s John Lawlor in the last 16. His quarterfinal match with local boy Barry Nash however was an unruly affair and while the first game was close the antics of his opponent throughout seemed to affect the Monaghan player and he lost 21-18, 21-12.
Paudie Mc Kenna, County senior champion 2013.
TYDAVNET HANDBALL
County senior handball final
The eagerly awaited county senior handball final between defending champion Terry Kernan and St Mellan’s Paudi McKenna took place in Scotstown on Friday night last. With the gallery full and two of the best players in the county on the court, the scene was set for a classic match. Neither of these players are used to losing, with Terry going for a fourth county final win on the trot as well as being the Ulster junior champion and Paudi in his first final but having never been defeated in the juvenile ranks in the county as well as winning the world U16 championship in the US a few years ago. the first game ended 21 – 9. Terry was in no condition to even begin the second match and therefore Paudi was declared the new county champion and thus ended the dominance of one of the great county handball champions.
Anyway well done to Paudi and no doubt Terry will be chomping at the bit to put the record straight in the year ahead. With the likes of Paudi, Terry, Christopher McKenna, Terry McElvaney, Darren Doherty, Eugene McGeough, Pat McMahon and Ramunas entering the championship next year, the Monaghan county championship will be one of the most competitive in Ulster.
Novice two doubles final – the senior final was preceded by the novice two doubles final where Brendan McNally and Niall Reilly from Corduff defeated Paul McKenna and Darren O’Reilly from St Mellan’s in two straight games. The St Mellans players played some great individual handball but the Corduff players worked better as a team and this gave them the edge in some or the vital rallies of the match.
By michael Wed 24th Apr
