Handball

Well done to Conor Mc Donnell, Monaghan Harps, and Paul Cassidy, Tydavnet who retained their Ulster title in the Golden Masters Doubles in Beragh on Sunday.  They were playing Stevie roberts and Gerry Rafferty, Antrim. In the opening quarter it seemed that the Antrim duo would put up a tremendous fight to the reigning champions, but after some tense opening exchanges and a lot of ceiling shots and kills by Conor and Paul they took the opening game 21-9. The second game seemed likely to be a close affair and the Antrim lads started to serve the ball to paul with both z serves and cross court serves. Paul coped with this very well and both he and Conor called the shots well and covered court whilst the other was shooting to go in to a slender lead of 12-9. It was a difficult battle and had to be fought hard. Conor continued to use the ceiling shots with great effect and go for kills at suitable times to extend the lead. Paul produced fine serves around the alley into the right corner which caused so much confusion between the Antrim players for which their weak returns were punished severely by Monaghan, who went on to take the second game and title 21-13. Best wishes to Paul and Conor in the All-Ireland Semi-final set for the week-end of 15th/16th March.

Another great Ulster final in Beragh in the Emerald Masters A Doubles. Martin Mc Entee, Monaghan harps teamed up with Pete Larkin, Emyvale to take on the favourites from Antrim, Thomas Maguire and Tony Caddell. In the first game the favourites served with exceptional spin and punished weak returns and took it in convincing fashion. In the second games Pete served with great spin and Martin covered miles of court and they recaptured the second game to make for an exciting finish. It was too close to call, and when Monaghan went in to a 7-0 lead, the Monaghan support were sensing a tremendous upset in favour of the Farneys. Antrim dug deep to come back to lead 9-7. We know it is just so hard to put Thomas Maguire away, and despite Pete spin serves and Martin trying to roof shot and use kill shots to come back in to the match, it was the Antrim pairing that captured the title. It was a gallant performance from the Monaghan duo and Martin and Pete did there utmost to snatch the title but lost out to the experienced Antrim duo. All the support thoroughly enjoyed the match. Well done boys, but hard luck. Thank you to Sean, Niall and Paula in Breagh for their hospitality.

HARPS HANDBALL

Adult Ulster Championship. Congratulations to Michael Mc Carron as he won the Ulster Final of the Diamond Masters “A” Singles competition, there he was up against Dominic Sheridan of Cavan, Mickey would probably be the first to admit he would preferred to have won the old fashioned way by points, but Dominic had to withdraw in the first game through injury, having pulled a muscle in this arm at the stage of winning 16-14 he conceded to Mickey, it had all the hall-marks of being a real ding-dong battle but not to be, congrats Mickey and get well soon Dominic from the club, Mickey now takes to the court in the All Ireland Semi-final against John Rossiter from Carlow, this is being played Saturday coming the 8th in Kingscourt at 3pm, good luck Mickey.

Mono League.  Only one of the Semi-finals will be played tomorrow night (Friday the 7th of March) as Michael is playing in his All Ireland semi on Saturday, so the semi that his team is involved in with the “Cherry” team will now be on Monday evening (10th of March) at 7:30pm against either “Beech” or “Maple” who played a play-off game last night (Wednesday), the first semi between “Walnut” and “Spruce” is being played Friday as scheduled play begins at 7:30, and the final is fixed for Sunday the 16th, this has been a hectic season this year to reach the summit but good luck to all taking part.

Singles & Doubles. The club singles and doubles competitions will be drawn up shortly so be ready for the action.

Juvenile Ulster Fixtures. Good luck to Aaron and Ryan Mohan when they play their U15 Ulster Doubles Final Sunday morning coming (9th of March) in Kingscourt, there they take one a strong Tyrone team, the game is fixed for 10:30 in the morning, an early start but lets hope the boys are successful and will progress to the All Ireland series, good luck boys all support welcome.

Adult County Championship. Good luck to Gary Todd in the final of the Nov4 competition tomorrow evening (Friday the 7th) in Tydavnet at 7:30pm, there he takes on David Treanor from Tydavnet, good luck Gary and all support welcome, we have 2 players still waiting to play their semi-finals in adult championships, John Kelly plays Tim Oliver from Corduff in Nov1 and Eamon Todd plays Paddy Mc Mahon from Tydavnet in the Junior section.

Tickets on Sale.  At this stage all tickets sold or unsold should be handed back to Kevin, thanks to all that sold tickets and biggest thanks of all to all who bought a ticket and supported the handball club, good luck to all in the draw on St.Patricks Day in Croke Park.

Juvenile Club Coaching & Leagues. All sessions on going as per coaches, beginners still on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 any juveniles that want to try out the game come down at this time, boys & girls welcome,goggles and non-marking runners a must.

New Gloves. We now have a new stock of handball gloves in, Declan has all, so contact him for a pair, adults 15 euro and juveniles are 10 euros, a bargain if there was ever one, but no haggling with the treasurer please.

Good luck. Good luck to the U21 football team in the Ulster final on Saturday coming the 8th of March, let’s hope for more silverware in the club in all disciplines this weekend.