County Handball notes
TWO ALL-Ireland wins for Bawn handball
All Ireland double for the Bawn club last weekend when Michael clerkin and Gavin coyle both took the honours in there matches in Kingscourt, Michael clerkin was first up in the silver Masters B final where he faced killkenny man William Holden, the first game was a close affair with both men showing why they were in the final, Michael had trouble with Williams killshots to the right corner and it cost him the game 19-21, the large crowd of monaghan supporters were wondering how Michael could pull this out of the bag, but anyone who has ever played him knows that he never gives up, forcing William to the back of the court and making him work for any aces Michael took the second game 21-14, the dreaded tie break next but Michael had him on the ropes and took full control of the game and match winning 21-6. There wasn’t much time for celebrations because shortly after Gavin coyle took to the court in the Junior final against Keith Burke from Dublin, Gavin was in top Form and could do no wrong killing balls left and right and catching Keith with crack serves, the first game was over quickly 21-5 to Gavin. In the second game the Dublin man showed his experience by changing the game and Gavin realised he had a battle on his hands, after some fantastic rallies it was 18-18 and the possibility of a tie break looked on the cards, but Gavin closed out the game with 3 excellent points and the crowd went wild. a fabulous achievement for the two lads and it shows that hard work and dedication pays off. This weekend we have the 4th annual killian mc elroy memorial tournament starting on Friday night and finishing Sunday, everyone welcome to come along and watch the action over the weekend.
St Mellans handball
Championship Finals. Michael Mc Carron played his “Ruby Masters” All Ireland final last Thursday night the 6th in Kingscourt where he took on Eugene Kennedy from Dublin, the game just didn’t go according to plan for Michael as Eugene won 2 games 21-12, 21-9, Eugene just had too much in the tank on the night for Mickey, this is not the first time these two men locks horns so hopefully the next occasion will be more favorable for Mickey, hard luck but well done on reaching the final, there was also hard luck for 3 of the remaining Juvenile representing the county as Tiarnan, Justas and Konrad lost their All Ireland finals, but there was some cheer for the county as Gavin Coyle and Michael Clerkin won All Ireland titles to keep the “Handball” flag flying for the county, congratulations men from all in the club.
Juvenile Club Coaching. We are now entering the summer period of the year (hopefully) and the juvenile leagues and coaching will start to wind down as the juveniles takes to grass for the football and hurling seasons, but remember during wet days keep a small ball in your kit bag and keep practicing when you can, check with coaches for times and dates of the for the coaching to end.
Harps Handball
Billy Drennan (Kilkenny) defeated Tiarnán O’Rourke 15-4, 15-1 in the u14 All-ireland Final on Sunday last in Kingscourt. This was a deserved win for Billy. Tiarnán tried hard in his first final but found a very dominant opponent. However the Harps player can be justly proud of reaching the singles final.
Kilkenny also won the u16 Doubles final by beating Justas Dambinskas and Konrad Kowal 21-14, 21-12. Hot favourites Kilkenny were pushed all the way by a determined Monaghan pairing. Justas kept his best performance for the final. Indeed an upset looked on the cards when the Harps players went into a 7-1 early lead. There wasn’t much between the teams with Kyle Dunne and Billy O’Neil struggling to shake off the Monaghan boys. However the Kilkenny boys just did enough to win both games.
Congratulations to Gavin Coyle and Michael Clerkin (Bawn) on their All-ireland victories.
