Fiona Tully took a break from her Leaving Cert studies to win the Ladies 19 & under 40×20 Handball National title in Galway over the weekend.
Fiona had it all her own way in her Semi-Final with Galway’s Aisling Ni Mhaolain yesterday winning 15-2, 15-4. This set up a final meeting with her old rival from Tyrone, Elisa McCrory.
Fiona made a slow start today, going down 6-12, but in typical style she upped the ante just when required to storm back for a first game win of 15-12. She maintained her dominance early in the second, racing into an 11-2 lead and though Elise got back to 8, Fiona finished the match off 15-8 to add another title to her haul.
Meanwhile Philip Halliday and Eanna Moran had chastening experiences in their 13 & under matches in Williamstown.
Both lads were quite impressive in beating Clare opponents in their last 16 matches. However, both were well beaten in their quarter-final matches by the two best players in the tournament, Galway’s Mikey Kelly and Wexford’s Mark Doyle.
In the Boys 11 & under event St. Coman’s Handball Club had three strong representatives in brothers Rory and Eoghan Carthy and Irslam Yakhyaev. The format in this non-competitive event meant all competitors were divided into random groups of six, where they all played each other in a game either to 25 points or 9 minutes. In a testament to the ability of all three they won 14 out of the 15 games they played. Considering the wide variety of players they met and the fact that Eoghan and Irslam are both underage again next year these three lads are well worth keeping an eye on.