St. Coman’s Lauren O’Riordan was in splendid form last Sunday as she breezed through her All-Ireland 60×30 Intermediate Handball Semi-Final with old rival Maeve McElduff.
Playing in her home court, Lauren utilised the overhand serve made famous by Eoin Kennedy and as in many of the Dubliner’s matches it caused consternation from the very beginning. The Tyrone girl struggled to return most serves and those that she did were dealt with very comfortably by the two-handed power hitting of the Roscommon girl. The entire match followed a similar pattern as Lauren put in a near-perfect performance to run out a very convincing 21-2, 21-7 winner.
In the final Lauren plays Kilkenny’s Rachel Hogan, sister of famous hurler and handballer Richie. The match will most likely be played in Crinkle, Co. Offaly in two weekends time.
This weekend two teams from St Comans Handball Club will bid to follow in Lauren’s footsteps.
Both teams are in for a serious examination of their credentials as they both face the respective reigning champions of their grades. Damien Martin and Rikki O’Gara meet Dublin’s Eoin Kennedy and Carl ‘Boo’ Browne in the famous old court in Crinkle, Co Offaly this Saturday. It’s a big ask for the Roscommon pair, but if they can finish the ball a little more clinically than their last match against Limerick’s O’Carroll brothers, there is the genuine possibility of an upset.
In the Ladies Doubles the Tully sisters Fiona and Siobhan travel to Tuamgreaney, Co. Clare to take on Cork’s accomplished Catriona Casey and Aisling O’Keefe. The Cork girls have been the ones to beat for the last few years and it is quite a daunting task for the Roscommon sisters.