St Comans defeated multi Open winning side Ballaghaderreen in the Connacht Club Semi-Final last Saturday in what was a in a tight encounter.
While Ballagh were missing their talisman Dessie Keegan and Paul Flynn, St Comans were also without Damien Martin, all of whom are injured at the moment.
In the opening singles World Championship Doubles finalists Joe McCann and Rikki O’Gara faced each other in a very entertaining tussle. While neither player had a lot of preparation the longer the match went on the better the handball got. Joe controlled the first game, winning 21-10, but Rikki came back strongly in the second and led for most of the game before losing 21-17.
The doubles served up two left-right combinations – Niall McGrath and the temporarily returned Chris Doolin versus Vinny Moran and James Towey. There were many excellent rallies and with four big men in the court space was at a premium most of the time. The two citeogs, McGrath and Moran played some superb handball between them, but the Roscommon town pair were just that bit more reliable and varied winning 21-11, 21-16 leaving the scores tied going into the last singles.
St Comans Neil McDermott faced Joe Dowling in a straight forward ‘win both games’ scenario. Both players showed tremendous fitness levels during long roof-dominated rallies, but Neil’s better killing ability, especially his patented right corner dump shot helped him to a 21-10, 21-8 win giving St Comans a well deserved victory. Next up is Williamstown in the Connacht Final.