The 14th running of the very popular Curraghboy New Year Doubles Handball Tournament took place today (Sunday) and thanks to the great organisation of Seamus McHugh another eclectic mix of young and old players from as far away as Laois and Clare provided wonderful entertainment to the watching public.
The eventual winners were the Galway/Mayo combination of Seamus Conneelly and Ian McLoughlin who had a cracking final against locals Philip O’Connor and Paul Kelly. There was nothing between the teams right up to 18-18, but then Conneelly really showed his class and helped open up a 9 point lead. Although the south Roscommon lads came back strongly they just couldn’t bridge the gap and went down 31-25. Philip and Paul had an excellent 31-23 win in their semi-final over former winners and potential Junior Championship opponents Denis Creaton and Sean Jennings from Lisacul.
The Curraghboy Handball Tournament Plate competition, for first round losers, was won by the strong St. Coman’s pairing of Oisin Naughton and Darren Beatty when they beat Galway duo Pat Conway and Diarmuid Mulkerrins 31-16. Darren’s spectacular power killing was on full display here and when in that mood there’s very little can be done to counter him. The town lads had narrowly lost their first round match to eventual champs Conneelly and McLoughlin.
It was a busy weekend for Oisin as on Friday night he played the first round of the 40×20 Junior Singles County Championship and had a straightforward two game win over Curraghboy’s Padraig Coyle.