By Aengus Cunningham
All-Ireland Ladies 40×20 Semi-Finals
On a pretty poor weekend for Roscommon Handball, Fiona Tully once again provided some silver lining when she easily won her Ladies Intermediate All-Ireland Semi-final in St. Coman’s this evening (Sunday).
Fiona showed her full array of skills when blitzing Laois’s Niam Dunne in two decisive games and in truth never looked like losing. The scoreline of 21-1, 21-2 tells all that needs to be told.
It was a different story the previous day however, when the St. Coman’s star faced the toughest challenge in Ladies handball when she took on Cork’s outstanding Catriona Casey in the Ladies Open semi-final held in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan. Casey won 21-6, 21-1, but had to work much harder than the scoreline suggests. It certainly opened Fiona’s eyes as to how far she has to go in order to reach the top of the tree in Ladies handball, but reaching the last four in only her first year competing at Open level has to be viewed as a positive.
All-Ireland Mens Over 35 ‘B’ 40×20 Semi-Final
Lisacul’s Denis Creaton was an impressive winner of his Over 35 ‘B’ All-Ireland semi-final when he beat Wexford’s Fergal McWilliams 21-6, 21-18 last Saturday. With his skillset and fitness the vastly experienced west Roscommon man now has a very good chance of winning this title outright.
All-Ireland Mens Junior 40×20 Semi-Final
Denis’ clubmate Sean Jennings had no joy in his Junior singles All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin’s Keith Bourke held in Dublin last Saturday. In a game that never really got going the transplanted Kilkenny man always held the upper hand and won 21-12, 21-14.
All-Ireland Emerald Masters 40×20 Semi-Final
Curraghboy’s Ger Walshe was beaten in his Emerald Masters All-Ireland semi-final by Westmeath’s excellent Robbie McCarthy, son of Senior champion Robbie Junior. Robbie is probably fitter now than he was ten years ago and has decades of experience at the very highest level, but he really had to fight in the second game before overcoming Ger 21-7, 21-15.
All-Ireland 40×20 Junior Ladies Semi-Final
Caoimhe Shanagher was defeated decisively by Kildare’s Hannah Dagg in their Junior All-Ireland semi-final in Leixlip last Saturday. Dagg was narrowly defeated in last year’s Minor final by Caoimhe’s clubmate Fiona Tully and is a terrific player, so the win was not unexpected.
All-Ireland Juvenile ‘A’ 40×20 Semi-Finals
The highly thought of U14 Doubles pairing of Philip Halliday and Eanna Moran had a very disappointing outing when they never really got going against Wexford’s Conor Murphy and Mark Doyle and were beaten 15-2, 15-8. Doyle’s serving was excellent, but Philip strangely struggled in general play for most of a match that they were definitely capable of winning.
Shauna Clogher fared no better in the Girls U15 Singles, when she was comfortably beaten in two straight games by Kildare’s Abby Tarrant, who was the superior player throughout.