Galway club Annaghdown hosted their inaugural Onewall tournament over weekend and
Roscommon Handball had four representatives, all of whom accounted for themselves quite well.
Despite being confined to Connacht players it was a resounding success with big entry numbers for both juveniles and adults.
Fionn Cusack won out the U17 grade when he beat clubmate Magomed “Mog” Yakhyaev 18-9 in the Final. In the early going of the ten minute format it looked like Mog had the measure of the big Strokestown lad with some lovely clever play, but the longer the game went on the more Fionn worked the angled shooting that makes him such a good Onewall player to give him a decisive win.
Philip Halliday won out the Plate competition in the U15 grade after a narrow first round loss against the talented Nathan Kelly from Athenry. In a very entertaining game, the lead changed hands a number of time before Kelly just pipped Philip at the end 12-10. As expected, Philip was by far the best player in the Plate competition and he easily accounted for his remaining three opponents highlighted by some excellent killing.
Young Irslam Yakhyaev was unlucky when the draw pitted himself and Inverinn’s Feilim O’Dioluin in the second round of the U11 competition. They were the two outstanding players in that grade and their match would have made a fitting final. In a cracking encounter the crucial difference between the two was the serving. Irslam’s more aggressive serving won straight points but it also carried the risk of serving over the sideline which he did on a number of occasions while O’Dioluin’s more conservative approach saw no similar errors. In a game that could have gone either way the Galway lad won 13-10.