Aengus Cunningham reviews a weekend of mixed fortunes for the Roscommon Handball players in Connacht Semi-Final and previews the All-Ireland Ladies Intermediate 40×20 Final.
Connacht 40×20 Ladies Junior ‘B’ Doubles Semi-Final
St. Coman’s Ladies Junior ‘B’ Doubles pairing of Linda Connolly and Siobhan Tully were easy winners of their Connacht semi-final held in their home alley today (Sunday). They faced Galway’s Janet Flanagan and Karen Finnegan and were in control the whole way, winning very convincingly 21-2, 21-6.
Connacht 40×20 Junior Doubles Connacht Semi-Final
The last-minute Junior Doubles combination of Sean Jennings (Lisacul) and Darren Beatty (St. Coman’s) understandably took a long time to get used to playing together while trying to defeat the strong Galway pairing of Seamus Conneelly and Conor Noone and went down 21-6, 21-18 in Lisacul last Friday. Due to confusion over the eligibility of Sean’s regular partner Denis Creaton, Darren stepped in at very late notice rather than give a walkover, but against quality opponents the lack of preparation together was always going to come against them.
Connacht 40×20 Juvenile ‘B’ Semi-Finals
The Connnacht Semi-Finals of the Juvenile ‘B’ championships were held in Lisacul recently and out of the eight matches played Roscommon had just one winner – the impressive Shauna Corrigan from Lisacul who beat Galway’s Grace Hanley 15-11, 15-8 in the Girls U11 grade. As there is no U11 grade in ‘A’ handball, this is effectively an ‘A’ contest which makes Shauna’s win all the more impressive.
Best of the rest was probably Lisacul’s U12 doubles of Brian Greene and Joseph Noonan who were pipped by Galway’s Rory O’Reilly and Dara Gavin 15-11, 8-15, 12-15 in a great contest.
All-Ireland 40×20 Ladies Intermediate Final Preview
Fiona Tully, Roscommon handball’s brightest star at the moment, will try to add to her already extensive collection of medals when she plays her Ladies Intermediate All-Ireland Final in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan next Saturday. In the opposite corner is Clare’s Clodagh Nash, sister of top Men’s player Diarmuid. While Clodagh is an accomplished player, on current form Fiona will enter this match as a warm favourite.