Roscommon only had one winner at the Connacht Cumann na mBunscoil 40×20 Handball Finals held in Moycullen last Sunday.
Mount Talbot twins Siobhan and Aisling Treacy took the Girls U13 Doubles title in an incredibly exciting battle with Scoil Sailearna, Galway’s Eadaoin NicDhonncha and Skylynn Ni Mhaile Bhreathnach. The Roscommon girls lost the first game 8-11 but rallied well to win the second game 11-5. The tiebreaker was a cliffhanger, with the game tied at 9-9 and 10-10! Switching serves at 10-10 was enough for the Roscommon girls, as their cross serves were faultless in the final and they closed out the match 11-10. Siobhan and Aisling will now represent their school in the All-Ireland series in Kingscourt Cavan on the 20th February. Best of luck girls!
Representing Roxboro National School in the girls U13 singles, Carragh Kennedy came through the Connacht semi final, defeating Leitrim’s Caoimhe McDermott in two straight games, 11-9, 11-3. On the other side of the draw, In the final, Carragh came up against former Junior Nationals winner Saedbh NiFlaithearta (Scoil Einne, An Spideal), who defeated a much fancied Hazel Finn (Kiltimagh, Mayo) in the other semi. Saedbh’s experience proved too much for Carragh who lost out 11-3, 11-5. This experience will stand to Carragh, who has proved she can compete with the top juveniles in Connacht and is one of Roscommon’s up and coming juvenile girls.
Rory Carthy (Gaelscoil de hIde) came very close to winning the boys U11 singles event. In a threeway playoff his normal pinpoint serving was a little off in his first match with Moycullen’s stylish Padraig McNeela. Rory lost 9-11 in a first game he probably should have won but was well beaten in the second 2-11. Rory then played Alan Gilmartin from Bofield NS, Mayo and won impressively 11-6, 11-7. The feeling in the audience was that if Rory played his opposition the other way around he may well have won it out as he played much more like his normal self in the second match.
Philip Halliday (Gaelscoil de hIde) took part in the match of the day, when he had a cracker with reigning World Champion from Athenry NS Mikey Kelly. Philip’s superb power serving and killing stunned Mikey in the first giving him an 11-5 win. Mikey upped the ante in the second and won 11-4. The third was tight all the way, but unfortunately a few lapses from Philip cost him dearly and he ended up at the wrong end of an 8-11 scoreline. Philip can take great encouragement from this result and has proved again that he is as good as the very best in the country.