Clare and Tyrone dominate finals

CLARE hosted the Junior National Championships at the weekend and the event was an outstanding success, with the main titles claimed by Clare and Tyrone.

More than 200 games were held across nine venues on Saturday and Sunday and the championships finished with a brilliant series of finals on Sunday.

In the boys’ 17 and under category, Clare’s Colin Crehan entered the competition as the favourite, with high hopes of a home victory. In the semi-final he met Darren Doherty and the game produced an epic tie-break, which saw the Clare man come out on top. In the other side of the draw, Tyrone’s Gabhain McCrystall overcame Clare’s Barry Nash.

The final produced one of the games of the weekend as a tie-break was required to separate the players, with McCrystal edging it 11-7, much to the delight of the travelling supporters.

In the boys’ 19 and under category, Clare had high hopes again as local favourite Jamie Lynch faced up to Monaghan’s Terry McElvaney in the final but the Monaghan man produced some superb handball, including a remarkable comeback from 20-15 down in the first to take the title north with a 21-20, 21-15 victory.

Clooney’s rising star, Fergal Coughlan was in great form throughout the weekend, in the highly contested boys’ 15 and under category. On Saturday, he had a titanic battle against Monaghan youngster Gavin Coyle but produced great handball to progress to the semi-finals on Sunday morning. The semi-final was a re-match of the All-Ireland final two weeks ago, when he took on Mayo’s Niall Joyce. Again, the young Banner man proved the stronger and advanced to the final.

In the final, Coughlan came up against Daniel Kavanagh from Wexford. Coughlan dominated the final from start to finish, with precision serving and clinical offensive play. He took the first with a commanding performance on a 21-8 scoreline. The second game proved much of the same and young Coughlan went on to capture the title 21-6 and add to the U-16 All-Ireland title he claimed two weeks earlier.

It was a weekend to remember for the Coughlan family, as Fergal’s sister Natasha was in action in Tuamgraney in the girls’ 17 and under B competition. In the semi-final, she defeated favourite and current All-Ireland U-17 champion, Laois’ Niamh Dunne, in a thrilling match 21-12, 8-21, 11-6.

In the final, Natasha proved too strong for her Kilkenny opponent, Rachael Delahunty, and claimed the title on a 21-6, 21-5 scoreline.

Kilkishen’s Tiarnan Agnew was impressive in the boys’ 13 and under competition, which was held in his home court. With some skilful play, he quickly moved up the table to set up a semi-final clash with young Tipperary star and current All-Ireland U-14 doubles champion, Jerome Cahill.  Agnew started the best and finished the strongest, taking the match on a 15-6, 15-11 scoreline.

In the final, Agnew was pitted against Tyrone’s Cormac Munroe. Agnew proved too strong for the Tyrone lad and went on to claim the title on a 15-5, 15-7 scoreline.

Meanwhile, Alana Ryan, Kilkishen, defeated Aoife Floyd, Tulla, in a thrilling encounter on Sunday, when both girls made their way through to eventually meet in the final of the U-13B girls nationals.