County handball leagues reaching climax

The Clare County Adult Handball Leagues are reaching the concluding stages in Divisions 1, 2 and 4, while there are a number of rounds left to play in Division 3.
In Division 1, Tulla and O’Callaghan’s Mills have, as expected, qualified for the decider that will be played on March 8 in Tuamgraney. This has all the makings of a top-quality final with handballers of the calibre of John and Conor Cooney, Cathal Hannon and Aidan Lynch in action.
The Division 2 decider, on Monday next in Tuamgraney, will also see Tulla and the ‘Mills clash and this also promises to be a close affair.
In Division 3, there are still two rounds of round-robin games to go before the semi-finals and at the time of writing, Shannon, Clooney, Tuamgraney and both Clarecastle teams were strongly in the shake-up to fill the top four spots.
The last round of regular games in Division 4 were played last week resulting in semi-finals of Clooney against Kilkishen (2) and Tuamgraney against Broadford. The Broadford club re-formed this season after an absence of a number of years and have impressed in reaching the Division 4 semis on their return.

More Munster success for Clare

Clare has now collected four Munster adult 40×20 handball titles and Banner County handballers are still in contention for six other provincial titles.
There were also two All-Ireland colleges titles picked up over the weekend while the Banner County’s senior handball star Diarmaid Nash progressed to this weekends quarter-finals of the All-Ireland senior men’s open singles championship.
Cathal Hannon is Munster junior singles champion after he defeated Limerick’s Thomas Donegan on Tuesday last. The Tulla clubman dominated all through and powered to a 21-11, 21-15 win in Broadford.
Hannon is also in the Munster Junior Doubles final, where he teams up with clubmate Aidan Lynch to take on the highly-rated Donnacha O’Dea and Shane Hedigan of Cork in Cappagh next Saturday.
Shannon’s John Cawley is a double Munster champion after taking both golden masters B singles and doubles titles.
Cawley defeated Limerick’s Jimmy Fanning 21-14, 21-5 in Broadford last Thursday and, with Teddy O’Hanlon, went on to add the doubles title on Monday night with victory over Tipperary pair Martin Ryan and Donal Quinn in Galbally.
Tuamgraney’s Aisling Fitzgerald won a dramatic Munster ladies junior B singles final against Waterford’s Laura Keevers in Galbally on Saturday. Having won the first game 21-10, Fitzgerald faltered and lost the second 21-9. Waterford’s Keevers dominated the third and seemed poised for victory when she led 20-13 but a remarkable comeback from the Clare girl saw her win 21-20 to become Munster champion.
Like Hannon and Cawley, she is also on the trail of doubles honours and teams up with clubmate Edel O’Grady for the provincial final against Siobhan Lehane and Niamh Blackburn of Limerick.
It is thought that John Kirby’s Munster ruby masters singles final against Tipperary’s Jim Ryan will be re-fixed this coming week. Kirby will team up with Jimmy Walsh for the doubles decider when they play Cork’s Michael Jordan and Dan O’Brien on Saturday.
This week also sees all-Clare Munster finals in minor and U-21 grades. Tulla’s Niall Bolton reached the Munster minor singles final where he was narrowly defeated on Wednesday by Pa Herlihy, Cork, and will be looking to make amends when he partners Kilkishen’s Colin Crehan to take on Tuamgraney pair, Barry Nash and Patrick Fitzgerald in the doubles final at Shannon on Sunday.
All four are already recognised as being among the top young handballers in the country and all four have won All-Ireland championship titles in recent years.
Indeed, both Bolton and Crehan claimed All-Ireland colleges titles in Kingscourt over the weekend. Bolton and Colin Corbett (St Joseph’s, Tulla) won the boys intermediate doubles title while Crehan (Ard Scoil Rís, Limerick) took the intermediate singles honours.
In the Munster U-21 doubles final Sam Edbrooke and Colm Halpin (both Tulla) play Trevor Vaughan and Chris Philpott (Tulla/Kilkishen).
In the All-Ireland senior singles championship, Diarmaid Nash is through to the quarter-final stages after rounds one and two were played over the weekend.
Tuamgraney clubman Nash got a walkover from Roscommon’s Chris Doolin on Saturday and travelled to Crinkle 24 hours later to play Kerry’s Dominic Lynch. Nash took the win in unusual circumstances when, with the Clareman leading 10-7 in the second game, Lynch conceded the game after objecting to a number of refereeing decisions during the game.
Niall Malone suffered a 21-5, 21-15 first-round loss to Cavan’s Michael Finnegan in Roscommon.
This weekend is also shaping up to be a hectic one for Nash as he is due to play Mayo’s Joe McCann in the singles quarter-final this Saturday in Moycullen and return to the Galway venue the following day with Niall Malone for the All-Ireland senior doubles first-round clash against Roscommon’s Chris Doolin and Niall McGrath. This will be a repeat of the 2011 All-Ireland intermediate doubles semi-final that the Clare pair won. With a number of games involving Clare players fixed for this Saturday, allied to the fact that Nash is the only player in the championships scheduled to play singles and doubles on consecutive days, there is a chance that fixtures may change slightly.

Munster 40×20 championship fixtures (7.30pm unless stated)
Saturday, February 25
Moycullen (5pm): All-Ireland Senior Open Singles quarter-final – Diarmaid Nash v Joe McCann (Mayo).
Cappagh (5pm): Junior Doubles final – Cathal Hannon/Aidan Lynch v Donnacha O’Dea/Shane Hedigan (Cork); Ladies Junior B Doubles final – Ashling Fitzgerald/Edel O’Grady v Siobhán Lehane/Niamh Blackburn (Limerick).
Broadford (tbc) (3pm): Ruby Masters Doubles final – John Kirby/Jimmy Walsh v Michael Jordan/Dan O’Brien (Cork).
Sunday, February 26
Moycullen (1pm): All-Ireland Senior Open Doubles, rd 1 – Diarmaid Nash and Niall Malone v Chris Doolin/Niall McGrath (Roscommon).
Shannon (4pm): Minor Doubles Final – Colin Crehan/Niall Bolton v Barry Nash/ Patrick Fitzgerald.