Crehan captains team to Carrickmore success

COLIN Crehan extended his magnificent run of recent form when he captained a Clare team to the prestigious Paddy Grogan Memorial Tournament in Carrickmore, Tyrone over the weekend. This invitational tournament features the top young handballers in Ireland and is run off on a novel format.
Each team comprises four players, one U-14 girl, one U-14 boy, one U-16 boy and captained by an U-18 boy, with each team named after the captain’s county. Games were played on a time basis with overall aggregate score determining the winners.
The Kilkishen teenager defeated Darren Doherty from Monaghan in the final in the latest game of a growing rivalry. Crehan defeated Doherty at the recent Irish junior trials and the Monaghan man won when they met in the tournament group stages on Saturday. Crehan wasn’t to be denied in Sunday’s final though and collected the cup with his team-mates Ramunas Ramuskas (Monaghan), Jason English (Tipperary) and Elise McCrory (Tyrone). The Monaghan runners-up were Doherty, Johnny Woods (Tyrone), Ronan McKay (Tyrone) and Anna Ní Odhran (Galway).
Meanwhile, Diarmaid Nash has moved up the ladder on the most recent Irish handball ranking list. The Tuamgraney clubman has leaped from number 13 to joint sixth following his brilliant 40×20 All-Ireland Championship, where he reached the All-Ireland semi-final against Westmeath man Robbie McCarthy. Indeed McCarthy himself has taken the top spot and is now ranked ahead of Cavan’s Paul Brady, despite Brady’s heavy defeat of McCarthy in the All-Ireland senior singles final. The rankings are formed on the basis of all competitions played so while Brady only played the All-Ireland Senior Championships, Mullingar’s McCarthy had an amazing year, winning the Irish Nationals and World Championship trials in the small court, senior singles in the big alley, plus the hardball senior singles and a number of tournament wins. Clareman Nash comes in at sixth, behind McCarthy, Brady, Joe McCann (Mayo), Michael Gregan (Wicklow) and Michael Finnegan (Cavan) and just ahead of Killian Carroll (Cork). Niall Malone, who didn’t play as much handball as he would have liked in the last 12 months, sits outside the top 30.
With the 40×20 season giving way to the 60×30 code for the summer months, preparations are well underway in Clare for the upcoming Munster Championships which will start in early June.
In the County Junior B Doubles Championship, Ciarán and Shane Walsh (Tuamgraney) defeated Thomas and John Kirby (jnr) of Shannon in the final (14-21, 21-14, 21-12) and so will represent Clare in Munster. The County Junior B Singles Championship will be played over the coming week. The Tuamgraney club will also be running the Michael O’Neill Perpetual Cup tournament in the big alley (entry details will be circulated this week). The cup was donated by the O’Neill family in memory of the late Michael O’Neill, a stalwart of Tuamgraney handball for a long number of years.