Loughnane wins ladies’ national junior singles title

There was another historic win for Clare as the 40×20 handball season drew to a close over the weekend with the last of this year’s adult All-Ireland finals.

Lisa Loughnane (Clooney) was crowned All-Ireland ladies’ junior singles champion after a well-earned 21-20 21-11 win over Marie Therese O’Neill in the final at Crinkle on Sunday. In the process, Lisa became Clare’s first ladies’ junior singles champion and also made it a Banner one-two as Clare had already secured the junior doubles title.
Also on Sunday, Tuamgraney pair Ashling Fitzgerald and Edel O’Grady were defeated in three games (21-20, 6-21, 8-21) in the All-Ireland junior B ladies doubles final, going down to Westmeath (Aoife McCarthy and Niamh Egan) in Moycullen.
On the underage front, Clare will be well represented in the upcoming
All-Ireland juvenile team-of-six semi-finals. Having already secured Munster titles, the U-12/13 and U-14/15 teams will both be in action in Tyrone (Beragh/Carrickmore) on Saturday, May 8 with an 11am start.
The U-12/13 team (Jack Hayes, Shane Hunt, Barry Loughnane, Ben McLoughlin, Fergal Coughlan, Brian Fahy, Jake Kearney, Conor Hayes) have a tricky semi-final test against the home county, while the U-14/15s (Emmet Gleeson, Jacob Loughnane, John O’Brien, Ricky Bolton, Mark Lynch, Paul Gleeson, Mark Peuter, Colin Kelly) take on Leinster champions Carlow. The finals of both grades will be played immediately after the semis.