Minors through to All-Ireland final

CLARE’S minor doubles pairing of Colin Crehan and Niall Bolton booked a place in the All-Ireland final when they travelled to Wexford last weekend and defeated Slaneysiders Galen Riordan and Pádraig Foley, 21-5, 21-14. In the final, they will face Tyrone’s Paul Clarke and Gavin McCrystral.
The minor doubles final will be played along with the men’s senior doubles and ladies’ senior singles finals in Cappagh, Limerick on Saturday, April 7.
The victory by the minor doubles pairing was the only success for Clare competitors in five All-Ireland semi-final championship games at the weekend.
Through to the men’s senior singles final is Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy who defeated Clare’s Diarmuid Nash at the weekend. 
Nash was aiming to be the first Clare player to reach Irish handball’s showpiece since Pat Kirby’s 1980 win. Although the Tuamgraney clubman showed flashes of real brilliance and competed well throughout, McCarthy was always in control and won 21-12, 21-14 to set up a final showdown with Cavan maestro Paul Brady.
Golden Masters B doubles pair John Cawley and Teddy O’Hanlon were unlucky not to come away from Kilkenny with a victory, losing in the third game of their semi-final to local pair Eamon and Jimmy Purcell. The Clare pair dominated the first game and held off a Kikenny fightback to win 21-17. Kilkenny had the better of matters in the second, which they won 21-14. The third game went right down to the wire and at the end of a two-and-a-half hour battle, the home side sealed the win, 21-20.
There was no success either for the Banner County in the two semi-final fixtures played at Tuamgraney on Saturday as Kilkenny convincingly took the spoils in both. Current All-Ireland U-21 doubles champions Patrick and Peter Funchion eased past Chris Philpott and Trevor Vaughan (21-2, 21-6) to make it to this year’s final, while in ladies’ Junior B Doubles, Marie Walsh and Rachel Hogan defeated Edel O’Grady and Ashling Fitzgerald 21-5, 21-9.
The Munster 40×20 juvenile finals were also played over the weekend and Clare claimed titles at girls’ U-12 doubles (Aoife Floyd, Niamh O’Brien), U-14 doubles (Clodagh Nash, Doireann Murphy), boys’ U-12 singles (Tiernan Agnew), U-15 doubles (Cathair Agnew, Jake Kearney) and U-16 singles (Colin Corbett), while Natasha Coughlan and Michelle Nihill played their U-16 doubles final on Wednesday. The All-Ireland Juvenile semi-finals take place over the weekend of March 24/25.
The focus now turns to weekend one of the All-Ireland 40×20 adult finals in two weeks’ time, which will see all the singles finals played (plus the minor doubles). Clare’s All-Ireland singles finalists are Cathal Hannon (Tulla) who plays Terry Kiernan of Monaghan in junior and John Cawley (Shannon) who takes on Galway’s Denis Phelan in Golden Masters B.
Meanwhile, Ballina’s Ger Coonan will fly the Tipperary flag in the All-Ireland intermediate singles final against Martin Mulkerrins (Galway).
GAA Handball Ireland National Congress takes place this Sunday in Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim.
Locally, there was county league final action during the week when O’Callaghan’s Mills defeated Tulla by just two points (73-71) in a very entertaining Division 1 decider in Tuamgraney.
The winning team was Colin Crehan, Mike Baker, John Cooney and Chris Philpott. Clooney were convincing victors over Tuamgraney in the Division 4 final in Tulla on Friday, winning all three doubles games. The winners were Ryan O’Neill, Gary Hassett, Sean Shanahan, Conor Clune, Colin Haugh and Richie Hennessy.
Fixtures 
Saturday, March 24: Silvermines (3pm).
Golden Masters B Singles: Clare (John Cawley) v Galway (Denis Phelan).
Sunday, March 25: Curraghboy (2pm).
Junior singles: Clare (Cathal Hannon) v Monaghan (Terry Kiernan).
Sunday, March 25: Tuamgraney (1pm).
Ladies minor singles: Limerick (Martina McMahon) v Roscommon (Lauren O’Riordan).
Emerald Masters A Singles: Limerick (Tom O Brien) v Mayo (Kevin Geraghty).
Ladies Intermediate Singles: Mayo (Pauline Gallagher) v Cork (Catriona Casey).
Sunday, March 25: Tulla (1pm).
Ruby masters singles: Tipperary (Jim Ryan) v Galway (Morgan Darcy).
Intermediate singles: Tipperary (Ger Coonan) v Galway (Martin Mulkerrins).
O-35B singles: Limerick (Paul Hedderman) v Galway (Trevor Hannon).
All-Ireland 40×20 Juvenile semi-finals, Sunday, March 25: Munster winners V Leinster winners, Munster venues.