Munster handball honours for juveniles

Last weekend saw Clare host the Munster Juvenile Handball Championships and the hosts contested 10 finals in both the Tulla and O’Callaghan’s Mills courts.
Hopes were high going into the finals and the young guns of Clare handball stood up and delivered in all 10 categories, ensuring that the county will be well represented in the All-Ireland semi-finals, which will be staged at Connacht venues this weekend.
The U-16 girls’ singles final between Alice Akers and Waterford’s Aoife Landers was a particularly competitive tie. This was the first time the duo met competitively and it was a cracker, with the Clare girl taking the title by a single ace.
The other notable battle was in the U-13 category between Clare’s Jack Hayes and Shane Hunt, who paired up against a very strong Limerick pairing of Glen McNamara and Risteard Duggan. Clare went down in the first game 15-0 and their chances of victory appeared slim.
The young Clare competitor had other ideas and came back to take the second and set up what was to be a thrilling tie-breaker. Exchanging points on numerous occasions, this was an epic battle before Hayes clinched the match on a 15-13 scoreline.
Last Monday, there were two more deciders for Clare, namely the U-14 boys’ doubles and the girls’ U-15 doubles. These were played in front of a packed home crowd in Clooney. First up was the U-14 doubles when Clare’s Fergal Coughlan and Jamie Keane came up against a very strong Waterford pairing of Dara Lyons and John Elstead.
The first game was a nip-and-tuck affair, with Waterford edging towards a win. However, the Clare duo dug deep to take the first on a 15-13 scoreline. Waterford turned the tide and captured the second on a 15-12 scoreline to set up a cracker of a tie-break. The Clare lads came out fighting and raced to a 6-2 lead and didn’t relinquish the lead to clinch the Munster title on a 15-8 scoreline.
Clooney girls Natasha Coughlan and Michelle Nihill are seasoned county representatives and this time proved no different as their power and experience came to the fore and they claimed their Munster title with an emphatic 15-3, 15-4 scoreline.

Results
Girls’ U-12 singles: Ella Donnellan (Clare) beat Diane O’Neill (Cork) 15-0, 15-1
Boys’ U-12 singles: Tiernan Agnew (Clare) beat Darragh Moynihan (Cork) 15-3, 15-5
Boys’ U-15 doubles: Jacob Loughnane/Ciaran Cooney (Clare) beat Timmy Dunne/Aidan Kerins (Cork) 15-3, 15-2
Boys’ U-16 singles: Colin Crehan (Clare) beat Ryan Harkin (Cork) 21-17, 21-2
Girls’ U-14 doubles: Clodagh Nash/Doireann Murphy (Clare) beat Katie Hayes/Lauren McGregor (Waterford) 15-9, 15-1
Boys’ U-13 doubles: Jack Hayes/Shane Hunt (Clare) beat Risteard Duggan/Evan Murphy (Limerick) 0-15, 15-11, 15-13
Girls’ U-16 singles: Alice Akers (Clare) beat Aoife Landers (Waterford) 21-20, 6-21, 11-10
Boys’ U-14 singles: Brian Fahy (Clare) beat Shane Flynn (Cork) 15-2, 15-8
Boys’ U-16 doubles: Niall Bolton/Colin Corbett (Clare) beat Daniel Relihan/Michael Hedigan (Cork) 21-17, 21-8
Boys’ U-14 doubles: Fergal Coughlan/Jamie Keane (Clare) beat Dara Lyons/John Elstead (Waterford) 15-13, 12-15, 15-8
Girls’ U-15 doubles: Natasha Coughlan/Michelle Nihill (Clare) beat Emma Burke/Gráinne Blackburn (Limerick) 15-4, 15-4.
Clare’s representatives in this weekend’s All-Ireland semi-finals are: Brian Fahy (U-14 singles); Fergal Coughlan/Jamie Keane (U-14 doubles); Jacob Loughnane/Ciaran Cooney (U-15 doubles); Colin Crehan (U-16 singles); Niall Bolton/Colin Corbett (U-16 doubles); Clodagh Nash/Doireann Murphy (Girls’ U-14 doubles); Natasha Coughlan/Michelle Nihill (Girls’ U-15 doubles); Alice Akers (Girls’ U-16 singles); Hannah O’Brien/Áine McInerny (Girls’ U-17 doubles).

Another title for Nash

Tuamgraney clubman Diarmaid Nash won the Munster intermediate singles final on Wednesday night to secure a historic provincial treble.
Nash’s 21-16, 21-6 win over Cork’s Brendan
Fleming in Fleming’s home court of
Ballydesmond means Nash now holds the Munster senior singles, intermediate singles and intermediate doubles titles, a great achievement in the year that he also won the All-Ireland Third-level Colleges
Championship.
The Scariff man and his doubles partner Niall Malone play their All-Ireland intermediate semi-final this Saturday in Tuamgraney at 4pm. against Chris Doolin and Niall McGrath (Roscommon).
Malone was in Kingscourt on Saturday for a senior singles second-round match with seven-time champion Paul Brady but he was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury very early in the first game.
There are three more All-Ireland semi-finals involving Clare players on Sunday, all in Moycullen and all against Galway players.
The action starts at 2.30pm, when Aisling
Fitzgerald (Tuamgraney) takes on Sinéad Ní
Ainli in the ladies’ junior B singles. Next up is
the Golden Masters B ­singles semi-final between
John Cawley and Denis ­Phelan and finally Pat
Donellan (Kilkishen) plays ­Martin Conneely in
Golden Masters A singles.
The following weekend will see Clare’s other Munster champions play their All-Ireland semi-finals.