Vibrant handball season
November 30, 2009award for 2008 at the Irish National Handball Awards.
This was a huge honour for the club which is doing so much to keep the game very much alive and well in Meath. Its schools' training programme is a significant initiative which has the potential to reap rich benefits, while last year was also a very successful one on the playing front, highlighted by the victory of Tom Sheridan and Brian Carroll in the All-Ireland 60x30 Senior Doubles Championship. It was a case of experience and youth at its best as they played some magnificent handball to be crowned champions.
Rising star Gary McConnell had demonstrated his undoubted potential and talent earlier in the year when he stormed to victory in the Leinster and All-Ireland Minor 40 x 20 Championships, while Kells won the National 60x30 Open Interclub title and the Irish One-Wall competition. All in all, it was a hugely successful year for the club and reward for the ongoing dedicated work of its members.
At the end of 2008 McConnell competed in the boys 17 and under grade at the US Handball Association National Junior Four-Wall Championships in Vancouver, Washington State. He left Ireland before Christmas with the rest of the Irish team and, despite being the number one seed, he received a very tough draw.
After getting a bye in the first round he came face to face with highly rate.d American player Humberto Cardenaz from Tuscon, Arizona, and defeated him comfortably to get his title bid off to the desired start. The Kells youngster was brilliant in his semi-final as he beat Oscar Olivas, also from Tuscon, impressively and that set up a final meeting with second seed Caolan Daly from Tyrone.
Like McConnell, Daly is a player who seems to have a very bright future to look forward to in the sport and he won an exciting final to deprive the Meath man of the title. McConnell was undoubtedly disappointed to lose at the last hurdle, but getting there represented a fine achievement in itself.
McConnell also played in the 19 and under doubles competition when he teamed up with Clare player Diarmuid Nash. They won their opening contest, but playing two matches on the one day took its toll on the Kells handballer and they were beaten at the semi-final hurdle by Victor Perez and Nikolai Nahomiak.
McConnell and Daly were later to go head to head in the All-Ireland Minor 40x20 Championship final, with Daly winning again. McConnell had earlier won his second successive Leinster title in the grade with a final victory over Patrick Function of Kilkenny and he defeated Trevor Vaughan of Clare 21-8, 21-9 at the All-Ireland semi-final stage before his home fans in Kells.
But when it came to the final in Roscommon, Daly proved best in a match that featured a superbly contested opening game which was a pleasure to watch. The players shared 41 aces, with Daly shading the verdict 21-20 and he went on to clinch victory and the national honours when winning the second more comfortably on a 21-15 score line.
McConnell also won the Leinster Minor 60x30 Championship, but his bid for All-Ireland honours ended at the semi-final stage.
Earlier in the year Carroll had beaten Dublin's Egin Jensen in the Leinster 40x20 Senior Singles Championship, but he was then eliminated when losing to handball legend Michael 'Duxie' Walsh of Kilkenny 5-21, 7-21.
Other action earlier in the year saw Carroll successfully defend his All-Ireland 40x20 Intervarsities Open Singles Championship title and Peter Flanagan and Eugene O'Reilly progress in the Leinster Junior 'B' Doubles Championship, before they eventually lost the final to John Morrissey and David Clifford of Kilkenny.
With spring in the air, Sheridan and John Leahy defeated defending champions Michael 'Duxie' Walsh and Pat Maher from Kilkenny 21-20, 14-21, 21-10 in the Leinster Masters 'A' Doubles Championship final. This was a well deserved success for a newly formed pairing and they followed it up by beating Pat O'Flaherty and Josie O'Dwyer of Tipperary in another three setter in the All-Ireland semi-final at Kells. It finished 21-16, 20-21, 21-11 and provided great entertainment for the local enthusiasts.
And things got even better for Sheridan and Leahy when they completed a fabulous campaign by clinching the All-Ireland title in Truagh with a straight sets victory over Antrim duo Paddy Crothers and John McGarry. The Kells pairing won the opening game comfortably by 21-9, but the Ulster combination came back well at the start of the second to push into a 7-2 lead.
However, Sheridan and Leahy, who are the Kells club chairman and secretary, respectively, soon halted their rally and pushed into a 13-7 advantage, before they clinched the second game 21-10 to secure a richly deserved title.
Sheridan and Carroll had both exited the singles title race by the time it came to the defence of the All-Ireland 60 x 30 Senior Doubles Championship title and they made a winning start when getting the better of Waterford's David Walsh and Philip Butler.
They advanced to meet 'Duxie' Walsh and Michael Clifford of Kilkenny at the penultimate hurdle in Croke Park and the first game was a magnificent spectacle which had the crowd on the edge of their seats as the pairings were level on no fewer than nine occasions. Walsh and Clifford eventually edged it 21-20 to gain an early stranglehold on the semi-final.
It was all square at 14-14 in the second game, but it appeared to be all over bar the shouting when the Kilkenny pair won six aces in a row to push ahead 20-14. But Sheridan isn't regarded as one of the best doubles players in the history of the sport without good reason and his class was vital as the Meath men battled back in brilliant fashion.
Kilkenny had won six aces on the trot, but Sheridan and Carroll did even better by claiming seven and that enabled them to come from behind and win the second game 21-20. It was thrilling stuff, but something had to give in the third game which was eagerly awaited by the Croke Park crowd. And, after earlier being on the brink of defeat, the Kells men took a firm stranglehold on proceedings to close out the match 21-10.
Eoin Kennedy and Egin Jensen of Dublin beat Wicklow's Michael Gregan and Johnny Willoughby in the other semi-final and so the decider would be a repeat of the 2008 semi-final in which the Meath pairing got through 21-18 in the tie breaker.
Kennedy and former Meath player Jensen, who were the champions in 2007, fell behind by 16-20 in the opening game, but reeled off five successive aces to shade it 21-20. The early exchanges in the second game were close and after they were on level terms a number of times it was the Dublin duo who opened up a 10-6 lead.
Sheridan and Carroll came back strongly and edged ahead at 12-11, but Kennedy and Jensen took complete control of the final after that and won the game 21-12 to clinch the title. Sheridan and Carroll had teamed up in the Leinster Championship earlier in the year, but were eliminated in a tight quarter-final by Wicklow's Michael Gregan and Johnny Willoughby.
This year also saw Peter Flanagan win the men's 'C' grade at the Golden Gloves in Belfast and Eugene O'Reilly take the 40x20 'C' title at the US Nationals.
The World Championships took place in Portland, Oregon, in early autumn and while there were no outright successes for the Royal County, the players performed well against high quality opposition and will have benefited from the whole experience.
Carroll teamed up with Westmeath's Robbie McCarthy in the Men's Open Doubles Championship, but unfortunately the former world under-19 champions tasted final defeat. On the way to the decider they beat the United States partnership of Emmet Peixoto and Allan Garner and then Ireland's Charlie Shanks and Colm Jordan.
Their final opponents on the last day of the championships were Kennedy of Dublin and Cavan's Michael Finnegan and Carroll and McCarthy were looking good when they pushed into a 15-8 lead in the first game, before their rivals battled back well to win it 21-18. The Meath/Westmeath combination were rarely in contention in the second game and were decisively beaten, 6-21. It was a disappointing end to the championships, but getting to the final represented a fine achievement.
Eugene O'Reilly and Peter Flanagan advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's grade 'C' four-wall event, but they were beaten by Kilkenny's Ciaran Neary and Michael O'Brien who later went on to achieve outright success. In the same competition, Kells player David Smith and his Cork partner Joe O'Keeffe were also eliminated at the last eight stage.
David Smith and Peter Flanagan also participated in the one-wall doubles competition, but lost out at the semi-final stage, while Leahy went out in the round of 16 in the veterans' category when he played Kenneth Goe from Oregon. Tweet
