Tremendous work behind the scenes
December 08, 2006
There is a tremendous amount of work being done throughout County Monaghan in handball. This year has seen new courts developed at Bawn and St. Mellan's and only last year the County Monaghan Juvenile Finals were held at the newly built Connons and Wattlebridge Handball Alley near Scotshouse.
Juvenile coaching is continuing at a high level, but we still have to guide our young talent to playing quality opponents throughout Ulster and the other Provinces to ensure that All-Ireland titles can be won by our juveniles. In the Ulster Championships seven Juveniles reached the Ulster Finals with Niamh Farrell winning the Girls U12 title.
In 2006, the County was fortunate to be sponsored by Town of Monaghan Co-Op. In the 40x20 Court alone, Monaghan County Board organised over 40 different competitions between the County League, G.A.A. League, and County Singles and Doubles Championships. The Cathal Higgins Memorial tournament took place again in Tydavnet Club and was won for the second time by the World Doubles Champion Finbar Rafferty who defeated Michael Mc Carron, St. Mellans. The County Adult Finals took place in Tydavnet over the first week-end in February, and once again, the North Monaghan venue proved very popular, with excellent viewing facilities.
In the FBD Irish Nationals, Conor Mc Donnell and Matthew Gibbons took part without success. In the Ulster Juvenile Colleges Finals, Conor O Gorman lost in the final. In Cumman na mBunscoil County Monaghan players contested three finals but were defeated in all three. In the Ulster 40x20 Finals Golden Masters A Singles, Michael Mc Carron, St. Mellans was defeated by Dominic Sheridan in the third game. In the Silver Masters B Final, Stephen Callery, St. Mellans and Martin Mc Entee, Monaghan harps took on last years runners-up, the Caddell brothers from Antrim, but were beaten 21-17, 21-15. In the Emerald Masters A Doubles, the Monaghan Harps pairing of Peter Cassidy and Cathal Earley were defeated in the final. Ray Leonard, Tydavnet won the Ulster Masters B Final. At All-Ireland Semi final stage, unfortunately Ray Leonard was defeated on his home Court in front of a large crowd by Cormac O Brien, Roscommon. In the other semi-final in Tydavnet, Michael Todd, St. Mellans lost the first game narrowly, but never recovered and went on to lose the second game.
In the All-Ireland One Wall Competition, Pete Larkin, Emyvale, who had won the Golden Masters Competition last year, defeated Michael Bruen, Roscommon 15-12, 15-6, in the final to retain his All-Ireland title. Not so fortunate, was Pete's young apprentice, Darren Doherty, who is showing so much promise at Juvenile level. Darren was beaten by the eventual winner, M. Donaghy, Tyrone.
In the big 60x30 Court, a number of County Monaghan players took part, and the real success of the year went to Michael Mc Carron, St. Mellan's, who won the All-Ireland Golden Masters B Final at Na Fianna, Dublin, when he defeated Michael O Dea, Cork 21-17, 21-13. A number of players won Ulster titles, but were defeated at All-Ireland Semi-Final stages. These include Michael Mc Carron and Michael Todd, St. Mellan's, who were defeated 21-18, 21-3 by J. Coughlin and T. Cunniffe, Roscommon in the GMBD. In Masters B, Conor McDonnell, Monaghan Harps, and Ray Leonard, Tydavnet were defeated by Cormac O'Brien and Ger Walsh, Roscommon. Conor Mc Donnell was also defeated in the MBS by Ronan Galvin, Roscommon.
Finally, the 20th Golden Gloves Competition was held in St. Pauls GAC, and it was great to see our own Martin Mc Entee, Monaghan Harps win this prestigious title.
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