Handball News

A number of Tyrone handballers will be bidding for provincial honours over the next two weekends as the 2013 Ulster 40×20 championsips draw to a climax in both singles and doubles.
Last weekend saw most of the doubles semi-finals completed and Tyrone have made it through to several Ulster finals on Sunday 24th February.
The Ulster minor doubles final will be an all Tyrone affair, after defending champions and last year’s All-Ireland runners-up Pol Clarke and Gabhainn McCrystal defeated Down’s Pat Havern and Stephen Digney to set up a title clash with Patrick McCrory and Johnny Woods, who despatched Monaghan’s Darren Doherty and Eugene McGeough in the other semi-final. It promises to be an exciting contest between the two Tyrone pairings.
Barry Devlin, who reached the junior singles final last week, is also through to the junior doubles final along with Carrickmore’s Ryan Daly, while Finbarr Fullen and Kenny Curran negotiated the challenge of Antrim’s Noel Roberts and Sean McGurn in their masters eliminator on Sunday, eventually prevailing on a scoreline of 21-13 in the tiebreaker.
Shane O’Neill and Gary McCrory had an even tougher battle with Donegal in the intermediate doubles semi-final before emerging with a hard earned 21-18 tiebreaker win.
And Joey Kelly and Mark McCullagh almost made it through to the junior b doubles final, only for Down to stage a big comeback and snatch a narrow victory.
The Ulster adult doubles finals will take place on Sunday week, but firstly the singles finals will take place this Saturday, 16th February, and Tyrone are involved in nine finals, the first of is being staged tonight (Wednesday) as Gabhainn McCrystal takes on Monaghan’s Darren Doherty in the minor decider.
Unfortunately Caolan Daly didn’t make it through to an intermediate showdown with Shane O’Neill as he lost to Cavan’s James Brady in the semi-final last weekend, leaving Shane to face the Mullahoran player this Sunday evening in Armagh.
Armagh will host a total of four finals this Saturday, all involving Tyrone players. Loughmacrory’s Mark McCullagh will have to contend with title favourite Sean Digney in what should be a great battle in the junior b singles final at 2pm, with Carrickmore’s Rory Grogan then facing another Down opponent Martin Turley in the over 35b singles final.
The third game on the card will see Loughmacrory’s Kenny Curran up against last year’s masters b winner Kevin McParland from Antrim in the silver masters b final, with Barry Devlin flying the flag for Breacach in the closing game of a busy programme as he confronts defending junior singles champion, Monaghan’s Terry Kiernan.
Conor McElduff will have a great chance of bringing success to Tyrone in Saturday’s under-21 singles final in Tydavnet, although he has the title holder, Monaghan’s Terry McElvaney, to overcome, while Lisa McAleer will defend her Ulster ladies intermediate title against Donegal’s Avril McNamee in Beragh and Michelle Warren will be in action in the junior b singles final at St Mellan’s against Monaghan’s Niamh Farrell.
ULSTER CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL RESULTS…
Minor doubles
Gabhainn McCrystal & Pol Clarke beat Pat Havern & Stephen Digney (Down) 21-12, 21-13
Johnny Woods & Patrick McCrory beat Darren Doherty & Eugene McGeough (Monaghan) 15-21, 21-14, 21-10
Junior b doubles
Sean Digney & Martin Turley (Down) beat Mark McCullagh & Joseph Kelly 10-21, 21-18, 21-16
Junior doubles
Barry Devlin & Ryan Daly beat Paul Fitzpatrick & Eddie Halligan (Cavan)
Intermediate doubles
Shane O’Neill & Gary McCrory beat Mark McGowan & Mark Marley (Donegal) 21-14, 18-21, 21-18
Masters b doubles
Finbarr Fullen & Kenny Curran beat Noel Roberts & Sean McGurn (Antrim) 21-19, 16-21, 21-13
Intermediate singles
James Brady (Cavan) beat Caolan Daly 10-21, 21-10, 21-17
ULSTER CHAMPIONSHIP SINGLES FINALS…
Wednesday 13th February
Minor Singles – Darren Doherty (Monaghan) v Gabhain McCrystal (Tyrone) at Eugene Quinn’s, Armagh, 7pm
Saturday 16th February
Junior B Singles – Sean Digney (Down) v Mark McCullagh (Tyrone) at Armagh, 2pm
Over 35 B Singles – Martin Turley (Down) v Rory Grogan (Tyr) at Armagh, 3pm
Silver Masters B Singles – Kevin McParland (Antrim) v Kenny Curran (Tyrone) at Armagh, 4pm
Junior Singles – Terry Kiernan (Monaghan) v Barry Devlin (Tyrone) at Armagh, at Armagh, 5pm
Ladies Intermediate Singles – Lisa McAleer (Tyrone) v Avril McNamee (Donegal) at Beragh, 2pm
Under-21 singles – Terry McElvaney (Monaghan) v Conor McElduff (Tyrone) at Tydavnet, 2pm
Ladies Junior B Singles – Niamh Farrell (Monaghan) v Michelle Warren (Tyrone) at St Mellan’s. 4pm
Sunday 17th February
Intermediate Singles – James Brady (Cavan) v Shane O’Neill (Tyrone) at Armagh, 6pm
ULSTER CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLES FINALS…
Sunday 24th February
(Venues to be finalised)
Minor doubles
Pol Clarke & Gabhainn McCrystal (Tyrone) v Johnny Woods & Patrick McCrory (Tyrone)
Junior doubles
Barry Devlin & Ryan Daly (Tyrone) v Terry Kiernan & James Gavaghan (Monaghan)
Intermediate doubles
Shane O’Neill & Gary McCrory (Tyrone) v Patrick Clerkin & James Brady (Cavan)
Over 35 B doubles
Seamus McCrory & Rory Grogan (Tyrone) v Martin Toner & Conal Curran (Tyrone)
Masters B doubles
Finbarr Fullen & Kenny Curran (Tyrone) v Jimmy McKeown & Brendan McCormack (Cavan)

CARRICKMORE AND LOUGHMACRORY MEET IN GAEL LINN FINAL…

The 23rd Annual Gael Linn handball tournament was staged in Kingscourt last weekend and remarkably it was two Tyrone teams that succeeded in going all the way to the national final, guaranteeing a first triumph for the county in over a decade.
Carrickmore and Loughmacrory had seen off all the other challengers in Ulster two weeks ago to reach the All-Ireland qualifiers, and the two Tyrone pairings then found themselves having to overcome teams from Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Meath and Galway in the national event on Saturday.
Despite the quality of the field, the title eventually came down to a contest between the neighbouring Tyrone clubs and it was Cormac Munroe and Ciara Mullan from Carrickmore who were crowned the new All-Ireland Gael Linn (under-13) champions after defeating Antoin Fox and Caitlin Conway from Loughmacrory in the All-Ireland decider.
This was a  wonderful triumph for Cormac and Ciara and a great achievement by Antoin and Caitlin to reach the final. It was also another indication of the fabulous handball talent that Tyrone currently possesses.
National Gael Linn Results…
Quarter-finals: Carrickmore beat Inis Mor, Galway 47-20; Kilfane, Kilkenny beat Model School Limerick 28-25; Loughmacrory beat Kells, Meath 37-17; Lahorna, Tipperary beat Micheal Breathnach’s, Galway 27-23
Sem-finals: Carrickmore beat Kilfane 35-27; Loughmacrory beat Lahorna 31-16
Final: Carrickmore beat Loughmacrory 31-15

TYRONE JUVENILES READY TO MAKE THEIR MARK…
 
The Ulster juvenile handball championships got underway last weekend and there was a great start to the campaign for Tyrone as the county’s representatives all secured first round victories.
Tiernan McCrystal was successful in his under-15 singles opener, with Ciaran Daly and Eoin Quinn earning victory in their under-15 doubles encounter.
In the girls section, there were first round wins for Emer Kerr in the under-13 singles and for Cloideach Donaghy & Chloe McElhinney in the under-14 doubles.
Most of the Tyrone juvenile squad will be in action this Sunday and there will be some great games in Kingscourt, where the boys matches will be staged, and at St Mellan’s where the girls will be on duty.
Overall this is another strong group of handballers that is representing Tyrone in the 2013 juvenile championship series but it will be a huge task trying to replicate the achievements of last year.
Included in the squad again are some of the players who helped make history last season as Tyrone enjoyed a record breaking campaign in the All-Ireland underage championships, winning four titles in the 40×20 court and another four in the 60×30 competitions.
Sean Kerr, Jack Campbell and Aoife Kelly were among the group of Tyrone players who excelled on the national stage in 2012, while Lorcan McBride, Dara Curran, Antoin Fox, Ciara Mullan and Niall Allison all captured gold medals in the world handball championships in October.
And there are also four world silver medalists among the Tyrone juvenile contingent for 2013, namely Cormac Munroe, Elise McCrory, Jack Campbell and Darragh Canavan.
Meanwhile, Tyrone will be represented by Maeve McElduff (girls senior singles), Patrick McCrory (boys senior singles), Jack Campbell (boys junior singles) and Aoife Kelly and Elise McCrory (girls junior doubles) in the All-Ireland colleges championships which will take place on Saturday in Kingscourt.
 
ULSTER JUVENILE CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS…
Under-13 girls singles
Emer Kerr beat Coleen McNeilly (Down) 15-2, 15-2
Under-14 girls doubles
Cloideach Donaghy and Chloe McElhinney beat Laura Holohan & Caoimhe McMahon (Monaghan) 15-3, 15-1
Under-15 boys singles
Tiernan McCrystal beat Sean Fallon (Down) 10-15, 15-5, 15-2
Under-15 boys doubles
Ciaran Daly & Eoin Quinn beat Fintan Havern & Michael Havern (Down) 15-0, 15-0
 
Finally, the Tyrone Cumann na mBunscoil handball finals were staged in Carrickmore recently and all the county winners now go forward to the Ulster series next week.
Brian Mc Aleer (Recarson) is the county under-11 boys singles champion and Cathair Munroe and Lorcan Mc Garrity (St Columcilles, Carrickmore) won the doubles title.
Mairead Fox (St Teresas, Loughmacrory) is the girls under-11 singles champion with Sharlene Short and Seana Clarke (Drumduff) winning the doubles.
Caolan Mc Cartan (St Oliver Plunkett, Beragh) captured the boys under-13 singles title and the doubles prize was claimed by Dara Curran and Patrick Curran (St Teresas)
And at under-13 girls level the county titles were won by Caitlin Conway (St Teresas) in singles and by Grainne Curran and Niamh Fox (St Teresas) in doubles.
 
FULL TYRONE JUVENILE 40X20 HANDBALL TEAM 2013…
U12 Boys Singles – Lorcan McBride
U12 Boys Doubles – Dara Curran & Cahir Munroe
U12 Girls Singles – Elizabeth McGarvey
U12 Girls Doubles – Caitlin Conway & Mairead Fox
U13 Boys Singles – Cormac Munroe
U13 Boys Doubles – Darragh Canavan & Antoin Fox
U13 Girls Singles – Emer Kerr
U13 Girls Doubles – Michaela McCartan & Ciara Mullan
U14 Boys Singles – Turlough Clarke
U14 Boys Doubles – Ciaran Cuddy & Conor Kelly
U14 Girls Doubles – Cloideach Donaghy & Chloe McElhinney
U15 Boys Singles – Tiernan McCrystall
U15 Boys Doubles – Ciaran Daly & Eoin Quinn
U15 Girls Singles – Elise McCrory
U15 Girls Doubles – Sinead Donnelly & Aoibhinn McAnespie
U16 Boys Singles – Niall Allison
U16 Boys Doubles – Sean Kerr & Jack Campbell
U16 Girls Singles – Aoife Kelly
U17 Boys Doubles – Aaron Owens & Conor Mahoney