Great Day’s handball at the 2019 Feile Softball Event held in Wexford

Following on from the Irish Softball Nationals last month, Wexford hosted a second National event yesterday, with the 2019 Softball Feile taking place in five clubs across the county. This was the first year the Softball event was a stand alone competition, and it proved to be a great success with 26 teams and 130 players taking part. Many thanks to the five clubs for hosting the Feile, Castlebridge, St. Marys, Ballymity, Coolgreany and Taghmon, also the skills judges and all the volunteers for making it a very enjoyable experience for all who travelled from the four provinces.

Wexford were well represented with seven boys teams participating across the three Divisions. In Division 1, the cream of Ireland’s U14 handballers were on show in Taghmon, and the host club was always going to be up against it, but they battled hard and got stronger as the day went on. The eventual winners were Loughmacrory, Co Tyrone, who completed the Feile double of 4-wall and Softball titles, a great achievement. In the Skills competition, Bobby Doyle from the local club took home the bronze medal.

It was a great day for all three Wexford clubs in Division 2, held in Coolgreany, with St Marys pipping Castlebridge for the Division 2 title, while the host club took the Plate Final. in addition Conor Horan from Coolgreany took the bronze medal in the Skills competition.

In Division 3, held in Ballymitty, we were represented by the host club, Templeudigan and St Josephs. Ballymitty reached the main Final, just losing out to Talbots Inch from Kilkenny in a very tight Final. In the Skills competition, we had two players in the top three, with Sean Fitzharris from Templeudigan taking silver and Shane Cleary from the host club the bronze.

Castlebridge and St Marys hosted the Girls Division 1 competition, which was won by the very impresive Lahorna club from Tipperary, who along with Loughmacrory Boys, did the Feile double.

GAA Handball Softball Féile na nGael 2019 Results

Softball Boys Finals

Div. 1: Loughmacrory (Tyrone) dft Kells (Kilkenny)
Div. 1 (Plate): Moycullen (Galway) dft Friary/Abbeyside/Ballinacourty (Waterford)
Div. 2: St. Mary’s (Wexford) dft Castlebridge (Wexford)
Div. 2 (Plate): Coolgreany (Wexford) dft Kilfane (Kilkenny)
Div. 3: Talbots Inch (Kilkenny) dft Ballymitty (Wexford)
Div. 3 (Plate): Kilkishen (Clare) dft St. Joseph’s

Softball Girls Finals

Div. 1: Lahorna 1 (Tipperary) dft Kilkishen (Clare) 42-14
Div. 2: Windgap (Kilkenny) dft Lahorna 2 (Tipperary) 41-25

Skills Results

Softball Boys Div. 1

1st – Gary McAleer (Loughmacrory)

2nd – Michael Brennan (Clogh)

3rd – Bobby Doyle (Taghmon)

Softball Girls Div. 1

1st – Hannah Grace (Lahorna)

2nd – Una Duggan (Galmoy)

3rd – Emer Barron (Windgap)

Softball Boys Div. 2

1st – David Holden (Kilfane)

2nd – Rory Glynn (O’Loughlins)

3rd – Conor Horan (Coolgreany)

Softball Boys Div. 3

1st – Michael Stynes (Talbots Inch)

2nd – Sean Fitzharris (Templeudigan)

3rd – Shane Cleary (Ballymitty)