County 4-Wall League Division 3 Final: Competitiveness and efficiency secures another title for Robert Byrne

Review by AOB

Some handballers are capable of wiping the memory clear of all previous negatives and resetting everything into positive territory. Robert Byrne, Bridgetown is one such player and when he faced David Redmond, Templeudigan in the Division 3 decider recently, it is pretty certain that the earlier league meeting between the two, won very comfortably by Redmond, was afforded little if any significance in the lead up to this final.

That is the only conclusion to be drawn from a well contested encounter, in which Byrne overturned that earlier result to run out a comprehensive winner on a scoreline of 15-5, 15-11.

The earlier meeting between the two was notable for the clinical killing of Redmond but Byrne controlled the tempo in the final and also defended better from the back of the court. Redmond’s serve is usually very precise and often serves as a platform for his attacking play but we saw precious little of this as Byrne returned well and took his own chances when they came. Without his kill Redmond was playing Byrne’s type of game and the Bridgetown man has few peers when it comes to winning the rally when the ball is on the wall.