Handball Report

WEEKLY HANDBALL REPORT by Noel Holohan

Josh Kavanagh’s stock continues to rise in the handball world as he added an Irish Nationals title to his long list of honours and he has now won in the last eight won an All-Ireland, an Irish Nationals and a World title.

Last weekend he collected the 40×20 GAA Handball Irish Junior Nationals 13 and under singles title. After winning through to the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning began with a battle against his county colleague Mark Doyle and Kavanagh would prevail in a very good game on a 15-6, 15-13 score line. The final would be a battle of the best in the south-east ad Josh took on Jack Doyle from Kilkenny in the final. The opening set was a very close encounter with Kavanagh just holding the upper hand and won 15-12. He built on the first set win and pushed home in the second set 15-8 to capture the title.

Daniel Kavanagh a brother of Josh was unlucky to lose out in the semi-final of the 17 and under singles. Only a month after losing an All Ireland semi-final to Tadgh O’Neill from Cork he was out for revenge and everything looked good in the opening set as he won 15-8. However injury would strike Daniel in the second set and at 10-2 down in the second set he was forced to retire from the competition.

Wexford GAA Handball 60×30 championships

The action picked up to a full round of fixtures in the 60×30 courts in Wexford and in the intermediate singles the two winners were Darren O’Toole from Coolgraney who defeated Corey Murphy from Castlebridge 21-9, 21-3 and Paul Lambert from St Joseph’s who defeated Peter McGrath from St Joseph’s 20-21, 21-8, 21-15.

Four games were down for decision in the junior singles. David Kenny was an impressive 21-3, 21-12 winner over Thomas Hall in an all Castlebridge clash, while their fellow club mate Jason Murphy was a comfortable 21-5, 21-11 winner over Tony Breen from Templeudigan. Templeudigan’s Noel Holohan favoured a little better as he defeated Benny Doyle from Horeswood 21-9, 21-16 while in the final junior singles game of the week Niall Maher from Kilmyshall pulverised Miley Connors New Ross 21-3, 21-5.

Liam Rossiter from Ballyhogue was another man in fantastic early season form as he was a comfortable 21-5, 21-2 winner over Stephen Murphy Castlebridge in the Junior B singles.

David Stanners was a winner on the double in the junior C singles as he beat John Murphy (Kilmyshall) 21-8, 21-10 and then the St Martin’s man beat Adam Hanrahan from Castlebridge 21-1, 21-15 to collect six points from six. Frank Maddock Taghmon was a handy 21-8, 21-4 winner over Bridgetown’s Eamonn Codd, with Jim Nolan Kilmyshall winning 21-13, 21-11 over Ciaran Power from Coolgraney, as John Murphy was also a winner for Kilmyshall as he beat Eugene English from Ballyhogue 21-6, 21-8

Robert Cogley (Ballymitty) got his Junior D singles campaign under way in fine fashion with a 21-8, 21-11 win over Colin Browne from Coolgraney and in the same grade Padraig Devereux from Castlebridge was a 21-5, 21-10 winner over Dara Cloake from the same club. Meanwhile also in the Junior D singles Liam Maher Taghmon was a 21-3, 21-7 winner over Barntown’s Darren Sweetman.

Two games were played in the Over 35 singles and they saw wins for Fintan Furlong and JR Finn. Furlong from St Mary’s was a 21-17, 21-12 winner over Eamonn Codd, while Finn defeated his Ballymitty club-mate Alan O’Neill 11-21, 21-16, 21-17.