This article is from page 54 of the 2011-05-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 54 JPG
THERE WAS success for Clare handballers recently in the final major 40×20 event of the year. At the prestigous Irish Nationals in Wexford, Shannon’s John Cawley claimed the Golden Masters B title while Diarmaid Nash of Tuamgraney reached the final of the Mens Open section.
Cawley had a 21-11, 21-18 final win over Meath man James Kelly to be crowned champion while Nash was very unlucky to go down 15-21, 2118, 2-11 in the Open decider against Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy, one of the top senior players in both big and small alley. Nash had already knocked out some real big guns in Dominic Lynch, Joe McCann and top-seed Charly Shanks. The Ladies Open Singles was won by Fiona Shannon (Antrim) when she easily overcame Kerry’s Maria Daly.
With the arrival of long evenings and the sound of the cuckoo, so the handball focus switches from small to big alley over the summer months and a number of Banner County handballers are preparing for this year’s 60×30 Munster Championships. At Junior B grade, Tuamgraney Handball Club are hosting the O’Neill Cup Singles competition. The Michael O’Neill Perpetual Cup was donated to the club in recent years by the O’Neill family to honour the memory of the late Michael O’Neill who was one of the real stal- warts of Tuamgraney Handball Club in times past and will be remembered in the club for the tireless work he did for underage handball in the area.
This year, the Tuamgraney club have put forward the O’Neill Cup to be played as a Clare Junior B Singles Championship. There are 12 entries in total from across the county and quarter-finals are down for decision this week.