GAA Handball Continued Success For Tyrone At Underage Level

Wednesday 27.06.2012

Club

The month of June has brought more reward for some of Tyrone’s brightest young handballers, culminating in a profitable weekend for the county’s representatives at the hugely popular Mount Talbot One Wall event.
Sean Kerr, the reigning All-Ireland 40×20 under-14 singles champion, has been very much to the fore in this record-breaking year for Tyrone’s young players and in the last couple of weeks he has continued to boost his impressive haul of titles.
After teaming up with Carrickmore’s Pauric Mullan two weeks ago to record a fantastic under-13 doubles triumph in the Irish 60×30 Nationals down in Kilkenny, defeating Wexford, Tipperary and the host county on the way to the title, the Brackey prodigy then switched codes last weekend and travelled west to collect the Mount Talbot under-14 singles title in impressive fashion, beating Tipperary’s Jason English in the decider.
Pauric Mullan’s win alongside Sean Kerr was the first leg of yet another Mullan family double on the national stage as older brother Ryan joined forces with Tipperary’s Daniel Hayes to claim the under-15 doubles title at the 60×30 nationals. The Carrickmore brothers had also completed a famous double earlier this year in the All-Ireland 40×20 championships.
Sean Kerr continued his amazing run of success in Mount Talbot but he wasn’t the only Tyrone player to shine last weekend as Cormac Munroe, Johnny Woods, Patrick McCrory and Maeve McElduff also produced classy displays to win their respective events. Emer Kerr (under-12) and Cathair Munroe (under-10) also won the plate competition in their respective age groups.
Cormac Munroe was in great form in the under-12 singles decider, winning handsomely against Roscommon’s Dylan Hanley, who had knocked out Loughmacrory’s Dara Curran at the quarter-final stage.
Another Carrickmore player, Patrick McCrory, emerged victorious from a titanic tussle with Down’s Pat Havern in the under-18 final, eventually winning the tie breaker 11-8 thanks to some brilliant attacking play. Patrick had beaten Brackey’s Gabhainn McCrystal in a closely contested semi-final, with Pol Clarke losing out to Havern in the other semi-final.
The boys’ under-16 final was an all Tyrone affair as the talented Johnny Woods saw off the challenge of Brackey clubmate Jack Campbell to add another one-wall trophy to his expanding collection. Jack had earlier come from behind to beat Conall McGinn, while Cathair Curran bowed out at the quarter-final stage of the same event.
In the girls section, Maeve McElduff again demonstrated her prowess in one-wall handball with a thumping win over Sligo’s Aoife Quinn in the under-16 title decider, while her Brackey clubmate Elise McCrory was extremely unlucky to have the girls under-14 title snatched from her grasp by Roscommon’s Fiona Tully in one of the most exciting encounters of the entire tournament.
Another candidate for most exciting match came in the men’s open singles as Carrickmore’s Darragh Daly went down by the narrowest of margins to Galway’s Martin Mulkerrins following an epic tie breaker. Ryan Daly also played well in defeat in the men’s open, while Ruairi Kelly made a welcome comeback from injury and came through relatively unscathed.
Niall Kerr and Chris Curran both performed with credit in the masters division, the latter reaching the plate final, while Kenny Curran and Finbarr Fullen both took part in the men’s C singles.
A notable absentee from the Mount Talbot proceedings was Carrickmore’s Niall Allison, one of the best underage players on the national one-wall circuit. Niall sustained a nasty injury recently and he is wished well in his recovery as he sets his sights on a return to action at the forthcoming Irish One Wall Nationals in Dublin.