Latest GAA Handball News

Tuesday 26.12.2017

 

Conor McElduff capped a brilliant calendar year with victory in the Tyrone 40×20 premier league final in Beragh just before Christmas.
And Tyrone under-17 football captain Cormac Munroe was an impressive winner of the division one league title, securing the prize with wins over Ruairi Grogan in the semi final and Chris Curran in the final, winning 8 of his 9 league matches in total.
Former Tyrone senior champion John McCullagh maintained his 100% league winning run with victory over Tiernan McAleer in the division two final, while Antrim ladies star Aisling Reilly captured the dark blue premier league title with a narrow victory over Cahir Munroe in the final, the two finalists seeing off Eilise McCrory and Megan McCann in the last four to reach the decider.
Conor McElduff was in unstoppable form all through the league in recent weeks and secured the premier division title with victory over his clubmate Sean Kerr in the decider, his 8th straight win in the league campaign.
Conor has recently become European number one on the wallball circuit but the newly crowned TTM Tyrone handballer of the year has shown again that he is also a very accomplished 40×20 player.
His latest success comes after he dominated the Irish wallball nationals and All Ireland wallball championships in 2017 and then travelled across Europe to lift the Spanish and Dutch Open titles, as well as reaching the Belgian Open final.
He will be focussing most of his efforts in 2018 on preparing for the world one wall championships in Minnesota in August.
Premier League runner up Sean Kerr also enjoyed a very good year in 2017, while Ryan Mullan lost out to Sean in the premier league semi finals to finish off a great campaign in 2017.

Conor, Ryan and Sean were the three players recently shortlisted for the TTM Tyrone handballer of the Year award.
Sean left the minor grade 12 months ago as one of Tyrone’s most successful ever underage handballers and his rise through the ranks continued with further national honours in 2017. Last year’s young player of the year is quickly establishing himself at the next level and is currently spending the Christmas Holidays in America where he is attempting to secure the 19 and under title at the US junior nationals this week.
Ryan bowed out at under 21 level in 2017 with three All Ireland championship final appearances, collecting All Ireland under 21 doubles titles in both the 40×20 and 60×30 courts.
Meanwhile Lorcan McBride was forced to withdraw from the recent league programme because of injury, after he had picked up the TTM Tyrone young handballer of the year award for 2017.
The Carrickmore dual star became only the fourth Tyrone player in history to capture the All Ireland 40×20 under-16 championship singles title and he saw off the formidable challenge of the All Ireland winning under-16 girls partnership of Caitlin Conway and Elizabeth McGarvey to secure the prestigious ‘young handballer of the year’ trophy.
Overall Tyrone collected ten All Ireland championship wins across all levels in 2017 and a further six major titles were picked up at the Irish nationals in 40×20 and one wall, with Shane O’Neill, Johnny Woods, Dara Curran, Kenny Curran, Eilise McCrory, Niall Kerr and Clodagh Munroe all adding their names to the national roll of honour during the year.

TYRONE LEAGUE ROLL OF HONOUR…

Premier League winner: Conor McElduff
Premier League runner up: Sean Kerr

Division 1 league winner: Cormac Munroe
Division 1 runner up: Chris Curran

Division 2 league winner: John McCullagh
Division 2 runner up: Tiernan McAleer

Dark blue premier league winner: Aisling Reilly
Dark blue league runner up: Cahir Munroe

TYRONE’S NATIONAL ROLL OF HONOUR 2017…

All Ireland 40×20 championships 2017…

Intermediate doubles winners: Shane O’Neill & Sean Kerr

U21 doubles winners: Ryan Mullan & Johnny Woods

Golden masters (b) singles winner: Kenny Curran

Ladies junior singles winner: Eilise McCrory

Boys U16 singles winner: Lorcan McBride

Girls U16 doubles winners: Elizabeth McGarvey & Caitlin Conway

All Ireland Wallball championships 2017…

Men’s Open singles winner: Conor McEduff

Boys Under 17 singles winner: Dara Curran

All Ireland 60×30 championships 2017…

U21 doubles winners: Ryan Mullan & Sean Kerr

Girls U16 doubles winners: Caitlin Conway & Elizabeth McGarvey

Irish 40×20 Nationals 2017…

Girls 13 & Under singles winner: Clodagh Munroe

Silver Masters singles winner: Niall Kerr

Irish Wallball Nationals 2017…

Men’s Open singles winner: Conor McElduff

Silver Masters singles winner: Niall Kerr

Boys 19 & Under singles winner: Sean Kerr

Girls 15 & Under singles winner: Caitlin Conway

All Ireland 40×20 Colleges Championships…

Boys Intermediate doubles winners: Antoin Fox & Lorcan McBride (Omagh CBS)