The 60×30 handball season will officially end this coming weekend with the colleges championships in Kilkenny and what a season it has been for the Loughmacrory club.

The All Ireland 60×30 GAA handball championships ended on a high note for the club two weeks ago as another major juvenile accolade was added to an impressive list of honours for 2019.

Loughmacrory’s underage players have created a lot of history this year by completing a first ever All Ireland feile division one double across the 40×20 and 60×30 codes and the players behind those team triumphs have added to the outstanding success story again in the All Ireland juvenile championships.

Earlier in the year, Loughmacrory feile captain Gary McAleer was crowned the top under 14 handballer in the country with his 40×20 singles championship win, and last week it was the turn of Eoin McElholm and Ruairi McCullagh to bring further All Ireland glory to their club and county with a fantastic victory in the 60×30 under 14 doubles championship.

Eoin and Ruairi have enjoyed a brilliant season since coming together as a doubles team in the 60×30 court. Between outings in the All Ireland feile event and U14 championship, they have put together a fabulous unbeaten run of nine matches which has yielded two gold medals apiece to add to their 40×20 feile gold medals.

Last week in Moycullen the Tyrone pairing put the seal on a memorable campaign with another famous win for their club as they rose to the challenge yet again to defeat Wexford in the national decider.

Eoin and Ruairi had produced top quality doubles play to see off Cavan in the Ulster final and Galway in the All Ireland semi final and they completed the job in style with a great performance against Wexford’s Bobby Doyle and Conor Horan, recording a stunning 15-0 tiebreaker result.

Their clubmates Thomas Duff, another key member of the all conquering feile team, and Conor Fox, made a bold bid to bring another juvenile title to Loughmacrory but went down to a strong Cork pairing in the under 15 doubles decider on a scoreline of 15-7, 15-5. The Lough lads had a great run in under 15 doubles and Thomas is still eligible again next year.

Thomas is now preparing for the All Ireland junior colleges doubles in Kilkenny this coming weekend as he prepares to team up again with his feile doubles partner Gary McAleer in the colours of Dean Maguirc College.

Tyrone’s under 14 doubles triumph in Moycullen proved to be Ulster’s only success in the 60×30 juvenile championship finals as Tyrone also suffered defeat in the under 16 doubles final (Jack Darcy and Ciaran McNally) and under 17 singles final (Brian McAleer) to Cork and Tipperary as Munster secured seven titles in all and Connacht took five.

For the Loughmacrory club it has been a season to remember thanks to a special group of players who’ve also starred on the football front for Loughmacrory this year, lifting the county under 14 grade one league title, captained by dual star Eoin McElholm.

The club will be hoping that Gary and Thomas can add another gold medal to their collection in the colleges event in Kilkenny.

Tyrone will also have Cloda McNamee (junior girls singles) and Jack Darcy (intermediate boys singles) featuring in the All Ireland 60×30 colleges chanpionships in Kilkenny on Saturday.