Latest Handball News As Tyrone Girls Deliver

Wednesday 21.09.2022

All Ireland Series

Tyrone girls shine again on big stage

Tyrone’s four young female handball stars in action last Sunday all rose to the challenge in superb fashion against their Leinster opponents and have qualified for the All Ireland 60×30 juvenile championship finals on Sunday 2nd October.

Lucy McCullagh (U14), Caislin Treacy (U15), Laura Duff (U16) and Dearbhail Fox (U17) pulled off a stunning quadruple semi final success against opponents from 60×30 strongholds Wexford, Kilkenny and Carlow to book their places in the 2022 juvenile softball finals.

This talented quartet will now be attempting to complete an unprecedented Tyrone clean sweep of juvenile girls singles titles in the 60×30 championships when they take on strong opponents from Cork, Tipperary and Roscommon on Sunday week.

Only three girls juvenile singles titles have come to Tyrone in the entire history of the big alley championships courtesy of Mairead Fox (U14, 2016), Aoife Kelly (U14, 2011) and Eilise McCrory (U15, 2013), so it’s an outstanding achievement for the county to be chasing all four titles this year.
Lucy was a very impressive winner over Wexford’s Boo Murphy in last Sunday’s U14 singles semi final in Taghmon; Caislin and Laura recorded outstanding wins in Talbots Inch over renowned Kilkenny players, Katie Jordan and Katie Brennan; and Dearbhail pulled off a dramatic 11-10 tiebreaker win over Carlow’s Leah Ryan.

It was a landmark day for girls handball in Tyrone and if this group of girls can deliver four gold medals on All Ireland final day, it will be up there with Tyrone’s finest days in underage handball as the 60×30 code is normally dominated by the other provinces.

It’s a tall order but the Tyrone representatives have clearly shown they can compete strongly at this level and will be ready for the big occasion.

There’s also a possibility that Loughmacrory could be chosen as the venue for these finals as it is Ulster’s turn on the All Ireland final rota. This would be a huge boost for the three Loughmacrory girls and Greencastle star Caislin.

Meanwhile, Clare Conway and Laura Tuohey were the first Tyrone girls to compete on the All Ireland 60×30 stage last weekend and they came up against a very strong Wexford pairing last Saturday in the Junior B doubles championship who took the honours.

Loughmacrory also had three boys involved in All Ireland juvenile semi finals last weekend, with Ciaran McCrystal losing to Wexford in the U14 singles and Lorcan Meenagh and Pearse McDonald going down to Kilkenny in the U14 doubles.

The experience gained by this trio of talented dual players will stand them in good stead.
For now though it’s the girls who are stealing the show in Tyrone handball as the countdown to the All Ireland 60×30 juvenile finals gathers pace.