Latest Handball News In Association With MCB Civils

Thursday 27.07.2023

 

Tyrone boys and girls handball teams heading to Croke Park…

A dozen of Tyrone’s most promising juvenile handballers will get their first taste of the new multi million pound Croke Park handball centre this weekend when they head to Dublin on Saturday for the 2023 softball team championships.

The 60×30 juvenile team events will be extra special this year as they will be staged in Croke Park on All Ireland football final weekend and Loughmacrory, Greencastle and Carrickmore will all have representatives in action.

The girls team competition is actually an interprovincial affair but the Ulster girls team of six will be made up exclusively of Loughmacrory and Greencastle players. There may be just two clubs comprising the Ulster team but this is a high quality group of players and includes the recently crowned All Ireland U16 singles and doubles champions, Laura Duff, Caislin Tracey and Lucy McCullagh.

Laura and Caislin will form a very formidable U17 doubles pairing but will face stiff tests against Munster’s Carmel Kelleher (Cork) and Sarah Williams (Tipperary) and against the strong Leinster duo of Holly Byrne (Kilkenny) and Leah Ryan (Carlow), the U17 All Ireland singles champion.

The Ulster U15 girls doubles team will be another Loughmacrory/Greencastle combination as Lucy McCullagh joins forces with Alice McGlinchey and they will face a tough task against Munster’s Amy Brosnan (Cork) and Claire Manogue (Clare), the 2023 All Ireland singles champions at U14 and U15 level.

Lucy and Alice will also be guaranteed a difficult battle against the Leinster girls.

Ulster will be represented in the U13 doubles by two talented young Greencastle players, Aimee Fox and Emma Conway. These two girls have been making a name for themselves on the handball scene in 2023 and have contributed a lot to the rise of Greencastle in girls juvenile handball.

The Ulster girls team will be very much in contention om Saturday and although it will be very tough they shouldn’t be far away in the end with the talent available.

The Tyrone boys U12 and U13 team of six will have to beat Cork and Wexford in Croke Park on Saturday to claim the All Ireland title.

The Tyrone team will include five Loughmacrory players and one Carrickmore player and will have three U12 players paired off in doubles with three U13 players.

Owen Kelly and Eoin Daly will team up together and Eolann Kelly will partner Damhán Meenagh, with the McCrystal brothers, Michéal and Ronan, completing the lineup.

These lads have trained well in the 60×30 court this year and have put in a great effort for this event but they have a big challenge on their hands against the Munster champions for the right to tackle Wexford in the decider. Wexford’s huge win over Kilkenny in the Leinster final has them installed as warm favourites for the All Ireland prize.

It will be a fantastic occasion and great experience for all twelve Tyrone players on Saturday and among them will be Loughmacrory’s Damhán Meenagh whose father Ciaran was so close to being involved in Sunday’s All Ireland football final in Croke Park as the manager of Derry.

It has been a long time since Tyrone captured one of the national team titles in the 60×30 code while the Ulster girls team are potentially aiming for a first ever success in the 60×30 interprovincial competition.