Laois Success in Leinster Handball

Leinster One-Wall Handball Championships:

The Leinster One-Wall Championships were played recently with Laois represented in three finals with Kevin Brennan progressing to the Men’s Masters Final, Pauric Buggy qualifying for Men’s B Final and Niamh Dunne reaching the Ladies Senior Final.

Unfortunately, Kevin Brennan (Clough Ballacolla Handball Club) was agonisingly defeated by Ollie Ryan (Carlow) 11-8 after a gripping tie-breaker. Pauric Buggy (Monavea) was also beaten by Carlow opposition going down to Kevin Barrett (Tinryland) 15-8 15-6. There was good news though for Laois when Niamh Dunne fought back after losing her opening game to Aoife McCarthy (Westmeath) 10-15 to take the next two game 15-6 11-7 to capture the Ladies One-Wall Leinster title. This was a fantastic achievement by Niamh who showed great composure and determination to fight back after losing the opening game and capture her first provincial title at the senior grade level.

In the Leinster Juvenile One-Wall Championships, Padraic Walsh represented Laois in the Boys U15 section after winning the Laois U15 county final after a tense and exciting encounter with Tiarnach Doheny.  Our Boys U17 representative was Podge Delaney who defeated Eoghan Doheny in the Laois U17 county final. Unfortunately neither player progressed past the Leinster semi-final stage.  Our Girls U15 representative was Molly O’Connor but was unsuccessful in her quest to capture another Leinster One-Wall title.

The Laois Adult One-Wall Championships will be played in Clough Ballacolla on 27^th November with the highly coveted Mick Dunne Cup going to the overall winner. Paddy Donovan is the defending champion having defeated Michael Donovan in last year’s final. The Division 2 final last year was won by Seamus Brennan who defeated Padraig Delaney while in Division 3 Dale Carroll edged Thep Fitzpatrick.