Latest Laois Sport: Laois GAA Handball News

Laois Boys Juvenile 40×20 Handball Championships 2022

The 2022 Laois Handball Boys Juvenile 40×20 Championships were played last week with games held in St. Brigid’s Handball Club, Monavea and Cullohill Handball Club, Cullohill. With handball severely impacted in 2020 and 2021, it was fantastic to see a large number of entries in each of the age groups. The standard of handball on display was excellent throughout with some very exciting games decided in dramatic tie-breakers.

U12 Boys’ County Championships:

The U12 championship saw nine entries with the games played in Monavea on Friday night. In the top half of the draw, Dara Brennan recorded victories over Cormac Kells and Aaron Brennan while in the bottom half of the draw Michael Brennan got the better of William Muldowney and Jamie Mahoney to make it to the final. In a very enjoyable, tense and highly competitive final, it was Michael Brennan who came out victorious by a single ace. With both players sharing the opening two games, a tie-breaker was needed to decide who would prevail as u12 county champion and Michael claimed the victory by the narrowest of margins on a 11-10 scoreline. Credit must go to both players for producing the best game in this year’s championship. In the 3rd/4th place playoff, Aaron Brennan of Monavea defeated Cullohill Handball Club’s Jamie Mahoney to give Monavea a clean sweep of the U12 medals. The list of competitors on the night were: Sean Farrell, Oisin Dowling, Ollie Delaney, Aaron Brennan, Cormac Kells, Dara Brennan, Michael Brennan, William Muldowney and Jamie Mahoney. Well done to all who competed.

U13 Boys’ County Championships:

Monavea was to also play host to the U13 boys with the competition played on the Saturday. In the opening round of games, Monavea’s Fionnan Brennan defeated Cillian Deegan, Mark Dowling overcame Jack Deegan in a tiebreaker after a very competitive encounter and Cian O’Sullivan received a walkover after Geoffrey Duggan was unable to fulfil the fixture. In two high quality semi-finals, Fionnan Brennan defeated Jack Hennessy and Mark Dowling edged his encounter with Cian O’Sullivan. In another high quality final, Fionnan proved a very deserving winner overcoming a highly talented opponent in Mark Dowling. The 3rd/4th place playoff went the way of Monavea’s Cian O’Sullivan who overcame the strong challenge by Cullohill’s Jack Hennessy.

U14 Boys’ County Championship:

The Boys U14 championships were held in Cullohill over the weekend with some exciting games played. In the opening round game, Monavea’s Tiernan Patterson was victorious against Jamie Fogarty. However, in the semi-final he was to lose out to a strong opponent in Eoin Delaney. In the other semi-final, Monavea’s Jack Doyle played fantastic handball to defeat Eoin Holland. The final proved a step too far however, as Cullohill’s Eoin Delaney was to come out on top in a very high standard county final. Eoin showed immense skill throughout the game and was a deservingly winner of the Boys U14 title.  In the 3rd/4th place play off Eoin Holland took the honours with a hard fought victory over Tiernan Patterson. 

U15 Boys’ County Championship:

The Boys U15 championships were also played in Cullohill last weekend and the games lived up to expectation with some talented handballers who had performed so brilliantly at the Leinster U15 B championships last December in action. The semi-finals pitted four skilful handballers against one another with Cullohill’s Ethan Lafferty facing club mate Ross Deegan and Monavea’s Fionn Sullivan squaring off against another Cullohill competitor in Jimmy White. After two competitive semi-finals it was Ross Deegan and Jimmy White who progressed to the finals. In the final, Ross came out on top with an impressive display of handball. Ross has showed great potential as a handballer and this victory adds to his success in reaching the Leinster U15 B final in early December. The third place play-off was won by Ethan Lafferty. 

U16 Boys’ County Championship:

With no Monavea players entered in the U16 county championships played in Cullohill on Monday night, it resulted in a clean sweep of the medals for Cullohill handballers. In the final John Delahunty faced Donal Deegan. Both these players also competed in the Leinster U15 B championships last December with both players playing impressively to make it to the finals of that competition. Therefore, a ferocious battle between two up and coming handballers was expected. The final did not disappoint, with John Delahunty proving to be the stronger player on the night to take the victory. Simon Comerford claimed the bronze medal.

Well done to all the competitors over the weekend’s action. There was some fantastic handball played in all the grades and Laois GAA Handball want to wish all the players going forward to represent Laois GAA Handball in the upcoming 40×20 Leinster championships every success. From the evidence of this week’s action, the future of Laois handball is in a very good place. Laois GAA would also like to acknowledge the hard work being done by the clubs and mentors within the county who are helping to develop and grow the game at juvenile level.