Wall ball thrills for Model crew
Exciting weekend in Mayo
A LARGE Wexford contingent headed to Castlebar in Co. Mayo for the Irish wall ball nationals recently. This event is the highlight of the annual handball calendar.
Conor Doyle (Taghmon) and Joshua and Charlie Roche (Castlebridge) played in the eleven and under fun event where the boys got to play three games each against opponents from Tyrone, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Cavan.
This was great experience for the boys to be on the big stage at such a young age.
Jodie Keeling of St. Joseph’s competed in the 13 and under girls’ event. Jodie had some great games to reach the final, and at the young age of just eleven she was stepping up to give herself a challenge. And she did it with style to take the title.
Bobby Doyle of Taghmon, also just eleven, stepped up to give himself a challenge in the 13 and under boys’ grade and he did extremely well to make it to the quarter-final stage in a very high standard of handball where he lost to the strong Ryan O’Toole from the Aran Islands.
The 15 and under boys’ grade saw representation by Castlebridge’s Joe Devereux and David Doyle and St. Joseph’s club member Ben Keeling.
Joe and David played extremely well in their first games but just lost out by a few aces.
The boys then went into a plate were they were teamed up with other counties but were unfortunate to lose out in the semi-finals. Ben had a great win in his first game but was very unlucky in his next outing.
Taghmon’s Mark Doyle and Josh Kavanagh of St. Joseph’s featured in a very keenly-contested boys’ 15 and under ‘A’ grade. Mark played some excellent handball but ended up going out at the quarter-final stage. Josh made it to the final but had to settle for runner-up.
In the boys’ 17 and under, St. Joseph’s duo Adam Walsh and Cian Kehoe had a fantastic weekend. Both chaps played excellent handball to claim their spot in the final, but there can be only one winner and it was Cian who took the honour over Adam.
The boys’ 19 and under grade was the spot for St. Joseph’s clubman Daniel Kavanagh. This was another tightly-contested grade and Daniel played excellent handball but ended up going out at the semi-final stage.
Overall it was a very successful weekend, not only coming home with two winners and two runners-up trophies, but the children had a great time too and the experience will stand to them all.