Casey wins a fifth Senior Singles 60x30 title

LAST Saturday proved to be another red letter day for Ballydesmond’s Catriona Casey as she regained the 60x30 All-Ireland Handball Ladies Senior Singles title, defeating the reigning champion Limerick’s Martina McMahon in the Final in Croke Park Handball Centre, which earned Casey her fifth 60x30 All Ireland Ladies Senior Singles title.

Catriona lost last years final narrowly to McMahon and no doubt was totally focussed on regaining the title on Saturday. She had a dream start controlling the first game from the first ball struck going on to win it 21-9 she never allowed her opponent to settle in that game to give herself that first game cushion. The same pattern continued in the second game with Casey racing into an early lead and when she went 19 aces to 11 up it looked all over, to McMahon’s credit she is a talented and skilfull player and she showed that as she fought back to level at 19-19 she was not going to give up her title easy. To Casey’s credit she regained her composure regained the serve and went on to score two vital aces to win 21-19 and be crowned 2107 champion. She has had a great run in this championship to win five All Ireland Singles titles takes huge commitment and dedication and on Saturday she again showed that she has an abundance of both.

In Men’s Senior Singles Westmeath player Robbie McCarthy took the title defeating Eoin Kennedy, Dublin 21-16, 21-9, while in Minor Singles Galway’s Darragh Mulkerrins defeated Tipperary James Prentice 21-15, 19-21, 21-16.

It also proved to be a good weekend for our Compunet IT Solutions sponsored juvenile players who advanced in their clash with Tipperary. This weekend there is just one player involved in a game with Clare with Fermoy player Hayden Supple who defeated Tipperary last Saturday taking on Clare’s Rossa Keenan in U-13 Singles in Cullen on Saturday at 12 noon.

The following won against Tipperary last weekend and are through to Munster Finals:

Boys U-12 Singles: Fermoy (Cameron Sullivan)

Boys U-12 Doubles: Fermoy (Ben Sullivan/Cian Cronin O’Neill)

Boys U-14 Doubles: Ballydesmond (Kealin Murphy)/Liscarroll (Gearoid Healy)

Boys U-16 Doubles: Mallow (Cian O’Driscoll/Anthony O’Connell)

Boys U-17 Singles: Mallow (Michael O’Malley)

Girls U-13 Singles: Mallow (Sarah Walsh)

Girls U-17 Singles: Conna (Aoife Hurley)

The proposed date for Munster Finals is Saturday September 16, time and venue to be decided. Once the Munster Finals are played the Mallow Credit Union sponsored teams to represent Cork in Munster Inter-County team championship will be decided, players who win a 60x30 provincial singles or doubles title are not eligible to play on an U-14/15 or U-16/17 team, the provincial team championship is scheduled for the end of September.