Casey striving to retain her singles crown

ANOTHER busy weekend in Handball with 40x20 All Ireland Adult Singles finals and Juvenile Singles and Doubles finals down for decision at Kingscourt complex on St Patricks Day, Sunday and Monday. On St Patrick’s Day and Sunday adult Singles Finals will be decided.

The St Patrick’s Day programme commences at 3.30pm with Cork interest centred on Ladies Senior Final in which Catriona Casey, Ballydesmond, the reigning champion strives to retain the title as she faces Limerick’s Martina McMahon which is a repeat of last year’s final in which Catriona Casey with a brilliant performance took the title in two straight games winning by a comfortable margin in each. This is a new game another chapter in their battle for supremacy Casey will start favourite to retain the title, but she will not be complacent as McMahon battles to banish the memory of last year’s clash.

On Sunday adult finals will continue with a 10am start with Cork players contesting another three finals, Cork’s opening game will be in Emerald Masters A Singles in which John Herlihy, St Finbarrs, faces Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy Snr in what promises to be a close contest. Herlihy won Golden A Singles last year but has moved up to Emerald age group this year and has the ability to win this one but must put in a big performance to do so.

Cork’s second final appearance on Sunday will be U-21 Singles in which David Walsh, Mallow, plays Monaghan Gavin Coyle, David Walsh won All Ireland Minor doubles honours last year and will be hoping his step up to U-21 grade will be a successful one. To date in his Munster and All-Ireland semi-final win he has played well and will be hoping to take another step forward in this final.

The third final on Sunday will be Intermediate Singles in which Michael Hedigan, Liscarroll, will play David Hope, Offaly. This is another difficult assignment, Hedigan continues to improve and has been impressive in all his game this year, put in some good performances in winning the Munster title and in his All Ireland semi-final win over Mayo’s Ian Mcloughlin last Sunday. It will take another big performance to win this one but he has the ability to raise his game again on Sunday.

On Monday it will be the turn of both Boys and Girls in All-Ireland Juvenile Finals which commence at 10am.

The Compunet IT Solutions sponsored Cork players will contest four finals with Hayden Supple, Fermoy, being the first Cork player into action when he plays Galway Mikey Kelly in Boys U-14 Singles. Supple has been very impressive to date in winning Munster and his All-Ireland semi-final win over Gary McAleer,Tyrone.

Second up for Cork will be Boys U-15 Doubles in which Kealin Murphy,Ballydesmond teams up with Gearoid Healy Liscarroll they play Galway Paul Kearns/Darragh Kyne, Again to date in U-15 Doubles both players have played well and hopefully can continue that upward curve in the final.

In the third final, the Girls U-15 Doubles, Celine Kelliher, Boherbue, teams up with Muireann O’Brien, Kilworth, to play Roscommon’s Siobhan/ Aishling Treacy. Both Cork players performed very well in their semi-final win over Tyrone and must be in with a good chance of taking the title.

The fourth final will be Boys U-17 Doubles in which Liscarroll pair Luke Barrett/Colin Healy play Mayo Alan Masterson/ Patrick Carroll. This Liscarroll pairing have been impressive in their Munster win and again in their semi-final defeat of Cavan let hope it will continue in the final.

Last weekend our Mallow Credit Union sponsored teams performed well in Munster Inter-county team championships winning U-12/13, U-14/15 and narrowly losing U-16/17. The U-12/13 team was very impressive in their games and in particular in defeating Clare in the Final. The players involved were three from Fermoy - Cameron O’Sullivan, Ben Sullivan and Cian Cronin O’Neill, three from Conna - Cian Dunning, Shane Cotter, Cian Cronin O’Neill, Tomas O’Connor, Boherbue and Darragh Murphy, Ballydesmond.

Cork U-14/15 team also performed very well and in particular their performance in the final defeating a strong Clare side, Cork team on duty was three Boherbue players Shane O’Riordan, Cathal Ducey, Evan Enright, Michael Mullane, Ballydesmond, Fionn O’Connell, Conna, Eanna McInerney,Mallow. In U-16/17 Cork lost the final to Waterford, Cork team on duty was two Boherbue players Darragh Ducey, Aidan Lenihan, Sam Dunning, Conna and Rhys McCarthy, Fermoy.

The great run enjoyed by Brendan Fleming in Men’s All-Ireland Senior Singles came to an end on Saturday in Kingscourt losing the semi-final to Martin Mulkerrins, Galway. Mulkerrins put in an excellent performance never allowing Brendan to dominate as he had done in his previous games. The Munster adult doubles championship will be completed this weekend with hopefully a few more Cork doubles pairings coming out on top in the last of the doubles finals to be decided.