Exciting climax in prospect
FOLLOWING over four months of highly competitive action in the 40x20 court, the O'Neills Tyrone adult leagues and championships will draw to a close tomorrow (Friday 9th March, 8pm) evening in Loughmacrory. The eagerly awaited O'Neills Senior doubles championship final will see Ulster Intermediate doubles champions, Niall Kerr and Darragh Daly, team up to face Chris Curran and Martin Toner in their home court.
Niall Kerr will be contesting his sixth senior doubles final and 10th Tyrone senior final in all, having captured the doubles crown on three occasions (1993, 1996, 2002) and the singles title once (2002). He teams up with Carrickmore's Darragh Daly, who will be contesting his first senior doubles final and second Senior final in all, having lost out to Ciaran Meenagh in the 2005 senior singles decider. The duo have so far defeated Conor Duff an Brian Donaghy (Loughmacrory) by 21-16, 21-19 in the quarter-final and followed up with a 21-10, 21-13 win over Ryan Daly and Barney Corcoran in the semi-final.
Chris Curran and Martin Toner have not dropped a game in the series to date either. Having defeated Barry Devlin and Mark McCartan (Brackey) 21-7, 21-3 in the quarter-final they then overcame Brackey's Shane O'Neill and Ruairi Kelly on a 21-2, 21-17 scoreline in the semi-final. Chris Curran will be contesting his tenth senior doubles final on Friday and his 14th Tyrone senior final in all, winning six senior doubles titles to date. His partner, Martin Toner will be chasing a first Senior medal as he lines out in his third final.
The action gets underway at 8pm in Loughmacrory with another large crowd anticipated for what will be the last Tyrone adult 40x20 handball final of 2007. The O'Neills Junior doubles final involving Joseph Kelly/Ryan Keenan (Loughmacrory) v Martin Begley/Kieran Devlin (Pomeroy) took place last night.
Four Clubs share 9 Teamtalk Juvenile titles
A capacity crowd was present at Beragh on Sunday for the Teamtalk Juvenile Championship finals in boys doubles and girls singles grades. A total of 10 finals went ahead as scheduled on the day and provided some cracking games, highlighting the continued growing standards of the sport in the O'Neill County.
The action got underway with the under 10 boys doubles final and saw young Cormac Harte complete the double in his grade. He teamed up with another exciting young talent, Ryan Curran, as the Loughmacrory duo overcame Carrickmore's Niall Allison and Ronan McKay in a super match. Harte and Curran took the honours on a 15-12, 15-5 scoreline to complete a terrific competition in which 40 young competitors started out.
In the girls under 12 singles final, Loughmacrory's Aoife Kelly retained her title with an eyecatching win over Brackey's Meabh McElduff. The two gifted young players produced an exciting match which Kelly won out on a 15-4, 15-5 scoreline.
In the boys under 12 doubles final it was Carrickmore's Patrick McCrory who was securing his second county championship medal of the year. He teamed up with Ryan Mullan to claim the honours on a 15-12, 15-9 scoreline against Gabhan McCrystall and Pol Clarke in another highly entertaining affair. In the girls under 13 singles final, Brackey picked up their first title of the afternoon as young Ciara Clarke denied her club colleague Kerri Strain on a 15-4, 15-9 score-line to claim her first Tyrone medal.
The first match of the day to go to a tie-break came in the under 13 boys doubles decider and in the end saw Greencastle capture a first Tyrone handball championship title. Chris Gillen and Daniel Tuohey got off to a great start and won their opening game 15-9 against Carrickmore's Stephen McAleer and Conall Travers. The Carrickmore duo came back to win the second 15-7 but Gillen and Tuohey held their nerve to win the tie-break 11-4 and claim first county medals for the St. Patrick's club.
Loughmacrory claimed both titles on the agenda in the under 14 codes. Clodagh Donaghy was forced to pull out all the stops in the girls singles final against Carrickmore's Lisa McCrory, winning the opening game 15-11 and following up with a 15-9 win in the second. Niall Donaghy secured the boys double in the grade when he teamed up with Conor Donnelly to add the doubles title to his singles win a fortnight earlier. The Loughmacrory pair won through on a 15-7, 15-3 scoreline against Carrickmore's Rory Grogan and Ruairi Donaghy.
Cara Grogan claimed a second Carrickmore title on the day as she overcame Brackey's Louise McNamee in the Girls Under 15 Singles final on a 15-3, 15-5 scoreline. The final match of the day saw another memorable win for the Greencastle club as young Niamh Murphy secured the Girls Under 16 singles title with a 15-3, 15-4 win over Brackey's Lynne Lyttle.
Blitz
The final 40x20 Juvenile Tyrone handball competitions of 2007 will take place on Sunday with the inaugural Teamtalk under 10 and under 12 club team blitzes. The under 10 A and B events will take place in Loughmacrory on Sunday 11th March, commencing at 1pm while the under 12 A and B competitions will go ahead in Beragh starting at 4pm.
The structure for both competitions is that each team will comprise 4 players (2 doubles teams). In the under 10 event each doubles match will comprise 2 x 11 ace games with one point awarded per game won. In the event of a tie aggregate scores will decide the winning team. In Under 12 each doubles match will comprise 2 x 15 ace games with one point awarded per game won, again aggregate scores deciding the issue in the event of a draw.
Fixtures:
Under 10 Blitz: Sunday 11th March, 1pm, in Loughmacrory:
1pm: Under 10 A Round Robin Match 1: Carrickmore I (Pauric Mullan, Ronan McKay, Niall Allison, Jack McCallan) v Brackey I (Sean Kerr, Aaron Owens, Jack Campbell, Turlough Clarke)
1.15pm: 1. Under 10 B Semi-Final: Loughmacrory II (4 from Cathair Curran, Conal Donaghy, Martin McCullagh, Colm Logue, Oisin O'Kane) v Brackey III (Oisin Clarke, Eoin Grimes, Niamh Clarke, Elise McCrory)
1.30pm: Under 10 A Round Robin Match 2: Carrickmore I (Pauric Mullan, Ronan McKay, Niall Allison, Jack McCallan) v Loughmacrory I (Cormac Harte, Ryan Curran, Aoife Kelly, AN other).
1.45pm: 2. Under 10 B Semi-Final: Brackey II (Tiarnan McCrystall, Emmett Lyttle, Oisin Donnelly, Oisin Treacy) v Loughmacrory III (Ruairi Curran, Michael Rafferty, Matthew Donnelly, Shane McCrystall)
2.00pm: Under 10 A Round Robin Match 3: Loughmacrory I (Cormac Harte, Ryan Curran, Aoife Kelly, AN other) v Brackey A (Sean Kerr, Aaron Owens, Jack Campbell, Turlough Clarke)
Under 10 A Blitz Winners: Team with most points after 3 round robin matches.
2.15pm: Under 10 B Final: Winner semi-final 1 v winner semi-final 2
Under 12 Blitz: Sunday 11th March, 4pm, in Carrickmore:
4pm: 1. Under 12 B Semi-Final: Carrickmore II (Conor Keenan, Paul McKay, Corey McElduff, Aidan McCallan) v Loughmacrory II
4.20pm: 2. Under 12 B Semi-Final: Brackey II (Ryan Owens, Seamus Boyle, Meabh McElduff, Johnny Woods) v Pomeroy II (Denver Wallace, Stephen Cochrane, James Quinn, Aidan Woods)
4.40pm: 1. Under 12 A Semi-Final: Carrickmore I (Patrick McCrory, Ryan Mullan, Conan McElduff, Gerard Keenan) v Pomeroy I (Martin Kennedy, Gavin Goodfellow, Rory Begley, Pearse Quinn).
5.00pm: 2. Under 12 A Semi-Final: Brackey I (Gabhan McCrystall, Pol Clarke, Finbar Clarke, Michael McAleer) v Loughmacrory I (Ronan Donaghy, Eamon Logue, Enda Curran, AN Other)
5.20pm: Under 12 B Blitz Final
5.40pm: Under 12 A Blitz Final
Tyrone dominate at Ulster finals
Tyrone's continued upward surge in the handballing ranks was exemplified at the weekend as the Red Hand County dominated at the provincial finals. In the Ulster Intermediate doubles final, Niall Kerr and Darragh Daly teamed up to defeat Tom Savage and Ciaran Cunningham (Down) on a 21-9, 21-4 scoreline while Shane O'Neill and Mark McCartan teamed up to win the Ulster junior doubles title with a 21-16, 21-19 win over their county colleagues. At Under 21 level, Gary McCrory and Padraig McGlinchey teamed up to make it three Ulster titles for Tyrone and Ruairi Kelly added to the haul as he secured an emphatic win over Monaghan's Patrick Clerkin in the Junior B final. With Conor Duff and Brian Donaghy still to meet in the Minor Ulster singles final it was indeed a very successful provincial endeavour for Tyrone players. This Sunday will see Niall Kerr meet Darragh Daly in the Intermediate singles final, Gary McCrory will also face his doubles colleague Padraig McGlinchey in the Under 21 singles final while Brian Donaghy and Conor Duff will be hot favourites in the Ulster minor doubles final. In the Junior singles championships it may be again an all-Tyrone final involving Shane O'Neill and Barney Corcoran while Stephen Clarke and Tony McElduff will be a warm order in the Ulster Masters doubles final.
