Nine still standing in Ulster junior grades

Handball

Last weekend was one of the most profitable for Cavan handball in many years as nine local players came through opening round matches in the Ulster Junior A and Junior B Singles championships.

With indoor handball banned for much of the pandemic, the county committee took the decision to organise a number of outdoor events last summer, with the focus on keeping existing players involved and attracting back some footballers who had drifted away from the game, and this has indirectly assisted in growing participation now that indoor activity has returned.

A handful of training days in recent weeks also helped tune players up for the championship with the result that Cavan dominated the opening weekend of competitive action at junior level, no mean feat given the relative strength of Tyrone, Monaghan and Antrim in these grades.

First up on Friday evening was Killinkere footballer Michael Smith (Virginia HC), who had an excellent straight games win over Armagh on his Ulster Championship debut.

Smith subsequently went down to Kingscourt man Adam Crosbie in Sunday’s round of 16 match. Also impressing for the Kingscourt club were the powerful Conor Owens and Diego Di Folco, who had big wins over Antrim and Monaghan respectively.

County footballer Cian McManus (St Pat’s) came through a gruelling slugfest in his opener against a fine player in Antrim’s Peter Carleton. The Belfast man won the first comfortably but McManus ground out the second and found his range on kills to win the tiebreaker 11-4 and advance to the next round with a gutsy victory.

In the Ulster Junior A Singles, the most dramatic match of the weekend was Caolán Smith’s nailbiting victory over Tyrone’s Paul Donnelly. The St Pat’s man, nursing a bone bruise on his right hand, lost the first and trailed 20-11 in the second before mounting an extraordinary comeback to pinch the second game 21-20.

Smith played smart, aggressive handball to claim the tiebreaker on an 11-4 scoreline.

Also enjoying a big win over Tyrone opposition was Kingscourt Stars footballer and racquetball ace Joe Dillon Jr. Dillon got off to a good start before dropping the opener against the skilful Munroe but used his athleticism and court savvy to force a tiebreaker, where he dominated to advance to the last eight stage.

Meanwhile, on Friday night, Paul Fitzpatrick (St Pat’s) defeated Gary McElroy (Bawn, Monaghan) in two games to go on to a meeting with Down’s Sean Digney. Out of luck, unfortunately, were Kingscourt men Niall McMahon and James Brennan, who came up against strong opposition on the day.

Among the other highlights of a dramatic day of action on Sunday in Kingscourt were Conor Duff’s impressive win over Carrickmacross right-hander Conor O’Gorman and Patrick McCrory’s wafer-thin 11-10 tiebreaker win over Terry McElvaney from Monaghan Harps.

Next up on the handball scene is the Irish Nationals, which have attracted a massive field to Belfast next weekend.

The Ulster Championships resume on February 5 in Kingcourt and Breacach, Co Tyrone, with eight Cavan players still standing in the junior grades.

RESULTS

Ulster 40x20 Junior B Singles Preliminary round

Cavan (Michael Smith) dft Armagh (Sean Reilly) 11, 13

Antrim (Steven O’Neill) dft Armagh (Eoghan Heaney) 2, (20), 3

Round of 16

Cavan (Conor Owens) dft Antrim (Piaras McCaffrey) 2, 1

Cavan (Adam Crosbie) dft Cavan (Michael Smith) 15, 7

Cavan (Diego Di Folco) dft Monaghan (Conor Holohan) 10, 10

Tyrone (Brian McAleer) dft Cavan (Niall McMahon) 13, 4

Monaghan (Stephen Shanahan) dft Cavan (James Brennan) 21-4, 21-3

Tyrone (Matthew McCartan) dft Antrim (Steven O’Neill) 13, 2

Cavan (Cian McManus) dft Antrim (Peter Carleton) (7), 15, 4

Ulster 40x20 Junior A Singles Round of 16

Cavan (Caolan Smith) dft Tyrone (Paul Donnelly) (14), 20, 6

Cavan (Joe Dillon) dft Tyrone (Cahir Munroe) (16), 10, 3

Monaghan (Oran Kiernan) dft Armagh (Colum Shanks) 12, 5

Tyrone (Conor Duff) dft Monaghan (Conor O’Gorman) 14, (19), 2

Tyrone (Patrick McCrory) dft Monaghan (Terry McElvaney) 14, (12), 10

Cavan (Paul Fitzpatrick) dft Monaghan (Gary McElroy) 1, 13