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Mayo handballers fared very well in their opening Connacht 40 x 20 semi-final ties with Sligo opposition over the weekend. George Miller defeated Sligo's Martin Cooney in a thrilling three-game encounter at Castleconnor on a 12-21, 21-7, 21-16 scoreline in the silver masters B singles, while Paschal Tuohy of Mayo had a 21-13, 21-13 win over Michael Browne in the junior C singles at the same venue. Killala's Martin Cronin is also through to the diamond masters A final as he beat Seamus Duffy in two games at St Mary's on Saturday. The only Mayo loss of the weekend was in the ruby masters as John Kenny came out second best against Sligo veteran Paddy Walsh in two games. Mayo host Sligo next weekend in seven doubles semi-finals.

The provincial colleges and national intervarsities were the main events of note last weekend. Pauline Gallagher representing Athlone IT picked up the ladies’ A singles title with a 21-6, 21-14, win over fellow Mayo student Amy Corrigan of the Sligo IT. Claremorris and St Mary’s College, Galway, were the venues for the boys’ and girls’ second level colleges over the weekend. The going was particularly tough in the eight boys’ grades but true to form, Kiltimagh duo T J Byrne and Shane Walsh from St Louis’, Kiltimagh, secured the junior doubles title with a reasonably comfortable win over Flanngan and Michéal Kenny, Castlerea CS, in their semi-final, and John Lalor and Conor Noone from St Mary’s in a well-contested final. Despite some fine performances, Mayo lost out to Galway and Roscommon in the other grades contested. In the girls’ finals at Claremorris, Melanie Nally was beaten by all-Ireland u16 champion Lauren O’Riordan in her junior singles semi-final, while Lorraine and Louise Gilmartin (Convent of Mercy, Ballina,) suffered the same fate in their junior doubles final.

The hugely successful Irish one-wall Nationals championships which concluded at the Breaffy House Resort on Sunday evening, yielded two hard-earned titles and one near miss for Mayo’s handballers. Following his final defeat last year, Aughagower’s Shane Heraty was the top seed in the 40 strong field for the Men’s C singles event. True to form Heraty won his opening match on Friday and added two more Saturday victories to reach Sunday morning semi-finals. Success in the encounter set up an afternoon showdown with Kilkenny’s Ciaran Neary. In a thrilling decider played in a single timed match Heraty kept his head and playing some brilliant handball he landed the title on a narrow 19 aces to 15 scoreline. Mayo were guaranteed the girls’ under 18 singles title after both Amy Corrigan and Leona Ryder reached the final. Corrigan defeated fellow Mayo ace Ciara McMenamon in her semi-final, while Leona Ryder pulled off one of the shocks of the weekend when she defeated the fancied Catriona Casey of Cork and Aoife McCarthy from Westmeath in the tough bottom section of the draw. It was also an excellent and sporting final with the Newport youngster prevailing over her four-wall doubles partner on an 18 aces to 16 scoreline.