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Handball took centre stage in Roscommon town last weekend with St Coman’s handball club hosting the Connacht senior handball finals. It was an all Ballaghaderreen affair, with established star Joe McCann and up-and-coming Stephen Cooney playing for the spoils.

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.

Ballaghaderreen claimed their fifth successive All-Ireland senior 40x20 club title at the expense of a game Coolboy of Wicklow at Abbeylara on Sunday last. Dessie Keegan opened for the Mayo side where he once again faced an in-form Michael Gregan. The Wicklow ace made life very difficult for the Mayo powerhouse in the first game, which he won comfortably 21 aces to seven. Keegan, at this stage a veteran of these team encounters, responded well in the second, which suffered a five minute delay due to a wet court, as he made his Wicklow opponent work much harder for each ace. Keegan took this game 21 aces to 15 to leave the Mayo side trailing by eight aces going into the doubles. Vincent Moran and Paul Flynn put in a fine performance to secure a good 21 aces to 12 win in the first game against Coolboy’s Pat Quaile and Michael Lennon. The second was a much closer affair which the Ballagh duo just won by a singles ace. With this slender advantage it was all up to Joe McCann who took on Johnny Willoughby in the final match of the afternoon. McCann was made to work very hard against a much-improved Willoughby and he did just that, winning the first game 21 aces to 17. This still left McCann needing 16 aces for victory in the final game of the evening. McCann kept a cool head and achieved the target at 16-14 to give Ballaghaderreen the well deserved victory. Much credit must go to the Coolboy lads who certainly pushed the Mayo champions all the way but overall Ballagh had the better balanced team on the day.