Search Results for 'Lorraine Havern'

More than 400 players are fine-tuning their preparations for this weekend’s GAA Handball One-Wall Nationals at Breaffy House, Castlebar. Three time champion Charlie Shanks returns as top seed in the EDTL Handball Men’s Open having missed the last few tournaments due to his hiatus in New York, while Robbie McCarthy returns after missing last year’s event. McCarthy will replace four time World 40x20 Champion Paul Brady in the men’s open draw after the Cavan man had to withdraw through injury. But McCarthy is a classy replacement and is on the verge of making history. A three time champion himself, Mullingar’s McCarthy will bid to be the first man to hold the All-Ireland Senior 40x20 Title, All-Ireland Senior 60x30 Title, and Irish Men’s Open One-Wall Nationals Title all at the same time, which would be a truly remarkable achievement.

The main business of the weekend was the Irish Junior 40x20 Nationals held at Cavan and Monaghan venues. Lorraine Havern of Down beat second seed Shauna Hilley from Wicklow in impressive fashion in a surprisingly one-sided final. Both Stephen Cooney and Ian McLoughlin were contenders in the top boys’ event the 19 and under singles. McLoughlin was an early casualty as he was well beaten by Patrick Funchion from Kilkenny, however Cooney, the number two seed, had a great tournament. He accounted for Cian Connolly of Roscommon, 216, 21-9 in his opening match and then he beat all-Ireland minor singles finalist, Padraig O’Carroll of Limerick 21-13, 21-13 to reach the decider against the number one seed, Caolan Daly of Tyrone.

Pauline Gallagher and Dessie Keegan were among the eight strong Irish men’s and ladies’ teams who competed in the one-wall Federations Cup in Imperia, Italy, last weekend. The Irish women lost in qualifying to Holland and Puerto Rico but qualified for the consolation ELA club. The Irish team saw off the challenge of the Basque Country and France to take the title in style. The team also included Roscommon’s Marianna Rushe, Kerry’s Ashley Prendiville, and Down’s Lorraine Havern. Dessie Keegan helped team mates Charly Shanks (Armagh), James Doyle (Antrim), and Robbie McCarthy (Westmeath) to a fifth place finish in the men’s team event following qualifying wins over France and Mexico. However the Irish lost their quarter-final to Puerto Rico. Twenty teams in all competed in the annual one-wall team tournament.

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.

It was a somewhat disappointing World Championships for Mayo’s handballers overall, despite some fine performances the county drew a blank in terms of titles. Both Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann made surprisingly early exits from the feature Men’s Open event, Keegan losing out to Louis Moreno of the US while beaten finalist Alan Garner put paid to Joe McCann’s progress in the second round. Stephen Cooney lost out to Diarmuid Nash in the third round of the boys 19 and under, while he an Ian McLoughlin had a great run in the Men’s A doubles, only to lose out to the Tipperary-Tyrone combination of Ger Coonan and Caolan Daly at the semi-final stage.